Gov Threatens Jail Time for Growing Produce in Front-Yard Garden

Elizabeth Renter
Sept 3, 2012

You own your home and the lot that it sits on. So, if you want to plant tomatoes instead of bushes, you should be entitled to that, right? While this may seem like a common sense line of reasoning, many cities and towns across our nation think otherwise. They don’t want their citizens using a front-yard garden to grow food – they want perfectly green and manicured lawns.

Using a Front-Yard Garden to Grow Veges? You May Not be Allowed

It seems like every month a few more stories hit the social media grapevines, where home owners are being punished for growing food. Some of these front-yard gardeners have created landscapes that rival those created by high-paid landscaping companies. The difference—all of this greenery is edible.

Whether it’s the HOA rules or a city ordinance, some front-yard gardeners are being forced to pull up their plants and scrap their edible landscape. Why? If for nothing more than to have a seamless line of green yards stretching through the neighborhood.

When we can’t trust what we find at the grocery store, and farmer’s markets are limited and not always within driving distance, growing our own food doesn’t just make sense, it makes perfect sense.

And once you’ve begun growing your own, you will likely begin to wonder why Americans ever moved away from self-sustaining gardens.

Why can’t many of us grow food in the front-yard garden? Many townships say that the ‘issue’ revolves around yard space, where a vegetable garden may only be allowed to take up to 20-30% of a yard area. It may sound crazy that a city government would spend (waste) resources to target gardeners, but it actually happens more often than you would think.

As reported by Dr. Mercola:

In 2011, Julie Bass of Oak Park, Michigan was charged with a misdemeanor and threatened with jail time for planting a vegetable garden in her front yard.

In British Columbia, Dirk Becker was threatened with six months in jail for converting an acre of his 2.5-acre lot into an organic farm. What’s even more unsettling about the charges in this case is that the lot was literally stripped bare down to a gravel pit before this. The owner spent over a decade healing the land and converting it into a self-contained ecosystem that is now home to thriving vegetable crops, fruit trees, bees, butterflies, birds, frogs, dragonflies and more. But because the area is zoned a “residential” lot, the local government is calling on him to “cease all agricultural activity” or pay the consequences.

Earlier this year, city inspectors bulldozed more than 100 types of plants, including garlic chives, strawberry and apple mint, being grown by Denise Morrison in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The inspectors said her plants were too tall, but city code allows for plants over 12 inches if they’re meant for human consumption, which hers were. Morrison is now suing the city for violating her civil rights.

Steve Miller was fined $5,200 for growing vegetables in his Clarkston, Georgia backyard, which he not only consumed but also sold at farmers markets and shared with friends.

Where to get Started?

Whether you are looking to grow vegetables in a front-yard garden, out back, or even on your apartment balcony, there are simple ways to get started. Choose the right place, where your plants will get plenty of sunshine and won’t be trampled by the dog or neighborhood kids.

You can dig down, beneath the grass roots to the soil or you can create a raised bed. Planting an amazing kitchen garden entirely in containers, without breaking soil at all, is also an option.

If you are a beginner, choose plants that are easy to grow like tomatoes, hearty greens, and squash. Purchase starter plants for things like peppers, squash and tomatoes, to get a head start and to eliminate some of the gamble when planting seeds.

A little research into your gardening options goes a long way. And if you’re looking to grow your own vegetables, strongly consider going all organic. Organic gardening is a great way to avoid the threat of genetically modified foods, pesticides, and toxic additives. While the garden can be as large or small as you’d like, the benefit of knowing exactly how your food was prepared and therefore what is in it is worth the time and effort that goes into it. Want to know how to do organic gardening? Check out our organic gardening 101 post.

And, if you live in a town where there might be a battle over your new mini-farm, be prepared. Know your rights, keep your garden looking nice, and be ready to stand your ground.

This post originally appeared at Natural Society

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Comment by Sweettina2 on September 4, 2012 at 4:26pm: Pisses me off. Think I will start a garden in my front yard....

Comment by Nikki on September 4, 2012 at 9:38am: @Andy, because governments treat non-citizens better than citizens. And they'll say we must respect their culture and then they'll add that you must be a racist for even asking the question ;)

This of course implies that it's not part of our culture to grow veggies on medians.

Comment by Andy Anduer on September 4, 2012 at 12:25am: I have lived in many places around the country, SJ/LA.Calif, SA Texas,Albuq. New Mexico, Florida and I thought it was unusual for Asian people that resided in HUD housing and other apartment complexes to grow veggies on the medians of their streets and sidewalks. So if they being refugees in America can do it , then why can't American homeowners do it on their own property that is suppose to to be theirs?

Comment by sharon k neuhaus on September 3, 2012 at 5:12pm: There is a reason why the deed to your house names you "Tenant".

Comment by chris macleod on September 3, 2012 at 4:11pm: It's all part of the plan to make us submit to the NWO...keep us hungry, homeless, and totally dependent, as all peasants should be. Zoning laws were originally put into place to protect residents from industrial pollution. Gov't exploited these laws by changing zoning to accommodate special interest lobbyists for favors. Most zoning laws are purely political and do not protect anyone anymore.

Comment by Nikki on September 3, 2012 at 4:09pm: Theses rules and regulations have existed for decades or longer in most areas. So you have to ask your parents or grandparents why they weren't picketing city hall back then. This was in a time when nobody worried about pesticides and GMO. But what they did worry about was their property values and that's still true today. I bet some of these laws were aimed at immigrants since they are the only ones who would have thought about putting a garden in the front. And I also bet that if you went door-to-door asking residents to sign a petition to allow front-yard gardens, you couldn't get enough signatures. The sheeple are only concerned for themselves.

Comment by raymond _______ on September 3, 2012 at 3:27pm: Im sick of these rules and regulations that are set up for big producers but only enforced on individual people.We should write a book of rules for all these parasites.

Rule 1)If your caught telling lies you go to jail.

Rule 2)If you do something fradulent you go to jail.

Rule 3)If you interfere with water you go to jail.

Rule 4)If you interfere with food you go to jail....and so on and so on.

I know there are laws for the above already,but it seems that all our laws at present,are only used for prosecuting us the people,others seem to be above the law,especially those who are doing the most damage.

Comment by Nikki on September 3, 2012 at 2:34pm: This is nothing new. Cities have never allowed front-yard gardens. And I'm not sure I would want to eat produce that every dog in the neighborhood has peed on and fumes were sprayed on it from every car that drove by. If you don't have a back yard, then try a balcony or window garden. However, if enough people got involved, they might be able to get some zoning laws changed or at least some exemptions.

@silverrocket, I agree that HOAs are the worst but they are NOT all run by women.

Comment by LibertyTreeBud on September 3, 2012 at 12:13pm: Planning and Zoning must be beaten into submission by anyone who has to pay taxes on property. Planning and Zoning is an area that must be crushed into reality and forced by what ever means we have at our disposal to re-invent the dreadful planning and zoning laws. Crush them and remold them to serve the people who will need to live and survive in the dark days to come. Force the 'P & Z boards' to represent the will of those who want to eat nutritious food, grown by healthy means by their own hands where ever the sun shines upon the ground, whether in the back or front yard.