Been blogging about the joys of country living, my garden, and my great success with raised garden beds, a life in stark contrast to the city where Homeowners Associations set hefty fines for doing what I love to do: enjoying plants, eating them, and making the world a better place with them.
Behold, this lady was set upon by her city council for the crime of growing vegetables in raised beds in her front yard. Did I not warn you this could happen in my post link from three months ago? Yes, I did.
Julie Bass of Oak Park Faces Misdemeanor Charge for Vegetable Garden: MyFoxDETROIT.com
Now that the city council has been humiliated into backing off her garden, they’ve gone after her pets.
What a nice place to live.
Run. Get out of the city! Run for your lives! To the hills! To the hills, I say!
Here’s one of my awful raised garden beds full of vegetables. Clearly, this chaos cannot be tolerated within city limits.
Dill and cucumber and beans. The horror.
Definitely a vendetta, since her dogs are licensed.
Also, they sound like the town I live in. Bleah.
VERY sorry to hear that. I feel your pain.
I have never been happier since moving to the country. What tyrants people can be. Almost everyone is incredibly tolerant, kind and understanding out here. No one cares about your garden, except to notice and try to grow a bigger one! And people are very generous and share. I just sent about 10 pounds of cucumber off to church this morning.
My Evil City Homeowners Association passed a rule about letting your pets walk about unleashed. I lived there well over a decade, and my beloved cat Sawyer used to walk about all the time. The neighbors loved him. But rules are rules, so I kept him indoors.
So the people next door, responsible for most of the nasty rules that left me with heaps of fines in the first place, wondered why Sawyer wasn’t out and about anymore.
And I said, “Because you passed this rule!”
And they said, “But we didn’t mean Sawyer!”
I was incredulous, because these are the people who hit me with fines for having a large rose bush.
Needless to say, I did not take them at their word. I figure I’d let Sawyer walk about one day and get a $50 fee.
IT sure sounds like avendetta.. I know nothing about American laws, but I don’t see anything wrong with growing vegetables for your own use in your garden,and what would be wrong to sell the excess? Here in Mexico is very common that people grow some citrus trees on their gardens, so when the lemon are ripe or oranges , they hang signs saying “bag of limes/lemons for $” that’s all. =( Really, some of USA laws skeer me.
Citrus trees are ornamental so there’s no bitching about that, though they would complain about that kind of sign.
Unfortunately, I and my SO are seriously disabled, so country living is not an option at this point. I used to garden on an acre property closer to the city limits and they didn’t say anything, lots of organic stuff, but because he’s a quad and I’m bedbound nowadays, nobody could tend to the garden.
No, instead they try to fine us for our aide’s car not moving from our driveway (it’s in good condition, it’s just not insured so we can’t use it), by sneaking around it to check the plates, which aren’t visible from the street. Or for a garbage bag by the door that’s there for a few hours, because our aide is almost as allergic to the sun as I am, and can’t walk out in the daytime to toss the trash into the bin.
Really not tolerant of disabilities or low income. You’d think they could spend more money on cracking down harder on drive-bys and carjacking, but it’s more lucrative to hassle people for their yard.
@Gaby: the issue wasn’t the growing of the vegetables, it was growing them OMG IN THE FRONT YARD IN RAISED BEDS WHERE PEOPLE WILL SEE IT! HOW TACKY AND RURAL!!
And there’s a good point in that article, the charges weren’t settled, they were dropped, as in, once the media storm dies down they are likely going to start this bs up all over again. Good for her for sticking up and standing up.
Aside from healthier living, another reason why I’m looking at places further away from the D.C. Metro area (like Charlottesville or even out of state) to buy something in a few years is to not have to be part of an HOA. If a place I’m looking at is part of some “community” then I’ll look elsewhere.
I figure that since I’m the one who would be paying the mortgage, what I do on MY property is no one’s business (of course I wouldn’t be breaking the law, naturally).
Yeah, I foresee myself being one of those “stay off of my lawn” people and that’s now – nevermind when I hit retirement age.
Ah, I see Arlnee… still it soundslike big time BS. Just walking today with my dog, I noticed that outside the laundromat the lady that owns the business has some nice tomatoes bushes planted. (Never knew they were tomatoes, until now we talked about it) and guess what? they are on the sidewalk green area!!! =D and nobody gives a damn! but people do ask us pet owners to don’t let our canine-children do their business there. hee I want clean tomatoes after all XD
@ Sylv: I can’t tell you how sorry I am to read that. Absolutely foul.