Gardener fighting village busybodies for the right to grow tomatoes in her front garden

Dora Lyakhovetsky, a gardner from Northbrook, IL, is fighting her village Board of Trustees for the right to keep tomatoes and flowers in her front yard instead of turf. The local code prohibits growing anything but grass out front, even though Lyakhovetsky's back yard is overshadowed by big trees and can't be used to grow anything.

Lyakhovetsky showed up at the Board meeting with a basket of tomatoes for her neighbors and asked them to reconsider.

"This isn't a garden dispute -- this is a neighborhood dispute," said Goodman, who had circulated a petition in the neighborhood trying to drum up support for Lyakhovetsky's front yard garden on the 2700 block of Shannon Drive.
Somewhat of a community activist, Goodman told the board his petitioning job had never been so easy. The two people who objected most strenuously to Lyakhovetsky's garden, he said, did so because they did not like her.
Had someone else planted the garden, perhaps they would not have minded its prominent placement, he said.
"I know you think you can solve this by writing a new law," Goodman said.
But he said that wouldn't work because people would just find something else to complain about. Plus, he said, residents clearly don't want the village to do so.

Northbrook front-yard gardener brings some of her crop to Village Board (Thanks, JArmstrong via Submitterator)

(Image: Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

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MikeP

I actually live in Northbrook. The situation is caused less by overly restrictive village codes and more by totally ambiguous rules dealing with this sort of crap.

Also, our village officeholders are total morons.
efergus3

“I say that we take off and nuke the place from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Otherwise those tomatoes will wipe out all life on the planet.
Anonymous

Based on 10 years of working in that place, the only sensible solution is to burn Northbrook to the fucking ground. Some tomatoes will die, but you can’t make an omlette without cracking some eggs.
Anonymous

Preserving property values is a right, but growing food for personal consumption on your property is not a right? I confuse.
dainel

Imagine rows and rows of houses with nice grass lawns in front, and suddenly this single house has tomatoes. It’s abnormal. I’ll say the correct solution is to change what is normal. Make it compulsory for everyone to grow food in their front lawn. If anyone does not do so, their neighbours should be entitled to plant in their lawn and collect the resulting harvest.
travtastic

God forbid someone might put marginal land that they own to a practical use.

If they let her have a garden, how do you say no when the guy next door wants to put a solar panel on his own roof? Where do you draw the line between beautiful sterility and hopeless insanity?
- silkox
  
  Depends on your definition of “marginal land.” Very often housing developments (and whole cities and suburbs) are built on first-class farmland. It’s the houses that are most likely out of place.
  - travtastic
    
    I never really thought about that, but it makes sense.
    
    What she should do, then, is seed bomb the hell out of every patch of grass in the neighborhood not connected to a yard. Presumably, every other resident would die of shame, and she’d be free to garden as she pleased.
ncm

Where does this word “gardner” come from? Is it regional?
insert

Part of living in a community means making sacrifices for that community; in other words, property rights are not — and ought not be — absolute. While regulating grass versus garden in someone’s front yard is petty, communities have an interest (or at least, some do) in regulation, not only to protect property values from an economic perspective, but also to preserve quality of life.

Articulating a purely anti-HOA set of beliefs is either inconsistent (if it supports local, state or national-level laws) or leads to vulgar strict-propertarian anarcho-capitalism, which we all know is silly.
- cmpalmer
  
  So when does making sacrifices for the community end and blindly following authority begin?
  
  +1 for “vulgar strict-propertarian anarcho-capitalism”, though.
PFR

“The local code prohibits growing anything but grass out front”

Wonder what the status of medical marijuana is in IL. Wouldn’t it poke the eye of the village Board of Trustees to have ‘grass’ re-interpreted?!?!
redsquares

To be fair, very few things are more steampunk than a grass lawn. How else are you going to show you are rich enough to have servants or slaves to farm for you, somewhere else? It must be monocle-poppingly embarrassing to live near such a brazen commoner!
Anonymous

Too bad it’s on the other side of the country. It would be fun to lurk about looking for rushes and sedges masquerading as grasses.

I’d also like to go to the board meetings and go on about shrubberies and herrings.

Wait! There’re trees in the picture.
danfan

And this impacts other peoples’ property values how?

And since when are our laws for the purpose of protecting our neighbors’ perception of property values?
- PARLIAMENT
  
  Well the picture shows that her front yard is a mess. The neighborhood where I live is well taken care of and everyone’s lawn is always freshly cut, it’s very nice. If instead of a green lawn one of my neighbors decided to grow a jungle of shrubs and put a bright green plastic fence around it, I’d hope that the HOA would do their jobs and restore normalcy.
  - travtastic
    
    Whatever would you do if your neighbors decided not to conform to your personal, vaguely defined normalcy?
    
