Outlawed, Banned & Regulated: YOUR Front Yard Gardens!
Mother’s Day was a very nice time for me, with my family blessing me with many flower and vegetable plants for my garden. I have already begun my garden planting with tomatoes, watermelon, and okra; late this year due to winter overstaying it’s welcome here in South Dakota. As I have been planting this year’s garden, I have been wondering how long I, and all Americans, will continue to have the right to do so. I also ponder what laws will be imposed against us home gardeners. Looking to Europe might give us one clue. Also, looking at the ‘front yard garden’ war can give us another.
I think it is safe to say that whatever gets approved as a law in other countries, usually comes to being passed in America. We have a huge population with many talented people who have fantastic original ideas, but that doesn’t keep us from jumping onto the bandwagon of ideas from other countries, especially Europe. Europe’s government wants to regulate gardening by requiring both companies and citizens to register almost every seed and plant. Of course, fees are involved. What would be the point of a new regulation if a tax, oops, I mean a fee, is attached and expected from the citizens? The seeds and plants would include flowers and grasses, in addition to, veggies and fruits. If it is a plant of any kind, it and/or it’s seed would have to be registered. Mike Adams, with Natural News.com shares more in his article. Also, a copy of the proposal can be found here.
You may be thinking, “I don’t have to be concerned with what Europe is doing.” Ah, but we all need to be concerned with what Europe and other countries are doing, because their laws have a way of popping up in the United States. Just like remakes of their television shows!
City governments in the United States are getting a little tweaked about gardens, because, hey, they don’t have enough on their plate already with high unemployment and a sour economy. They make the charge that vegetable and fruits plants are not the type of plants that look good in a front yard. Here are three examples of citizens who have been fighting their city for the right to have a garden in their front yard:
Orlando, Orange County, Florida – Jason Helvenston fighting his city to keep his garden.
Tulsa, Oklahoma – Denise Morrison’s garden get knocked down by the city.
Oak Park, Michigan – Julie Bass faced jail time for her front yard garden.
In addition to those examples, West Des Moines, Iowa, endured public criticism for proposing legislation earlier this year to ban residents from planting and growing veggies and fruits in their front yards. Will more cities try to ban residents from ‘front yard’ gardens? I think it won’t take long before local governments figure out they can increase their revenue by imposing fees (taxes) for ‘front yard’ gardens. Once one city gets a bill passed, it will be a domino effect of other cities following in kind.
I would be remiss to not mention Michelle Obama and her famous vegetable garden. Why isn’t she rallying to these people’s aid and fighting for their right to have a garden in their front yard? After all, her public platform is all about healthy eating, which is promoted with her own garden in the front yard of the White House.
The real issue is people not having the right to enjoy their property how they want, and whether the ‘front yard’ garden issue infringes upon citizen’s Fifth Amendment rights. While New York is trying to ban everything from soda to butter, for the public good, city governments across America are getting distracted over vegetable and fruit gardens. I don’t think our government is trying to increase public safety, I think they are trying to exert more control.
