Virginia couple's dream garden sparks dispute over backyard land

A Virginia couple who transformed the gravel backyard of their century-old home into a garden for their two toddlers have found themselves caught in a property-boundary dispute after a neighbouring property owner claimed part of the land belonged to him. Brittany Ellerbe and her husband bought the house in Petersburg in 2025 and turned the outdoor space into a garden with grass, flowers and vegetable beds. About a year later, the dispute escalated when workers arrived to remove part of their fence at the request of the neighbouring property's seller. The couple challenged the move in court, and a judge subsequently ordered that the fence could not be removed or relocated while the legal dispute continued.How a backyard makeover led to a disputeWhen Brittany Ellerbe and her husband bought their home on South Dunlop Street in Petersburg, Virginia, the backyard was largely covered in gravel. The couple gradually transformed it into a garden, adding grass, fencing and vegetable beds where they grew flowers, zucchini, squash and bush beans.The garden also gave the family, which includes two toddlers, a private outdoor space. But the transformation became the centre of a dispute about a ...