Michelle Obama lives in arguably the most prestigious home in America. In 2009, she dug up a portion of the South Lawn and installed an organic vegetable garden to provide fresh produce for the White House kitchen. Short of the chemical companies who produce pesticides – definitely not allowed in an organic garden – who could complain about such a plan? It’s a great example of sourcing foods locally and Washington DC school children have had the chance to dig in the dirt, learning just where their food comes from.

It’s a good thing the White House isn’t located in Oak Park, Michigan.



The Bass family's front yard vegetable garden.

When the Bass family decided to plant a vegetable garden in place of their front lawn, Oak Park city officials asked them to move the garden to the backyard.

“Five beds, six yards of compost, about 90 plants – but most important of all, on principle — no!!!!” says Julie Bass.

Short of a little container gardening, this is the first time the Bass family has grown a garden. But instead of focusing their efforts on developing new gardening skills and harvesting the fruits of their labor, Julie Bass, a mother of six, finds herself facing a court battle and possibly jail time.

Over a vegetable garden.

Read the rest of Kris Bordessa’s post over at GeekMom.

City code requires that front yard landscapes have “suitable, live plant material.”

six yards of compost

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/07/mi ... -a-garden/

93 days in jail for a vegetable garden, folks.

Obviously jail time is excessive.. but this is probably the biggest source of the problem. If my neighbor kept a compost pile in the front yard, id probably want it gone as well.

Big government has been against gardening for self-sufficiency since the days of FDR. Those people are effecting interstate commerce right there.

wha? People planted victory Garden during WWII? Having you been listening to Michelle Bachmann or something?

I enjoy those that defend the elastic interpertation of the commerce clause as if it were reasonable. If you accept that, all other limits on federal power make very little sense.

plus your talking recently Nazi occupied state of Michigan

Thats fucking hysterical. Why, because instead of having our annual "State Shutdown if no budget by ____!" late fall tradition, we have a new governor that said fuck the politics, and got a 2 year budget done by May 31st? That OMG we are now taxing pensions.. so that retirees making 50,000 a year can actually contribute to the state? That insane and archaic item pricing laws are done away with? Please Kosmicjelli, tell me what makes Michigan "recently nazi occupied?"

Oh... lets say they enacted laws that they are able to "take over" any town they see fit and "install" whoever they see fit to govern a locality without the consent of voters with the excuse of fiscal problem... okay here is the problem with that:

crooks in state government bancrupt a city, installs their cronies and do whatever the fuck they want without reguard or consent of its citizens....


are you that deft?

Yes, the republican governor and legislature have their cronies in the cities of Detroit and Benton Harbor local governments. Way to have any clue what you are talking about.

nevermind... setting precendents for terrible things without thereguard of the people it governs