A woman named Julie Bass has just caught the bitter, unsavory side of the locavore movement: the vegetable garden she planted in the front yard of her modest Oak Park, Mich., house may land her 93 days in jail. Why? Because a city ordinance mandates that "a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material." Bass will tell you that her front yard currently meets these three criteria—suitable, live, and plant—but Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski says otherwise: "If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster's dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what's common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers." Despite the fact that Bass's neighbors are all fine with it—kids even come and help out, Bass say—and it hasn't seemed to disturb the neighborhood, the ever-sensible Rulkowski maintains, "I know there's a backyard. Do it in the backyard." Bass will face a pretrial on July 26.
· Oak Park Woman Faces 93-Days in Jail For Planting Vegetable Garden [My Fox Detroit via Gawker]
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