Couple fined for having garden: Take that, urban vegetable gardening trend

A couple fined for having a garden in Orlando, Fla. has been ordered to dig up their vegetables or pay a $500 a day fine until they do.

Stephanie Hanes
The Christian Science Monitor
1/9/2013

Michelle Obama does it, but at your house?  Not so fast.

That, at least, is the message Florida couple Jason and Jennifer Helvenston have been getting ever since the Orlando city government told them that their front yard vegetable garden violated municipal codes.

Dig it up by tomorrow (Jan. 10), the city has ordered, according to news reports, or face a $500 a day fine.

Take that, urban gardening trend.

The Helvenstons knew this could be coming. They first got word from the city back in November that Orlando preferred its front yards to be tidy and grassy and property-value friendly, not scraggly with annoying things like vegetables.  But a report from Click Orlando at the time sparked an outpouring of support, and after being flooded with hundreds of emails, the government said it would hold off with the fining – for a little while, at least.

But now, the news organization says, the Helvenston’s garden is back on the chopping block. And the couple is launching a “Plant a Seed, Change the Law” protest in response…

The article continues, with video, at The Christian Science Monitor.

Also at the site, Urban gardeners versus zoning laws Urban green thumbs who want to raise livestock or grow vegetables for sale are being thwarted by unhappy neighbors and zoning laws.