    Goodness, I bet you would descend into some Lovecraftian madness.
    
    But seriously man. If someone’s yard bothers you that much, you really have no business living anywhere near other people.
  - Mitch
    
    When I go to a subdivision where everyone has perfect, dark green, herbicide sprayed grass I think it looks horrible and toxic, not nice.
    
    It’s her property. Let her do what she wants with it.
    
    Europeans grew tomatoes as ornamental plants until the figured out that they were edible.
    
    There’s room for compromise if this lady’s neighbor’s ask nicely. She could plant edible plants that are also ornamental, like chard, scarlet runner beans, and long peppers and leave a token fringe of grass around the edge of the yard.
    
    Denying this woman the right to the pursuit of happiness by growing her own food on her son’s land is insidious.
    
    If they make her take down her garden I hope she follows the lawn regulations to the letter and keeps her grass a little less than 10 inches long.
Anonymous

I have gone and briefly read the Northbrook Code. I can see no provision prohibiting “anything but grass out front.”

Can anyone else?

All I can find is: http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=11769&stateId=13&stateName=Illinois

This looks very simple ultimately; the municipality has no leg.
- fcurious
  
  To geek out a bit:
  
  I don’t think they actually have the power to enforce this.
  
  Why? It should be “void b/c of vagueness”. It does not provide society with adequate warning as to what type of conduct might be subject to prosecution. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_for_vagueness)
  
  For those interested it isn’t really just an issue with the ordinances of Northbrook (specifically Chapter 25 – TREE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION, VEGETATION >> ARTICLE IV. – WEEDS AND GRASSES ).
  
  It is an issue with Illinois law which does not define what a “nuisance greenery” is ( see IL Law here http://bit.ly/a3LZvK ). Look specifically at Sec. 11â€‘20â€‘7. Cutting and removal of neglected weeds, grass, trees, and bushes.
  
  In fact this was brought up by the landlord protection agency and others as allowing the government to do whatever they liked to your vegetation since it does not define nuisance from non nuisance. http://bit.ly/dhjvhG
  
  Either there is no power to enforce or it is vague and arbitrary.
EH

It seems apparent that anybody who grows tomatoes has to have like 10 bushes, more than any family can consume, so they’re always foisting extras on whoever gives them a second look. So it has been, so shall it always be. I have no idea why this is, but many years of observation have taught me that it’s at least as prevalent as speaking to animals in English.
- IronEdithKidd
  
  Good thing I live in a reasonably progressive city. We pulled all our ugly old evergreen bushes this past spring and planted food in their stead. Not only do we have tomatoes in the front yard, we have peppers (hot and bell), cucumbers, pumpkins and melons. The majority of the backyard is consumed by food production rather than grass.
  
  As to you EH, Doubting Thomas, clearly the gardeners you know are not very serious. We have upwards of 50 tomato plants, over 30 pepper plants and are preserving every damned last piece of edible fruit.
snakedart

We can’t rewrite one law to make it reasonable, because then suddenly people will want all of their laws to be reasonable. It’s a slippery slope.
Cory Doctorow

@ncm Thanks — being at the WorldCon in Australia, I must have Gardner Dozois on the brain!
moop2000

Grow corn, it’s technically a grass! :D
chgoliz

The reason she’s growing the tomatoes in the front yard is because of the shade from her (presumably mature) trees in the backyard.

Is the village of Northbrook actually telling her they think the block’s property value will increase if she chops down all those trees instead?

She should call it a Victory garden and tell them they’re being unpatriotic as well as environmentally unfriendly.
dculberson

To those discussing HOAs, this is not an HOA issue. This is a village / township issue, she’s dealing with the local government and not a private body.

The article had a couple interesting points:

â€œThere is no ordinance that specifically deals with a garden in the front yard,â€ said Tom Poupard, director of community planning and development for the village. â€œIt truly is a gray area.â€

So really there is no law against what she has, but her neighbors don’t like it and so they complained and so the city feels like they “need to do something.”

Village code also requires residents to cut their grass when it reaches 10 inches in height

Just mow it to 10″ for a while and see what they think!

Really, though, that garden is a shambles. If it was clean and pretty then the neighbors would not have complained. My mother has no grass around her house with an enormous lot – it’s all perennial gardens – and nobody has complained. Quite the contrary, people stop by and compliment her on the garden constantly. But it’s not a messy shambles of plastic netting and weedy looking plants.

