Nick Murray, executive producer of the Network Ten show Guerrilla Gardeners, said: "Sutherland Council is the only council in Australia to have ripped out a garden that we planted.''

His crew had transformed the barren roundabout on the corner of Wattle and Box roads into what it dubbed "the republic of gardenia'' complete with an old boat, a tall tree, flagpole and plants.

The show, which regularly turns up its green thumbs at authorities by focusing on unsightly patches of suburbia, had not received the council's permission to make the changes.

The council removed the show's garden, replaced it with native plants, and issued a $600 fine.

An estimated 200 community members rallied to object to the original garden's removal, called the council efforts "boring'' and around 400 people signed a petition objecting to the original garden being taken away.

The council has declined to discuss the matter further, but its website said that the television crew's work was unauthorised, posed risks to safety, and the soil was not properly prepared.

Jannali resident Kristina Brenner said the plants from the council's garden had now gone missing and she was disappointed the council had not agreed to a community meeting about the matter.

Mr Murray said should the fine stay he would go to court.

Jannali is not the only place where the show has had its challenges.

At Arncliffe "the man in a bathtub'' display first lost its "man'' from the surrounding herbal garden, on Roads and Traffic Authority land on the corner of Princes Highway and Burrows Road.

"The bath was damaged so the artist who did the piece has taken the bath away and it is being repaired,'' Mr Murray said.

"It will be replaced soon.''

Do you know where the missing bathtub man is?