Civil Disobedience and the Right to Garden

[897tgigvib]

mmm, vfem, enjoy and relax on your vacation. I'm always learning from you, slow learner I am. My music playlist just went from Enigma to Toni Braxton

Maybe you'll find some great seeds or plants down there in Florida

 

[Smiles Jr.]

C'mon my fellow gardeners. Let's look at this with some common sense. The article says that there is a city ordinance against this type of front yard. There must have been some kind of reason, regardless how ridiculous it may be, for a law to be made against it. If you lived on a street that had a speed limit of 5 MPH do you think you should drive at 50 MPH just because you want to? Change the law, don't break it. We're supposed to be a civil society with rules to make it acceptable for everyone.

I agree that it's a silly thing to make someone get rid of their front yard garden but the home owner should have checked the laws first. Heck, there are some of those terrible home owner's associations that only allow two colors to paint your house and then they have to vote on the shade of those two colors before you can use it. The human being is a very strange creature.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

You are correct. Don't like it but you are correct.....

What I caught about the article was the ordinance doesn't say "NO veggies gardens in the front yard" It has a list of approved and disapproved ground covers/trees/shrubs and flowers that were ok because they were not invasive. No mention of not having the veggie garden. They said the ordinance was put in place to keep people from planting invasive species. Its like those chicken ordinances. Some towns have no ordinance at all, but they say NO chickens because a home isn't zoned as agricultural. Its just a twist on a vague law, so to be safe... they say no!

And sorry for my outburst... I'm just very upset with this constant need for control of everything on everyone by some extreme. Left wing, right wing, political, religious, government. I just want to get up, have some coffee, work in my yard and have peace. I pay to live a peaceful life. I'm running out of patience and funds. :/

Ok, in a few hours I will be relaxing on the plane.... "Ooooooooooooooooooohm!"

I think you are correct. I think we're all fed up with too much government, too many regulations, and too many politicians.

 

[Smart Red]

Getting into the discussion late. I haven't been on line much lately.

1.) Way back in the late 1960s when I spent some time in Portland, Oregon there were blocks of houses in town with front yard veggies and gardens - mostly looked like veggies. I believe some of them traded with their neighbors for vegetables they didn't have room for and some planned their gardens together each spring to be sure everything they wanted was growing somewhere.

And this was 'up on the hill' in a rather ritzy part of town. I could literally pass on the sidewalk and harvest dinner. Such a shame folks can't get along more like that group of neighbors.

2.) We had a tenant that made a garden in the front yard. The property was on a corner so there was no back yard. It contained flowers and veggies and we had no complaints from neighbors. In fact, we had lots of compliments to pass to the tenants. The problem arose when she moved and new tenants didn't want a garden - indeed they didn't even want to mow the yard. I had to remove the hundreds of rocks that surrounded her garden beds and mow down all her perennials.

3.) In that city, I swear we have little old ladies traversing the streets with a ruler. The law states that any grass or weeds over 8 inches tall must be mown or a citation will be issued. Our gardener never had any problems with that law, and certainly some of the pole beans grew above 8 inches.

4.) There are landlords and there are landlords. There are tenants and there are tenants. We had a tenant fresh out of college who took "Landlords 101" because she kept a notebook of every call to us and every response by us. . . for about 6 months. Then she realized that her course hadn't covered reasonable landlords in the real world. Especially after she melted a hole in the brand new kitchen flooring and learned the DH could/would fix the repair with leftover materials at no cost.

And we've had the bad tenants -- a guy who sawed off the window trim so his dresser would fit; who let his children paint their own rooms with (not so) magic markers. . walls, floors, doors, trim. and even ceiling; who sold the aluminum storm windows and doors for spending money during the summer and expected all new replacements come fall.

Now we have all good tenants who replace themselves (with like friends) when they move. They all belong to the same church and keep calling to see if we have any more places to rent for their friends.

5.) Then there is Hanson Mansion just down the road a bit. Totally trashed by years of neglect and hoarding by the owners. Even trashed their kids. When everyone came down with ringworm, the Vet was called for the cows, but their children never got to a doctor. After several times of sending them home from school still contagious they were given extra cow meds.

Personally, I'd rather have the folks down the road than the lady next door as a neighbor. Her solution to every problem is to call the sheriff. Mine is to go to the source of the problem to see if it can be resolved first. . . or in the case of her three dogs using my property as a bathroom, just ignore the issue.

Love, Smart Red

 

[MontyJ]

If I understood the article correctly, it looked like the city caved. However, the fence proposal is silly. Would you rather see a nicely kept garden, or a 6 foot privacy fence? The problem the city found, again if I understood it correctly, was basically a lack of suitable groundcover, not the fact that it was a vegetable garden in and of itself. Some of the concern is founded. Soil erosion/runoff from bare soil could plug storm drains etc... Obviously that little patch wouldn't present that kind of problem, but I'll bet the ordinance didn't stipulate size requirements or restrictions. They are also concerned with invasive species...DON'T PLANT DILL OR BAMBOO!!! I did find it funny that a community trying to go "greener" picked a fight with someone growing a vegetable garden. Overall, I think the whole thing is just silly. Of course, I look out my window and see a garden every day.