If it were an eyesore, I'd say they should fine her just like here if folks don't keep their yard mowed, they are fined or a lien put on their property or something. I see quite a few tomato plants and herbs in yards around me and no one is raising a ruckus. If she had planted tall flowers and herbs in the front or put up a picket fence, it's possible no one would have noticed.

I know of at least two yards near me that have no grass planted or very little grass. They have lots of shrubs and plants native to our climate, bird feeders, shrubs with berries, herbs, drought tolerant plants, etc. One homeowner recently planted what looks to be a "meadow" with grasses, daisies, black-eyed Susan, etc. and only a grass path going through the yard. I'm interested to see if they are able to maintain this.

Teresa

They also could have planted a parterre garden in the front using boxwood that would have keep everything under control & still been pleasing to the eye.

I don't believe veggies/herbs necessarily have to look ratty. It's all in the design.

/tricia

Not all front yards here look alike, and they certainly did not look alike in Venice. I am one of the few that chose succulents and cactus for my front yard, but I'm not the only one. The yards that are mostly just grass are pretty boring, but everyone here maintains whatever they have, and some front yards are more elaborate than others. Succulents are popular here because many of them bloom in the winter and they require less water. I would never plant vegetables or fruit in the front yard, for fear of thieves, except that I would plant a coconut tree in the front if it would grow. I had one in Venice that lasted a couple of years and then died. I think we have the wrong soil or else it does not get hot enough here.

I have grass in my back yard but not in my front!

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1449960}}

I think it looks cute. However, veggie gardens are hard to keep looking neat. I suppose if they really keep n it, it will be fine.

My next door neighbor's yard is awful. He mows the grass, but that's about it. Never pulls a weed or rakes a leaf. I put up a big fence so i don't have to see it. There are giant weed trees growing near the foundation of the house that I am sure will eventually damage the foundation.

Anyway, if the veggie garden is well-kept, I'd have no problem having that next to me.

Well, I guess I'm glad I don't live in Oak Park, MI.
At the moment, my front yard has onions, shishito peppers, cucumbers, corn, sugar snap peas, passion fruit, raspberries, tomatoes, parsley, strawberries, basil, sage, lettuce, rosemary, thyme, hops, lavender, and a meyer lemon tree. Then whatever space is leftover, is covered with tall Mexican feather grass, Mexican sage, agapanthas and irises. In May/June, it's quite wild and pretty, in August, not so much.

Why the front yard and not the back? The sun is in the front. The dogs are in the back. Though I grow as much as I can in the back - blackberries, figs, lemons, oranges. Whenever I plant something new, I really think about what benefit it provides.

Thankfully, my neighbors appreciate the food I grow and share with them rather than being upset that it's not a manicured lawn.

As for this particular situation, I hope she wins her case. I do understand those who chose to live in neighborhoods with very strict CC&R's which prohibit such things, but Oak Park, Michigan is not such a place.

Well, we're not nearly as upscale here in White Cloud as they are in Oak Park. I planted in the back yard, though. Since I couldn't put in my "regular" garden, Elery built me some nice raised beds, much like those in the picture. I have eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, some pink half runner beans, collard greens, beets, and various tomatoes including Yellow Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Rutgers, Beefsteak, Golden Jubilee and something just called "White". Oh, and 10 fingerling potato plants. My neighbors keep coming over to check and see when the tomatoes will be ripe as several of them also have gardens and there's kind of competition for the first ripe tomato.

I predict that Oak Park will be dismissing this.....

Annie

I can't imagine dictating to any of my neighbours what they can and can't plant in their yard, back or front. And if they let it go altogether, (which I admit I have ATM) good luck coercing anyone into doing something about it.
There are a few housing developments in Perth with restrictive rules dictating yard treatments etc, and I'm afraid I'd rather have my toenails pulled out than live in one of them. It may not be picture perfect here but we all have our independence.

Unless the neighbors are in terror of not being able to sell their house (a real possibility), it's pretty nasty of them to complain. But the idea that you could go to jail for having plants in your front yard that aren't the right plants! -- Boot these guys out of office!

It could be worse, this came up on Yahoo this morning, in Florida people are being evicted from their paid-for condos for not paying Association fees.

