Woman Could Be Jailed For Vegetable Garden

Julie Bass, of Oak Park, Michigan, wanted to grow her own food. She was a fan of organic vegetables, so she decided to convert her front yard from the grass-and-tree landscaping typical in her neighborhood into an edible garden. Because she had just torn up the front lawn to install a new sewer system, she had a perfect opportunity to start fresh. She planted cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs in raised wooden planters, and waited to reap her produce.

A neighbor didn't like her choice of landscaping.

The neighbor called the city and complained that Bass's yard disrupted the look of the neighborhood. The city agreed, and issued Bass a ticket.

Bass was offended. Organic produce is expensive. If she wants to grow her own, she reasoned, why shouldn't she be allowed to? She refused to change her yard. The city insisted; she lawyered up.

Now, with neither party being willing to back down, the case is likely to go to a jury trial. If Bass loses, she faces up to 93 days in jail. All for following the example of the White House! Has news of Michelle Obama not yet made it to Michigan?

Comments

[pepper1311]

03:43 PM on 07/17/2011

She should be jailed! Did you see the pictures, we pull better looking plants then she had. If you raise a garden have pride in it.

[maruski]

11:16 AM on 07/26/2011

sarcasm?
http://detnews.com/article/20110714/METRO02/107140475/Charges-dropped-against-Oak-Park-woman-over-veggie-garden#ixzz1S7iMd410

looks like normal squash plants in raised beds to me

[Bolkonsky]

07:15 PM on 07/14/2011

'Veggie charges' dropped. Now the vindictive city is harassing her with charges against her dogs.

http://tinyurl.com/5uk7qyg

[Cunningham]

01:39 AM on 07/15/2011

Wow. They just want to harrass Julie Bass. I hope she has a good lawyer.

http://detnews.com/article/20110714/METRO02/107140475/Charges-dropped-against-Oak-Park-woman-over-veggie-garden#ixzz1S7iMd410

[Bolkonsky]

05:45 PM on 07/14/2011

“http://www­.thepetiti­onsite.com­/1/oak-par­k-hates-ve­ggies/

Please sign the petition of support. They are close to their goal of 30k. And they ought to have 300k and then some by now !”

[Bolkonsky]

12:31 PM on 07/14/2011

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/oak-park-hates-veggies/

Please sign the petition of support. They are close to their goal of 30k. And they ought to have 300k and then some by now !

[crex]

01:32 AM on 07/14/2011

Wow, is this really the Huffington Post? I can't beleive the Libertarian streak perverting these pages. Can't grow a garden on your "own property?". Think back to all the nanny state ideals and big brother nonsense most of you have supported in the past on these pages and then wonder how we came this far in government intrusion. You get what you ask for.

[maruski]

11:20 AM on 07/26/2011

look. Don't generalize. It's plain dumb. Not all people who lean left are anti-gun.. Not all are pro choice. Not all are pro "nanny state". Everyone has issues that don't fit their "label".

[Stacy M]

09:43 PM on 07/12/2011

She of course should be able to grow food in her front yard. if anything her vegetable garden will add character to the neighborhood. I find mowed lawn after lawn incredibly boring.
What boggles my mind, how can she make sure her garden is organic?
First: Ground water contamination. If any of her neighbors are using chemical fertilizer for their flower in their front yards, her "organic" plant are drinking water contaminated with this stuff.
Two:Her front yard is subjected car exhaust. She clearly never picked any wild plants in her life. If she did she would have know to NEVER pick plants that grow near the road. The car exhaust gives them unpleasant taste and God know what else.

[Alexa Dobson]

02:10 AM on 07/13/2011

Yes, CLEARLY because she can't grow a 100% perfect without exception organic garden due to circumstances completely outside of her control, she shouldn't even bother!
Don't be stupid. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. What she grows in her own front yard is a thousand times better than what you'd get at a grocery store trucked in from Chile.

[Cunningham]

01:38 AM on 07/15/2011

"She of course should be able to grow food in her front yard. if anything her vegetable garden will add character to the neighborho­od."

Please don't call another poster stupid when you CLEARLY haven't comprehended his/her post.

[Matt Hotz]

10:09 AM on 07/20/2011

Welly. I see you can't be happy with any kind of effort to change the world. So, how can I rain on your parade today?

[Ignite A Riot]

09:40 PM on 07/12/2011

This headline is an example of incendiary journalism. This woman wouldn't be jailed for growing vegetables, she'd be fined for refusing to comply once notified that she was not in compliance with local ordinances. The could be jailed for not paying the fines if the local prosecutor were particularly motivated to go after this type of offense (or he/she had been influenced by a buddy -- perhaps the irate neighbor of the garden-lady).

In any case, this is the rule of law, folks -- not the rule of what is popular with your particular group. I am an organic gardener, and I imagine if I were served these notices, I'd close down my garden, or seek an injunction against the city at law BEFORE the city fined me, and before they found me in contempt of the courts (assuming that's why she could possibly face jail time for her unwillingness to remove her front yard garden).

If only local, state, and federal prosecutors would be so tough going after polluters (whose activities are far more deleterious to property values, health values, etc), we'd have a much better (and healthier & wealthier) America.

[simsum]

04:18 PM on 07/13/2011

Sometimes government is just plain wrong, in which case "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government."

In this case the law is rather vague, and a 93-day jail sentence would befit a soviet state, not the American ideal of freedom. Is her garden actually harming the public good? Polluting the neighborhood? Quite the contrary, she is providing healthful food for herself and friends. It is more likely that neighbors using chemicals to make their lawns green are doing all the harm, not her.

