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 ...
But they should rewrite the code to address appearance, rather than what can be planted. That papaya looks terrible and it's a fruit. OTOH, some vegetables are sold as ornamentals and look great.
Sounds like they have a 'busybody' problem...
Car exhaust and dog markings add to the flavor.
--> free fertilizer.
Of course, but everything is racism, when PC'ly properly viewed.
/johnny
Maybe she came up with new ways to make the yard look bad like half-buried pots and uncovered plastic.
They must be conservatives, or her protective coloration would have helped. She should have played the race card right up front! < /sarc >
This is why things like cities should not exist. Counties should be the end of the line for government.
NIMBYs would probably like to outlaw gardening in more rural areas, too. They’ve been complaining in parts of the West for some time already (uses too much water, alters “open space,” etc.).
Many sparsely populated counties are already regulated up like NYC, too.
I think the photos are what the government wanted to replace it. Not sure, but that’s what it looks like to me.
Judging by the captions at the site, the photos are of the yard that government regulation forced her to create to replace her probably gorgeous and lush (at least during part of the year) vegetable garden. It looks pretty ugly to me and I don’t see vegetable one.
as far as I'm concerned, they are only vegetables when you eat them, otherwise they are just decorative plants......and I harvest very late at night!!!
> Her garden is in the front yard of her home in Miami Shores, because that’s where the sun is... 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.
Thanks Theoria.
Plant the entire yard in tomatoes, which are not vegetables.
That’s a beautiful vegetable garden.
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