One week you hear accolades for those who dare to turn their front yards into gardens of healthy bounty, and the next condemnation. Well, take a quick gander from the other side to understand why they hate your garden.
Feud over edible plot gives new meaning to ‘victory garden’
“I realize that I’m a bit late to the game on this one — my normally fine-tuned front yard-vegetable-gardener-under-fire radar was down last week while I was on vacation — but better late than never, especially when it involves a law-abiding, self …Mother Nature Network (blog)”
http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/blogs/feud-over-edible-plot-gives-new-meaning-to-victory-garden
I often wonder about the psychology of people who file a complaint against these folks in the first place. The focus just seems wrong.
Maybe these complainers find it more acceptable to see some rusty broken-down car, a deserted and rotting house and overgrown weeds in an empty lot?
Ah, yes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
So what law did this gardener break?
Apparently nothing, aside from the fact that Tricamo’s vegetable garden broke convention by being planted in the front yard instead of the backyard. As Tricamo has painstakingly documented, nothing about the garden violated city code including the “exterior appearance” code. Board chairman, Joe Schroeder, the one member who voted to uphold the citation told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The board felt that, technically, he had the law in his favor. But I think that all of us on the board agreed that the garden is an eyesore. It goes against common sense, really, to put a garden in the front yard instead of the back.”
Most of us know that a yard is just an area of ground surrounded by walls or buildings; thus, the term front and back yard. Now if we add the term garden to those areas of yard, what do you have?
Well…you have a piece of ground that is used for growing flowers, fruits or vegetables. So did this fellow break convention? Probably; but only because the garden is quite extensive and in the front rather than in the back.
You know, “convention” changes over time. Just think about the American pioneers. Gardens were put where the easiest access to water was, whether it be in the front, side or back yard.
Then, as people began to live closer to one another and store bought food became more the norm, vegetable gardens also began to migrate to the back yards; reserving so to speak, the front yards for lawns, shrubs and trees.
You could argue that convention is geographical too. Someone living in an arid desert region is unlikely to think that turning a front yard into a concrete slab with a few strategically placed shrubs and succulents is an eyesore or against common sense.
Roland adds in a statement issued by the Freedom Center of Missouri: “Unfortunately, some government officials are willing to try to control how citizens use their property, even if there are no laws against what the citizen is doing and there is no threat to the public health or safety.”
Ah, yes! It’s politics again…all about control. Sometimes I think many politicans have lost their ability to think independently, to remember it is the people who put them where they are.
Now before I lose focus, it time to say I don’t hate your garden and adieu until tomorrow!
P.S.
If you are seriously considering adding a herb or vegetable garden to your front yard, you might be interested in checking this site out first. It will give you some reasonable advice and tips to help you from frustration and legal battles in the future. But, like anything in life, do your homework first.
