Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Yard Gardens

It appears green wisdom prevailed and the gardens in front yards can stay, with sensible restrictions.

Editorial: Victory for veggies
See? The council does know beans...
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 10, 2007


There's some good news for Sacramento front yard gardeners: The City Council has declared a peas treaty.

Until last week, it appeared the council might approve an ordinance that would have restricted the growing of vegetables and fruit trees to no more than 30 percent of a front yard, with no plants higher than 4 feet.

Such an ordinance would have effectively banned tomato plants, beans and peas in front yards because, as everyone knows, it is hard to keep these plants lower than four feet with Sacramento's bountiful growing conditions.

Thankfully, wiser heads of cabbage prevailed. By an 8-1 margin, the council decided to delete a subsection of the landscaping ordinance that would have taken a weed-whacker to veggie gardens. Only Councilman Robbie Waters voted against the motion.

In a previous editorial, we described Waters and Councilwoman Lauren Hammond as the Ozzie and Harriet of this yard-cop crusade. On reflection, it appears Harriet was already making a break from Ozzie. She voted for the peas treaty.