Posted on 12/17/2013 11:54:34 AM PST by Theoria
In tropical South Florida, it's growing season. Temperatures are in the 80s, there's lots of sun and good rain, and normally, Hermine Ricketts' plants would already be in the ground.
"By now, this should be probably Red Sails lettuce, which is a beautiful color lettuce, or purple mizuna, which is a beautiful filigreed purple leaf," she says.
But this year, Ricketts' vegetable planting has been derailed by a legal fight over what she can plant and where she can plant it.
Her garden is in the front yard of her home in Miami Shores, because that's where the sun is — her house faces south and her backyard is mostly in the shade. A retired architect, originally from Jamaica, Ricketts says she gardens for the food and for the peace it brings her.
"This is a peach tree that I put in, and around it, I had kale, and in between the kales, I had some Chinese cabbage," she says. "And I also had Swiss chard, yellow Swiss chard."
There are lots of things planted in Ricketts' front yard: a pomegranate tree, a blueberry bush, papaya, strawberries, pineapples, flowers and green plants.
But noticeably absent is anything considered by Miami Shores to be a vegetable. That's because earlier this year, after tending her garden for 17 years with nothing from the neighbors but compliments, Ricketts was ordered to dig up her veggies.
She says she was surprised several months ago when a zoning inspector stopped by.
"He told me I was not allowed to have vegetables in the front yard," she says.
Under a zoning ordinance tightened last spring, residents in Miami Shores are not allowed to have vegetable gardens in their front yards.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
(I see nothing wrong with gardening in the front yard.)
Looks great to me ... the law (at least that one) is an ass.
In other news, the term ‘Garden Homes’ has been removed from dictionaries across Florida.
garden ping
Miami Shores is a strict neighborhood when it comes to code and always has been.
A friend of mine who lived in a nice suburb decided to plant corn in his front yard one spring. It was hilarious.
You will eat what we tell you to eat, citizen. You will eat only government approved and treated vegetables. It’s good for you. Trust us.
New Yorkers need to mind their own damn business...the people of Red Hampshire have the same problem with NY’ers (as well as Massholes)...MYOB...seriously.
Scrooge the town law. What harm does a front lawn vegetable garden do and if the neighbors don’t complain then what’s the problem? Its her home and land plus she’s paying property taxes. If she was raising chickens out front then its a different story.
And what would these neighborhood veggie cops have done back during WWII when people planted victory gardens??!!??
:(
My neighbors have no more business prohibiting my vegetable garden than I would have dictating that they replace their lawns with a vegetable garden.
She’s going green so the libtards in govt. Should be thrilled. Apparantely some greens are more equal than other greens.
Let her plant the garden, this is ridiculous!
It’s a beautiful yard!
She's gardened in her yard for 17 years and NOW the idiots with the city say something. She didn't just start gardening this year.
/johnny
It looks like either astroturf or fresh sod laid down around those island gardens. Just wondering.
They’d have been shot; many people depended upon those gardens for food to put on the table.
Who are these assclowns to say what comes out of the ground. Time to remove them and put them in jail. Once again, the goose steppers are going nuts.
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