Are Gardens Being Outlawed In America? (Radio guest attorney Ari Bargel)

Imagine meticulously tending to your garden each year, for 17 years, and then having a city official knock on your door and demand you uproot all your plants – or face a $50-a-day fine.

That is exactly what happened to a couple in Miami Shores, Fla., who owned an organic garden for most of their married years before the city council passed an ordinance banning front-yard gardens. Their neatly trimmed organic garden provided not only them the food they couldn’t get at the local store, but it also benefited their family and neighbors, too.

Sadly, they did have to uproot their garden, but they’re not giving up, and on this week’s edition of Off The Grid Radio, host Bill Heid talks to Institute for Justice attorney Ari Bargel, who is representing the couple in a lawsuit against Miami Shores.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:09 — 36.8MB)

In one week, the couple went from eating delicious organic food to buying store-bought vegetables that are less nutritious, less convenient and more expensive.

Hermine Ricketts and her husband Tom Carroll

Believe it or not, this is not an isolated incident. Cities and towns across Florida and America are passing ordinances banning gardens because, they say, they’re “unsightly.” But what about our constitutionally protected right to privacy and right to possess and tend to our own property? And isn’t there a fundamental right to grow our own food – to feed ourselves?

America’s Founders spoke to this issue loud and clear, and you’ll learn how.