Growing a garden in your front lawn [in Oak Park] can land you in jail

**lizaanne** · July-12-11, 02:42 PM

http://abcnews.go.com/US/vegetable-g...ry?id=14047214

It's crazy how much coverage this woman is getting. If only we could see more well maintained front yards like this!!

**Gistok** · July-12-11, 03:34 PM

If she gets jail time... maybe she can be on the chain gang to work the Lafayette site....

**hamtown mike** · July-12-11, 03:41 PM

I think I should have a swing set, swimming pool, brick bbq pit, and a pit bull fight training camp in my front yard. Nobody else in my neighborhood has these things in their front yard, but I'm special. Instead of trying to learn what is allowable or attempting to change the rules before I spend any time or effort, I'll just do what I want and scream foul in the off chance that somebody calls me out.

Make your reservations for Mike's BBQ Pit Bull Funland today!

Is ignorance of a municipal code a reasonable defense?

**Detroitnerd** · July-12-11, 03:50 PM

Good for her. I hope she fights this stupid ordinance and wins. Dumb laws don't get changed until somebody fights for their modification.

**ndavies** · July-12-11, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by hamtown mike

I think I should have a swing set, swimming pool, brick bbq pit, and a pit bull fight training camp in my front yard. Nobody else in my neighborhood has these things in their front yard, but I'm special. Instead of trying to learn what is allowable or attempting to change the rules before I spend any time or effort, I'll just do what I want and scream foul in the off chance that somebody calls me out.

Make your reservations for Mike's BBQ Pit Bull Funland today!

Is ignorance of a municipal code a reasonable defense?

According to the article the municipal code in her city is vague and her lawyer believes vegetable gardens are expressly exempted from the ban of undesirable things to have in a front yard.

It sounds more like a punk local official running amuck to me.

**rjk** · July-12-11, 04:07 PM

Looks terrible, has a hickish look about it.

I don't think I've ever seen vegtables growing in a front yard before. There's a reason people don't grow vegtables in their front yard, that being that it doesn't look good.

**mwilbert** · July-12-11, 04:08 PM

The question of whether such gardens are actually banned, and the question of whether they should be banned are separate. I don't know whether they are illegal in her town, but I don't think that they should be. To me, it is like HOAs that don't allow clotheslines; such restrictions are contrary to the public good and should not be allowed. Obviously a lot of people think differently.

**Detroitnerd** · July-12-11, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by rjk

Looks terrible, has a hickish look about it.

I don't think I've ever seen vegtables growing in a front yard before. There's a reason people don't grow vegtables in their front yard, that being that it doesn't look good.

Beauty is usually in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I'd rather have healthy soil and fresh vegetables instead of a chemical-soaked, pesticide ridden batch of turf. But, yeah, it doesn't look like as appealing as a lush front lawn.

Except when it does: http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CDwQ8wIwAQ

GUSHI · July-12-11, 04:26 PM

The lady payes her taxes, let her put a garden up. Its Oak Park , better than having a couch on the front lawn.

**rjk** · July-12-11, 04:47 PM

I don't think it should be illegal just like I don't think it should be illegal for people to leave their Christmas lights up all year or allow their kids to leave their bikes strewn all over their lawn. I just wish people wouldn't do it.

IMO that's a pretty bland looking raised bed veg garden. Someone needs to tell her that she can jam a lot more plants in a raised bed. There are ways of making something like that appealing to the eye and she didn't do it in my opinion

**old guy** · July-12-11, 04:55 PM

Plants are funny. They actually start out small and grow larger. Strange stuff.

**Corn.Bot** · July-12-11, 05:24 PM

I grew vegetables in my front yard for years. Last year the front beds held 2 kinds of tomatoes, eggplant, and green and jalapeno peppers, with a few red annual flowers tucked among them to attract bees. Also had a little free-standing trellis with cucumber growing up it. OK, so I'm not exactly in a cookie-cutter subdivision where all the houses are required to have white-backed drapes in the windows, but it is a typical post-WWII housing plat with the usual foundation shrubbery and impatiens and marigolds lining the stoops and walkways.

I agree with "making something like that appealing to the eye" and maybe the OP family needs to jazz up the boxes or something, but I surely cannot believe anyone actually finds the garden itself unattractive!

Surely is more pleasant to look at than a big ol' RV camper parked in the driveway with a tarp over it for 10 months of the year, or overgrown, untended bushes and vines growing all over the house.

**Gistok** · July-12-11, 05:29 PM

On a street near Balduck Park on the far east side I remember a lady who had perennials growing from her house to the sidewalk... yes they were only flowers... but they were not planted with a "P. Allen Smith's Garden" mindset.... they looked like weeds when driving by on the street... only upon closer inspection did one realize that they were just perennials that didn't all bloom at the same time....

If neighbors don't want to view a vegetable garden in a middle class suburb front lawn.... it begs the question....what will high paying customers to the Detroit Westin Book Cadillac with rooms facing Michigan Ave. have to endure?

Or does it look more orderly from 20 stories up... rather than as a neighbor down the block?

**DetroitPlanner** · July-12-11, 05:44 PM

this has been discussed by me and a few others. most seem to think that a neighbor bitched to a councilperson who looked for a way to 'solve' it. A review of the ordinance does not expressly forbid it.

**wolverine** · July-12-11, 06:30 PM

I hope she doesn't go to jail because that will cost us taxpayers.

I hope she pays a $1000-5000 fine for violating city ordinance.

She was warned

She was ticketed

She ignored these actions by the city to get her property into compliance.

If you let her do as she pleases, it sets a precedent for other people, not just planting gardens out in front, but letting their lawns become overgrown with weeds, storing trash in their front yard or parking cars on their lawn. I congratulate Oak Park for making the effort to look presentable, and enforcing the rules that the majority of citizens deem to be acceptable.

