After a fight that made green-thumbed gardeners see red, Orlando is changing its rules to allow residents to plant tomatoes, carrots and other veggies in their front yards.
The new rules — which for the first time state that vegetable gardens don’t have to be banished to the back yard — are part of a bigger package of landscaping standards that will affect what you plant on your property and how you take care of it.
But the front-yard gardening regulations drew the most attention.
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Florida couple forced to uproot 17-year-old garden
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Jason and Jennifer Helvenston
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Jason and Jennifer Helvenston
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It started nearly a year ago when the city threatened a College Park couple with fines if they didn’t uproot the lush vegetable garden covering their front yard and replace it with something like grass. That case was dropped after city officials acknowledged they didn’t have any rules about vegetable gardens, but not before it drew national attention.
Over the past year, Orlando leaders have worked to develop standards that balance residents’ rights to grow their own food with the desire to have neat, aesthetically pleasing landscaping.
For Jason and Jennifer Helvenston, the College Park couple who was at the center of the veggie war, it’s been bittersweet. They’re happy that the city is now officially allowing edible plants in front yards, but they don’t like that there are strings attached.
“Our garden is not only our food source, but our way of life,” Jennifer Helvenston said.
On Monday, the City Council gave preliminary approval to rules that would allow veggie gardens to cover as much as 60 percent of a home’s front yard. But they could not be planted in the public right-of-way along the street, and would have to be screened with fencing or shrubs, and set back at least three feet from the property line.
It’s more garden-friendly than city planners’ first attempt, which restricted gardens to no more than 25 percent of the front yard, required 10-foot setbacks and sought height limits on tomatoes and other plantings.
Orlando isn’t alone in its green struggle. A Miami Shores couple sued last week after being ordered to remove the front-yard garden they’ve cultivated for the past 17 years. Their lawyer, Ari Bargil of the libertarian, public-interest firm Institute for Justice, also has taken an interest in Orlando’s landscaping rules.
“The Helvenstons and all Americans have a constitutional right to put their property to peaceful and productive use without being harassed by the government,” Bargil told Orlando city commissioners Monday.
Under the new rules, vegetables are put on the same footing as grass.
“The idea is to treat turf and edible gardens equally, since they’re both water-intensive uses,” chief planner Jason Burton said.
In fact, the revamped landscaping code says no more than 60 percent of a home’s front yard can be covered with grass. It’s part of an effort to reduce the strain on the area’s dwindling water resources.
“The essence of the ordinance is really less turf and more trees for water conservation, aesthetics and a whole host of other issues so that we get better landscaping within the city of Orlando,” Burton said.
In addition to the restrictions on thirsty turf, the code seeks to increase Orlando’s tree canopy by requiring at least one shade tree for every lot, and the addition of trees along the right-of-way, as well. The requirements apply only to new construction and homeowners who add to their property.
The new rules also encourage the use of native landscaping that’s adapted to Central Florida’s rainfall. The code lays out a lengthy list of approved plants, shrubs and trees, including red maple, laurel oak, sycamore and sand pine.
The new code doesn’t require homeowners to have irrigation systems, but those who do will have to install sensors to shut the system down when it rains. It also encourages the use of low-volume irrigation, soil-moisture sensors and non-potable irrigation sources.
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