This is the rusted out Chevy up on blocks of the gardening world.
Anonymous

You say lower property values, I say lower property taxes.

Because you are a carpetbagger and I am not.

Also, I like that freedom thing.
j9c

Go Dora go! Fight ‘em! Try cultivating some allies, both in local media and “national” local food movement. Hey even the New York Times and Time magazine have articles on people who are doing the same wild and wacky things Dora’s doing. And:

http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/03/19/edible-landscaping-2/

Speaking as a refugee from the midwest (born in Illinois, grew up in Missouri), I can vouch that the middle of the middle of our great nation is more than a little slow to change and/or adopt new ideas. Victory gardens may be seem like old news and an accepted idea in mainstream society, but the folks who were cultivating those gardens are aging out of our population, so they’re not around in large and vocal numbers to put in their two cents. And I’ll bet plenty of those would argue that since WWII is over, it’s not even necessary to put vegetable gardens in the front yard.

What I don’t get is that even with a crappy economy, high unemployment, unstable/escalating petroleum prices and other milestones that would point toward the wisdom of localizing one’s food supply, the HOAs are still slavishly devoted to a deeply impractical aesthetic forced on every home-moaner, ensuring a manicured, water-hogging, weed-free monoculture out front. Maybe any foreclosed properties nearby would have a better chance of selling if there’s not some atypical individualist out there taking advantage of her American liberty. Sheesh. Land of the free? Rugged individualism? Not in ‘burbs. I agree with Jackbird @16–there are precious few checks and balances in place for HOA board members, and if they can find a way to make their case it’s easy for them to put a lien on the offender’s property.

Remember, nearly all HOAs and bylaws are set up by the developer (of the suburb) and not by any of the ensuing buyers of the developed, as-built properties. The developer sets up the HOA to protect his/her/the corporation’s big investment and to arguably assure property owners that their investments are safe–and the mortgage companies find this appealing. The developer rarely lives in the very neighborhood he developed, and thus rarely has to abide by the creature–the HOA–he created.

(“Dirty Harry” husky voiceover here:)
So you gotta ask yourself just one question… do you see your property as a home to truly live in, or as an investment you demand a financial return on?

I am now visualizing gangs of permaculturists coalescing from all quarters, poised to wash over the entire American midwest in a great and delicious tide of heirloom vegetables, fruits, nuts, flowers, abundance, practicality, food security, shade and lowered ambient air temperatures, clean untainted water, and cleaner air. Dora’s neighbors haven’t even begun to see just how vast our victory gardens are and will be. Just wait for the look on their faces when someone explains to them the finer points of humanure…
Anonymous

Grass is ugly, without utility, requires fossil fuels in the form of mowing, fertilizer, herbicide,
and pointless water consumption in order to fulfill an archaic notion of aesthetics via wasting arable land.
Instead of promulgating irresponsible environmental degradation, this woman is growing herself a little nibble that may require one less trip to the shop.
She’s my hero.
zoink

Aaaand this is why I chose to live in the city.
lolbrandon

This must be one of the most boring villages/communities in the world if they’re actually arguing about growing tomato plants. Read a book, go on a bike ride, write an essay, take a picture; there are a million better things to do and more than enough to worry about. That’s just sad.
Kevin Carson

This would make a good Eunice and Mimi cartoon. He’s obviously stealing from his neighbors by violating their property right in not looking at his tomatoes.
Antinous / Moderator

Oh, tomatoes seem fine and dandy at first glance, but what happens when they attract killer foxes to the neighborhood?
- bcsizemo
  
  Hmm, never saw a “killer” fox before. Not the first animal that comes to mind that eats tomatoes, perhaps it’s hunting the other animals that eat the tomatoes..?
  
  That little wussy plastic fence isn’t going to do anything to stop things like deer, groundhogs, squirrels.
  
  My parents already tried that, now they’ve moved on to the electric fence. That works pretty well, especially in conjunction with a decent rifle.
  
  I support this lady 100%. There are several people that do front yard gardening around my area and most people think it’s pretty cool. Yeah it looks like a jungle at times, but at least they are getting something out of it. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t live in an area with a HOA, well not technically anyway.
  
  If the HOA doesn’t have clear rules on such an issue, and the residents don’t seem interested in creating these rules, why isn’t this just done by a majority vote? Isn’t that the ultimate reasoning for a HOA, so everyone is doing a similar thing (or things that are within a general expectation of your neighbors)?
  