GUSHI · July-12-11, 06:35 PM

"not just planting gardens out in front, but letting their lawns become overgrown with weeds, " I don't know were you live, but I see that all the time, with all the foreclosures on the market.

**Corn.Bot** · July-12-11, 07:13 PM

@wolverine, the problem is not the property owner being in compliance with an actual identifiable ordinance. There is no wording that specifically says she cannot plant vegetables, only some vague language referring to "common" plantings which is being applied in a very narrow sense. I wonder, would anyone have complained - and what might the city have done - if she'd planted pentunias and pansies in those boxes?

**Maof** · July-12-11, 08:52 PM

i saw this on the local news last week and it did look well kept but, i don't like it either. is there something wrong with her " backyard" that she couldn't plant there?

**oldredfordette** · July-12-11, 09:00 PM

Is there something wrong with vegetables that she can't grow what she wants in America?

**jcole** · July-12-11, 09:03 PM

She should have just told them that she grows them for the blooms and blossoms, like flowers. If you can plant flowers in the front yard, you should be able to plant vegetables.

**Novine** · July-12-11, 09:53 PM

"If you let her do as she pleases, it sets a precedent for other people, not just planting gardens out in front, but letting their lawns become overgrown with weeds, storing trash in their front yard or parking cars on their lawn. I congratulate Oak Park for making the effort to look presentable, and enforcing the rules that the majority of citizens deem to be acceptable.

Oh right, allowing some tomato plants leads to garbage piles in the front yard. Try being a little less over the top. From all the photos, her garden beds are "presentable". I haven't seen anything that looks any different than a bed of flowers. On what basis can the city dictate that she can have flowers in her front yard but not vegetables? Vegetables aren't noxious or invasive weeds. If this gets in front of a judge, I'll place bets that the city loses with the judge saying that there's no difference between a flower and a vegetable and the city has no basis for denying a homeowner the right to have one but not the other in their front yard.

**English** · July-12-11, 10:35 PM

Well, this is what happens when you live in the suburbs. Subdivisions are even more strict. The aesthetic is nice, decent, clean, safe and presentable... that is what a suburb was designed to be. If you want to be different, you've got to go where you don't have to conform. Urban and rural places -- some of them -- offer more flexibility, with other kinds of compromises.

I had a container garden in front of my Ann Arbor house. I grew flowers the first two years, figured that I couldn't eat 'em, and started growing veggies instead. My garden was beautiful before I reached candidacy, then merely [[barely) presentable during my last two years while I was dissertating. No one cared. They just wanted fresh tomatoes and zucchinis and squash.

As soon as I can gather together my nest egg for my patio here in Detroit, I plan to container garden again. [[My folks always advocate containers or raised boxes unless/until you can get the soil tested.) I wish my neighbors/association/the CoD would. Seriously.

**English** · July-12-11, 10:45 PM

Also -- and people who garden get this -- some of us don't have a backyard, or don't have the right kind of backyard [[for instance, mostly patio or pool), or the sunlight may be terrible. What if everything in the back is shaded by trees/buildings/something else, but you get wonderful sun on the front?

The green lawn aesthetic isn't the only way to go, either. I took out my little patch of lawn in A2 and did a xeriscape instead [[of course, I asked for permission). I've noticed some of my neighbors have already had their lawns and/or patios professionally bricked in, or use stone -- they look beautiful, and frankly, very chic. Of course, it's not feasible to do it if you have a lot of land or live in a place where it's not allowed, but for smaller yards, it's a fun, environmentally safe, allergen friendly way to add curb appeal.

**wolverine** · July-13-11, 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by English

Well, this is what happens when you live in the suburbs. Subdivisions are even more strict. The aesthetic is nice, decent, clean, safe and presentable... that is what a suburb was designed to be. If you want to be different, you've got to go where you don't have to conform. Urban and rural places -- some of them -- offer more flexibility, with other kinds of compromises.

I had a container garden in front of my Ann Arbor house. I grew flowers the first two years, figured that I couldn't eat 'em, and started growing veggies instead. My garden was beautiful before I reached candidacy, then merely [[barely) presentable during my last two years while I was dissertating. No one cared.

Just wanted to say Id love to have a vegetable garden out front if I had a yard. But if ordinances prohibited it out of collective interest I wouldn't do it. You're right though, bigger cities seem to be a bit more lenient. In fact here in Chicago they permit gardens in public easements, and fencing is permitted so as long as there's enough space for people to get out of parked cars. Meanwhile downtown, my apartment buildings lobby door broke and we would be fined everyday the plywood was NOT painted black.

**Blueidone** · July-13-11, 08:15 AM

IMHO municipal governments should recognize that in these times people are doing what they have to do to survive. Planting your own vegetables serves two very important purposes. It saves money and it gives a family a way to insure that their vegetables are safe to eat, and maybe even organic if that is the way they choose to grow them.

The "government" keeps touting for us to eat healthy. But if you don't grow your own vegetables, it can get pretty expensive. People can grow enough to eat during the season, and then freeze or can them for future use.

As I read that one exemption in their code, it appears the statement allows what she is doing. But even if it doesn't, as long as it is well kept and doesn't interfere in a neighbor's yard, I see no reason to allow it. I remember there was a case a few years ago in Birmingham where a woman planted her entire front yard with wildflowers. Neighbors complained because it wasn't "conforming". As I recall, she was allowed to leave it. But my memory is not always the best, so I can't be absolutely sure.

I agree that many older backyards have large trees and too much shade to allow for growing vegetables. I lived in Huntington Woods for many years, just across Coolidge from Oak Park. The area is filled with huge old trees. The shade is nice when you want to stay cool, but it doesn't allow for enough sun, if that's what you are looking for.