Thursday, July 14, 2011

Vegetable Garden Controversy...

This story has been all over the gardening blog-o-sphere lately, generating a lot of "conversation," even among non-gardeners. Seems as though the city of Oak Park, Michigan took exception to a FRONT YARD vegetable garden put in by Julie Bass. Guess the neighbors complained and the beds aren't code-compliant, etc. The big controversy among gardening aficionados is whether a vegetable garden constitutes a suitable landscape and/or if vegetables are appropriate for the public area of a yard?

FYI - this is becoming a very popular landscaping trend throughout the US as people become more health and food conscience.  

The City of Oak Park wants her to dismantle the beds but she's fighting back. Now, even a protest group has formed.


Stuff like this makes me smile. What would you have in your front yard here in Galveston to get this same kind of reaction? A junk car, trash and lumber piled up, an RV/camper, gigantic boat, porch falling off the house, Christmas decorations in July, etc? BTW - this pretty much describes my neighborhood.

The picture of her garden looks  nice by Galveston standards. Plus - because many of our yards are so small, front yard vegetable gardening isn't all that uncommon here on the island. I guess, once again, our forward-thinking community is ahead of the design trend!

Right On Julie....