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Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden
News on 6 ^ | June 15, 2012 | Lori Fullbright

Posted on 06/16/2012 11:07:10 AM PDT by Altariel

TULSA, Oklahoma -

A Tulsa woman is suing the city's code enforcement officers after she said they cut down her garden with no cause.

Denise Morrison said she has more than 100 plant varieties in her front and back yards and all of them are edible and have a purpose.

She knows which ones will treat arthritis, which will make your food spicy, which ones keep mosquitoes away and treat bug bites, but she said none of that matter to city inspectors.

Last August, Morrison's front and back yards were filled with flowers in bloom, lemon, stevia, garlic chives, grapes, strawberries, apple mint, spearmint, peppermint, an apple tree, walnut tree, pecan trees and much more.

She got a letter from the city saying there had been a complaint about her yard.

She said she took pictures to meet with city inspectors, but they wouldn't listen, so she invited them to her home so they could point out the problem areas.

"Everything, everything needs to go," Morrison said they told her.

When she heard they wanted to cut it all down, she called police. The officer issued her a citation so it could be worked out in court.

She said she went to court on August 15, and the judge told them to come back in October. But the very next day, men were cutting down most of her plants.

They even cut down some of her trees -– ones that bore fruit and nuts -– and went up next to her house and basically removed everything in her front flower bed.

"I came back three days later, sat in my driveway, cried and left," Morrison said.

Morrison said she had a problem at her last property with code enforcement, so this time, she read the ordinance, which says plants can't be over 12-inches tall unless they're used for human consumption. She made sure everything she grew could be eaten, which she told the inspectors.

"Every word out of their mouth was, 'we don't care,'" Morrison said.

Morrison said she used many of the plants that were destroyed to treat her diabetes, high-blood pressure and arthritis.

"Not only are the plants my livelihood, they're my food and I was unemployed at the time and had no food left, no medicine left, and I didn't have insurance," Morrison said. "They took away my life and livelihood."

Morrison finally went to court last week for the citation she got last August at another property. The garden portion of the citation was dismissed and she pleaded no contest to having an inoperable truck in her driveway.

She filed a civil rights lawsuit this week, accusing the inspectors of overstepping their authority.

The City of Tulsa said it hasn't received the lawsuit yet, so it couldn't comment.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: garden; gardening; nannystate; oklahoma; tulsa
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

Apologies, I see that the gardening ping has been passed on to you. I think those on the ping list would find this of interest.


21 posted on 06/16/2012 11:36:23 AM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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To: Kirkwood

The street view date on this is 2008 so I don’t know if this is how she normally kept it.


22 posted on 06/16/2012 11:38:01 AM PDT by mnehring
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To: carriage_hill

I’ve never grown mint, so that is good to know. Thank you!


23 posted on 06/16/2012 11:38:10 AM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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To: ThirdMate

+1


24 posted on 06/16/2012 11:38:31 AM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Kirkwood

Did you read the story? The city cut everything down, even some trees. This looks like an after-action photo.


25 posted on 06/16/2012 11:38:43 AM PDT by bcsco
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To: carriage_hill

A lawn of pure mint might be very enticing. And the neighbors would hate your guts.


26 posted on 06/16/2012 11:40:43 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou!)
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To: Altariel
A nice, well-kept yard, but not up to Agenda 21 code, so out it goes.

Every state needs to follow Alabama's lead.

Alabama Adopts First Official State Ban on UN Agenda 21

27 posted on 06/16/2012 11:42:24 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: Kirkwood

Even if a “pig sty,” unless there’s some ordinance banning what’s in the pig sty, the government should leave it alone.


28 posted on 06/16/2012 11:43:56 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou!)
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To: carriage_hill

And it has to be an indestructible pot too.


29 posted on 06/16/2012 11:48:03 AM PDT by butterdezillion
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To: Altariel

Not only should she be awarded $20 million or more, but the thugs who ordered the cutting should do jail time. No mercy for Nazi thugs.


30 posted on 06/16/2012 11:48:48 AM PDT by montag813
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To: HiTech RedNeck

It’d be an olfactory pleasure to mow on a warm, summer day. But in winter, all there’d be is mud, as it’s herbaceous and retreats underground for the cold months.


31 posted on 06/16/2012 11:50:44 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (All libs & most dems think that life is just a sponge bath, with a happy ending.)
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To: butterdezillion; Altariel

I’ve seen mint’s roots crack terracotta pots, quite easily. It’s also as aggressive as bamboo, and comes-up in macadam and concrete cracks. It’s a nightmare when it gets loose. Whooooo-weeee! I’ve used 100% Paraquat on it, and it came back!


32 posted on 06/16/2012 11:54:25 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (All libs & most dems think that life is just a sponge bath, with a happy ending.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Agenda 21 looks to be about “soft law” (tax incentive and the like) support for global warmism adaptations. Not about unkempt or only slightly kempt gardens.


33 posted on 06/16/2012 11:54:25 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou!)
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To: LegendHasIt

Because you are a serf and are not afforded the privileges of your betters!

(Do I really need a sarc tag?)


34 posted on 06/16/2012 11:55:41 AM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Agenda 21 is about zoning private property out of existence and herding all the peasants into high-rise containment facilities where they can be inventoried and tracked more easily until the time for the Final Solution arrives.


35 posted on 06/16/2012 12:00:12 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: ThirdMate

Clever!

I don’t remember who sang that... Don Williams?


36 posted on 06/16/2012 12:05:56 PM PDT by loboinok (Gun control is hitting what you aim at!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Any justification of this from the source? (Even wishing global warmism on the world is odious enough, but there’s no sense dancing around with tinfoil beanies.)


37 posted on 06/16/2012 12:08:43 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Let me ABOs run loose Lou!)
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To: mnehring
I smell a lawsuit. That's what I thought when I read the headline.
38 posted on 06/16/2012 12:09:19 PM PDT by loboinok (Gun control is hitting what you aim at!)
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To: Cowboy Bob
I have a weed in my front yard I'd love to get rid of - trouble is, it's almost unkillable!

Second trouble is it's actually edible and highly, highly nutritious - loaded with Vit C:


Sheep sorrel, aka red sorrel
39 posted on 06/16/2012 12:14:49 PM PDT by djf ("There are more old drunkards than old doctors." - Benjamin Franklin)
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To: ThirdMate
Poor lady, she was living on Tulsa thyme.

Win. LOL

40 posted on 06/16/2012 12:15:44 PM PDT by mykroar (October race riots bring November martial law.)
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