[simsum]

04:20 PM on 07/13/2011

I completely agree with you that every civilization rests on the rule of law; but in this case I can also understand why should would not comply with the town's interpretation of the law.

The same thing happened in the south with the bus boycotts. Segregation laws were inherently unjust, and it was the very essence of good citizenship to oppose it.

[Ipanemagirl]

01:23 PM on 07/12/2011

should she not be able to grow what she wants on her own property? What kind of freedom is this? Its better than a front yard full of weeds which i see often, and nobody can complain about that! Maybe, if she proposed to share some of the produce with ther neighbor, they would relent?

[ReesesPieces]

12:47 PM on 07/12/2011

Maybe it would help to actually see what this garden actually looked like. It was ugly by any standards and a simple google search will show you pictures of it. Raised beds, no grass, typical vegetables in wooden slabs. It was an eye sore, and could cause property values in the area to go down. She could have just as easily made more tasteful choices for edible landscaping that is both attractive and edible. There are amazing examples of beautiful edible landscapes and this was certainly not one of them. Again, a simple google search for edible landscaping pictures can show you a wide variety of ways to grow edible plants in an extremely beautiful way. If she had made the attempt to do something similar, the neighbors would have probably appreciated it.

Furthermore, some cities and even communities have regulations and laws about things like this. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for not following it. If she broke the rules, she should pay the penalty. What is wrong with you people who think everyone should be entitled to do whatever they want in the name of "freedom"? We have laws and rules to protect not only individuals but communities, and if a really ugly garden lowers a neighborhood's property values, then that one person should have the common sense and decency to either make her "garden" more attractive or move it to the back yard.

[jessiowl]

03:19 PM on 07/12/2011

WOW I honestly don't know how you could view vegetables as an eyesore. Everyone should have the right to grow their own food, to feed themselves and their children. This is really sad. your comment is even sadder. It sounds really stuck up. How do you know that someone property value wouldn't increase by way of having a knowledgeable gardner next to them. This illustrates to me the problem our society is facing : money over caring and health. And it brings me back to the question of what is valuable? If our limited 3 day food supply that we have in America was ever cut off, i am sure this would be seen as the most valuable property in the neighborhood. Thanks for helping me realize what the American mindset is. i was way out of touch.

[ReesesPieces]

04:35 PM on 07/12/2011

Did you even look at the pictures of the garden that Huffington Post didn't include? Maybe you should. I don't think anyone could say that it was an absolutely beautiful garden. It was ugly and I am a gardener. I grow my own food, and I would NEVER make my neighbors have to look at THAT in my front yard. And if I'm stuck up for caring about how my house looks and how my neighborhood looks, then I guess I'm stuck up. She could have opted to plant her garden in her back yard, the side yard, or take 5 minutes to look up ways to landscape your yard with fruits and vegetables that will not only maximize the amount of food per square foot but it would also be beautiful. I have a beautiful garden - anyone else can too!

[RevSpaminator]

03:49 PM on 07/12/2011

Sorry, but this is where my liberal side comes out. The right of the community to look pretty does not supersede the individual's right to grow their own food.

The only way to ensure a free and just society is to uphold the rights of the individual against the forces that act on behalf of the "common good of society." We start giving up those rights in the smallest ways and pretty soon we have things like domestic spying and the accused being denied habeus corpus. Oh wait, we did and now we do.

[ReesesPieces]

04:45 PM on 07/12/2011

This isn't denying her the right to grow her own food! She still has the right to grow food in her back yard, through edible landscaping (as I mentioned before) - she chose to go against the regulations and laws for her area and this was the result of such. If your neighbor insisted on displaying 200 pink flamingos and dozens of wooden cut outs of people bending over, chances are you wouldn't be happy about that - especially if you were trying to sell that house in this difficult housing market. To the people of this neighborhood, this garden was their equivalent of pink flamingos and wooden butt cutouts.

One person's rights end where another's rights begin. By your stated logic, someone would then have the right to murder someone else, but thankfully those"forces that act on behalf of the common good of society" that you so emphatically denounced, condemn the practice of murder. The common good of society is a necessary thing. Your point is mute.

[JahfreFireEater]

10:07 AM on 07/12/2011

The progressive push for total control of every choice an individual might make always results in absurd, anti-human outcomes. Imagine if the Mayflower Compact stipulated that the Pilgrims could only grow ornamental, non-edible plants in their yards? No human should ever deny another human the right to grow food.

[sarah conner]

08:43 AM on 07/12/2011

I think she should till up that garden - plant some grass and go apply for food stamps to pay for her organic food - isn't that the "American" way now???

[Stephanie Elise]

07:14 AM on 07/12/2011

This is an outrage, even by American standards.

[Sheldon archer]

11:48 PM on 07/11/2011

America, the Land of Freedom

[mamapower]

05:32 AM on 07/12/2011

Honey, we Americans with brains knows, that was never the truth and never will be.

[sb250guy]

11:44 PM on 07/11/2011

I'm glad I don't live in the US anymore. It's nothing like the America I grew up in. Here in Japan, most people just don't even have a yard. But those who do are allowed to do whatever they like with their own property. Land of the free? I don't think so.

[glasgal]

11:38 PM on 07/11/2011

Move to Madison Wi, we love people to have gardens. They even have a guy giving seminars on using your yard to grow food rather than useless grass.