FL Man Refuses City Order To Destroy His Own Gardenselfnews Post The co-anchor responds, The City of Orlando says when it comes to one house, the answer is Yes Jason Helvenston was ordered to destroy his 25 x 25 micro-irrigated front yard veggie garden on his own property by November 7th but its still there and thats the problem chimes another news anchor standing among the fruits of his labor, discussing the citys problem (not the residents) with the Orlando, Florida man. WKMG Local 6 Youll take my house before you take my vegetable garden, Jason said. Theres nothing wrong here, theres nothing poisonous here. This is a sustainable plot of land. As always, its only select bureaucrats who are filing the complaint for a code violation that wants yards with a finished appearanceclean, and inviting. But destroying this mans garden is an oddity considering that the City Planning Divisions mission statement reads: Another keynote in cases like these is that no one else seems bothered by his yard. Fellow resident Shelly Snow said, (Im) definitely not bothered by it. As a matter of fact, we love it. He has around 200 signatures for a petition, has garnered other resident support and will argue his case with a code board in December in hopes they will change their restriction. With hope, the city will not come when he is away and mow it down like a city did with a poverty-stricken woman in Tulsa, OK who came home to find her vegetation and medicinal herbs completely excavated even though, she followed the code. Things fair just as bad in Toronto when community gardeners discovered that the city destroyed their garden saying it was illegally planted even though the gardeners had worked with the city. Of course, they waited until harvest time, until months of toil had gone into the plot, before destruction allowing no one to benefit from the food or save their rare heirloom seeds. If we cant rely on authorities to use compassion and common sense during economic desolation and hunger crises then what on earth are they doing running our towns? Its not a lack of common sense its a blatant power play. As always, they tend to quietly run down the average citizen until they know everyones watching then they fear going hungry. And yet, it keeps happening. Jason is not budging and is another in a long line of gardeners who literally stood their grounds. Which Orlando needs right now because apparently hes not the only one there growing a garden with fears of removal. One remembers the Victory Garden days when Helvenston says: Helvenston keeps backyard chickens which dont seem to be under contempt. TreeHugger muses that his yard must be like a mullet: business in front and party in the back. It is, however, a way for the city to usurp his property; and if bureaucrats continue to dictate and destroy front yards, the privacy of backyards may rapidly disappear. TreeHugger encouraged Orlando residents to respectfully voice their support to City Planning and we are also posting it here: City Planning Division Update: Landlord Charged for Front Yard Garden Tenant Neighbors Fight Back 