I've heard stories about not being able to put up clotheslines and only buying a certain color and style of mailbox, as well as the one about having to dye your grass green if it has brown spots and getting a ticket for kissing your husband in the driveway. Pah.

That's why I'd never live anywhere there is a homeowner's association with their pages of rules to tell me what to do. If you don't mind living in cookie cutter houses with neighbors whose houses look just like yours and you're not allowed to hang your sheets outside, go for it. I'm not going to.

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Homeowners associations

I came across this article this morning.

Here is a link that might be useful: A similar story in B.C.

I see the criminal charges (!) have been dropped.
Comment from the city prosecutor: "I want to look at it, I want to see the facts, I want to see where this vegetable garden is going and make a determination of whether or not to prosecute under the existing ordinance, write a new ordinance and [examine] the public welfare."
Doesn't this clown have any real criminals to go after?

Here is a link that might be useful: ABA Journal

As I predicted a few days ago, I knew they wouldn't like the notoriety.

No, CC, he doesn't have better/other things to do. That's his job. It doesn't matter how trivial the complaint, if a citizen makes a complaint that a law or ordinance has been violated, it doesn't matter whether or not the attorney's office thinks it's trivial, or wrong, or that the ordinance is silly. It's there and it's his job to enforce it if it's a violation, whether he/she agrees or not.

Like pretty much every job, you don't have to agree with the job or the boss or the reasons behind the directive, you just have to do it. And no, he's not an elected politician, he's an employee of a law firm who was hired by Oak Park's City Council to pursue ordinance violators.

Blame the City Council who passed the complaint on to their lawyers knowing that the citizens would pay the bill, not the guy who is doing the job he's getting paid to do. The Council members are the ones who passed the ordinance, decided to pursue it, and who are elected by the people of Oak Park to represent them.

Annie

Having worked at Research Triangle Park (RTP) in Raleigh/Durham NC, I noticed acres, literally, of pristine grass mowed within an inch of their life, weeded with herbicides, sprayed with pesticides, and all other manner of pollutants that make grass look "pretty". I thought at the time that if all that land was planted in vegetables and fruit trees, the workers would not have to have huge cafeterias in their giant complexes, and that all the less fortunate without jobs could have free fresh food too. It would probably be cheaper for the business owners, and the displaced lawn maintenance people would have jobs, only with different plants! We'd also never have to listen to lawn mowers and leaf blowers every stinkin' work day. I salute Mrs. Obama for planting a garden at the White House! I doubt that they are governed by a HOA.

When I lived in CA, I was the only one on the block with tomatoes in the front yard interspersed with gravel and rock landscaping, pretty eggplant bushes, squash plants, berries, and fruit trees. In the back yard - a 5' square grass area for doggie to do her business and the rest was in edibles and flowers. I shared my bounty with the neighbors, but, I had to listen to mowers/blowers every stinkin' day of the week while they maintained their cookie-cutter plots of grass and from a hundred others from the other surrounding blocks. Edible landscaping is always quiet.

I am also greatly adverse to HOA's that want to run your life. Where I live now our HOA has only three no-no's -- can't build over 3 stories tall, can't clear-cut more than half of our 10 acre plots (they're all heavily forested with native trees, some of them are native edibles - pecan, hickory, persimmon, cherry, plum), and can't raise hogs.

Nancy

The city planner didn't have a legal leg to stand on, since the local law only says front yards must be ''suitable'', which is too vague to support a criminal prosecution.

Has anyone seen the Bristish sitcom series "Good Neighbors"?

If not, go see if your library has this very funny series.

"---Originally telecast in the 1970s, Good Neighbors is the wonderful 1970s Britcom about an upper-middle-class couple who relinquish consumerism and turn their cozy suburban London home into a self-sufficient farm.----"

dcarch

I remember that series so well. It was hilariously funny. Loved every character in it.

It's available from Amazon, but I never watched it much. It reminded me a bit of Green Acres, which I liked better. For the British comedy series, I liked The Vicar of Dibley better, but no British comedy comes close to Monty Python, except perhaps Absolutely Fabulous. I also watched all of Keeping Up Appearances and Are You Being Served.

Lars