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HIGH POINT — When you ride through the curving streets of the William’s Grove subdivision, it’s not hard to find Mary Fontaine’s house. Look for the yard that isn’t quite like the rest.

Green. Green. Green. Green. Green. Brown.

Fontaine isn’t a fan of grass. So, she put in mulch instead. Less work, less time, and in a time of drought, less water.

But her efforts aren’t likely to win her the yard-of-the-month award from the homeowners’ association.

Instead, she’s been told she needs to plant grass. If she doesn’t, she faces the possibility of fines stemming from the association’s restrictive covenants.

Neither side seems willing to budge, creating a turf war — suburban-style.

Fontaine said she can’t understand what the fuss is about.

“I figured I was doing something good,” she said. “If you want a green yard, fine, go for it. But if you’d rather have flowers and trees and birds chirping when you go outside, let’s go the other route.”

But for others involved, her version of a lawn is an affront.

“It’s dreadful,” said Peggy Purcell, a neighbor in the subdivision. “It’s doing great damage to the appearance of the community.”

The stage for the dispute was set when Fontaine, who is retired, moved back to High Point to be closer to her daughter.

In Florida, her house featured a big, grassy yard. By the time she moved into the new house this year, she decided she’d had enough of grass.

With the drought ravaging the Triad, it seemed to make sense not to dump water on a lawn she didn’t want. Plus, she didn’t want to be tied down with yard work, and she doesn’t have kids who need the grass to play on.

Similar battles have been waged on a statewide level recently, as the drought has turned attention toward the vast amounts of water sprinkled and sprayed on suburban lawns each summer.

In its past session, the General Assembly passed a bill limiting the ability of homeowners’ associations to fine residents who don’t water their lawns during a drought.

According to Christa Wagner, a lobbyist for Sierra Club, that fight involved a contest “between common sense and aesthetics.”

Locally, the fuss started in earnest last month when Fontaine’s phone rang as workers put out mulch.

It was a representative of the association, telling her that she hadn’t submitted plans for the yard and that she needed to put in grass.

When she submitted a plan showing the mulch, it was rejected. “They said, 'Put in grass immediately,’” she said. “And I don’t want any grass.”

The situation makes no sense to Fontaine and her daughter, Lisa Anderson.

“The state’s telling you to conserve water, and the homeowners’ association is basically requiring that you put in a lawn,” Anderson said.

But the association sees things differently.

The issue, said Betty Sluder, who works for a management company that handles issues for the association, is one of maintaining standards in the neighborhood.

“Everyone else there, that whole community has grass,” she said. “I’ve had several neighbors complain.”

The subdivision’s covenants, Sluder notes, require that properties must be maintained “in a manner consistent with other improved Lots and dwellings within the Properties.”

Fontaine’s yard, she said, doesn’t qualify.

“It looks ... I feel sorry for the people who have their house up for sale beside her,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve seen one quite like that.”

Ultimately, the association decided that Fontaine can keep the mulch in her backyard, but that the front needs grass.

If she doesn’t plant it, Fontaine could find herself invited to a formal violation hearing. The board could impose fines beginning at $25 a day and rising to $100 a day, Sluder said.

Still, Fontaine is standing her ground. Nowhere do the covenants specifically say grass must be planted, she said.

“They greatly overstepped their bounds,” she said. “I don’t really see where they’ve got a leg to stand on.”

Out back, on a concrete patio, Fontaine has an array of plants and trees waiting to go in the ground. Dogwood, maple, crape myrtle, oaks, all in limbo.

It remains to be seen whether they’ll stretch their limbs over mulch or grass.

Anderson warns that her mother isn’t one to give up without a battle. “She is going to fight them every step of the way,” she said.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com