  She should make some fresh pasta sauce and serve it up at the next HOA meeting. Then they can all eat humble pie.
  - travtastic
    
    I would be slightly concerned about someone firing a long rifle at a moving target anywhere near me.
- robulus
  
  Then it’s time for the hunt! Tally-Ho!
Anonymous

To those that think grass is not environmentally friendly, I have a nice green lawn, use no chemicals or fertilizers, and use a push mower with no engine. Lawns don’t have to be wasteful.

While it is stupid to complain about the garden, I’m sure people wouldn’t mind if it looked a bit nicer. Maybe some raised beds, or a nice looking picket fence around the area rather than plastic trash. She can live in a million dollar house but can’t afford a small fence?

This area has 3000+ square foot houses, on half acre lots, and she can’t find any sun in the back yard? Maybe they need to think about landscape planning. Ultimately it is her property, but I can see why her neighbors would be mad.
jackbird

Articulating a purely anti-HOA set of beliefs is either inconsistent (if it supports local, state or national-level laws) or leads to vulgar strict-propertarian anarcho-capitalism, which we all know is silly.

You’re ignoring the huge difference between HOA/deed-restricted governance and local/state/national governance – the ultimate accountability and replace-ability of the latter, not to mention the nonexistent checks and balances in the former.

Most HOAs have the deck so heavily stacked against substantive change in the bylaws and against throwing the board out of office it’s functionally impossible.

If you want a vision of a fully-privatized government, look no further.
- insert
  
  1.) Apparently, this isn’t even a HOA, but a local government. So, looks like even “replaceability” and “accountability” don’t prevent silly laws like this one. More proof to my point that HOAs aren’t distinguishable from hyperlocal gubmints.
  
  2.) Arguing that democracy, in the form of semiannual elections, gives individuals power to hold abusive governments accountable strikes me as naive. Perhaps I’m merely an angry lefty, but the complete lack of Change we’ve seen in the past almost-two-years signifies to me that accountability is dead, even for elected gubmints.
Anonymous

What if they’re Killer Tomatoes?
turtlecrk

When I moved from the exurbs into town, the first thing I did was dig up the entire front lawn and turn it into garden (with perennials, and interspersed strawberries). Tending it is about the same amount of work as mowing, and it’s *much* more interesting.

Since then, the idea has gradually spread to the neighbors. There are a few other garden clumps in town, that also keep expanding.

Slow time scale, but fun to watch!
TomDArch

?!?! Why would someone who is smart enough to want to grow tomatoes in their front yard want to live in the burbs?

And don’t start that “but think of the children!” crap. I grew up in the city and I wouldn’t trade my childhood in semi-sketchy parts of Chicago for the wastelands of suburbia. Plenty of kids came into the city from Northbrook … we didn’t waste our time going out there. Come to think of it, one time we did go out to Northbrook, and we were threatened by a guy with a baseball bat. So from my experience, the city is safer too.

It just dawned on me that the burbs are full of Tea Party ‘libertarians’ yelling about how they loves them some “freedom” and want “the gubmint off their backs.” But here in the city, we’re free from silly front yard requirements and have nothing like a “homeowner design review committee.”
- travtastic
  
  The whole time I’ve lived in this city, the only danger I’ve ever felt on the street is that I might feel compelled to hand out a smoke or two when people ask.
  
  The suburbs where I lived before I moved here, though. Christ.
  
  In my experience, all suburban street lighting is atrocious, to discourage walking. Three times in one year, I got in physical fights with guys trying to mug me. If a suburban cop sees you walking after dark, he’s pretty likely going to blind you with his antique spotlight to make sure you’re white, and not carrying a rocket launcher. The suburbs are also full of bored, uneducated white kids with nothing to do except start trouble.
  
  Long story short, my brief experiment with suburban living will never be repeated.
rhamantus

And this is why I will never buy a house in a community with these sorts of HOA bylaws. So many of these rules are complete overkill. Okay, so I can understand not wanting to see weeds, cracking and damaged external paint, cars in the yard on blocks, etc. But when you start telling people what they can and cannot grow on their own property, or that they have to grow something and bear the costs of maintaining it, then it’s starting to encroach on the concept of owning *private* property. Plus, I don’t think I would enjoy having neighbors who would tolerate this sort of thing.
Anonymous

Its very simple, accuse the board of been not environmentally friendly.

Let them try and defend themselves stating that they rate aesthetics over the environment.

btw its environmentally friendly to grow your own food so there is little to no carbon foot print with the food harvested.
Anonymous

If I lived there, I’d grow 50 foot stands of bamboo. It’s technically a grass.