Today’s thankful: I don’t live in Oak Park, Michigan

I was cruising around the Mother Earth News website today and came across a story about a woman in Oak Park, Michigan who has a court date and may have to serve up to 93 days in jail for growing vegetables in her front yard. Apparently, growing vegetables in your front yard is against city ordinances.

Okay. I get it. Some people don’t want to see vegetables being grown in the front yard. What I don’t get is why they are insisting that she uproot all of the plants. It would be a lot more environmentally friendly to charge her a fine for violating the code and let her veggies continue to grow, so long as she agrees to keep her veggies out of the front yard next year.

This story makes me even more thankful that my nasty HOA neighbors haven’t pitched a hissy fit about my veggie patch beside the house. I had to put it there because the dog owns the backyard and would tear up all of my hard work. I did plant marigolds in with the vegetable plants, making the argument that it is a flower bed which happens to have a few vegetable plants included. So far, so good.