h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yesterday TJ and I finally put the finishing touches on the veggie garden by putting up "trellises" for the cukes to climb up. My heirloom s that I started from seed are doing spectacularly! Hopefully I can make lots and lots of salsa this year!

Tonight we're going to enjoy our first harvest of the season. Buttercrunch lettuce for our salads!

As much as I really love living in an apartment complex I really anyone with a garden. I dream of free, home-grown wholesome food

Don't envy that woman in Michigan who's looking at 93 days in jail for her front yard veggie gardens.

I hadn't heard about that! Is it what she was growing, or the fact that it was in her front yard?

A little from column A and a little from column B
http://wp.me/p16myI-e4

That it was in her front yard. She put in raised beds in wooden boxes after her front yard was torn up to fix some leaking sewage pipes.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110709/METRO02/107090366/1409/metro

Here's an article with a good picture. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/gardening/2011/07/the_price_of_fresh_vegetables.html

That's insane! My Better Homes & Gardens magazine just had a huge spread about a couple that plants veggies in with their flowers in the front yard.

I just "liked" the "Oak Park Hates Veggies" page on Facebook.

Insane indeed

How do people get so wrapped up in their job and enforcing the rules that they can be so near-sighted and ridiculous? Do they have no idea that they're going to become a news story, and not in a good way? Some people are lazy so I can understand the city not wanting to have front gardens full of old cars up on bricks, broken washing machines and Bob knows what else (I've seen plenty of gardens like that), but someone in the office has been a little over zealous here.

Well, there were complaints from some of the neighbors apparently. Either way, it reeks of pettiness.

It absolutely does. If the neighbours are petty enough to complain about it and she wins her case, I foresee some weedkiller being used in the middle of the night

Or some fire ants brought in from Dale Gribble's basement.

I feel bad for the lady. Having good neighbors is one of the greatest blessings of life. My former neighbor grew tomatoes and zucchini and was always offering me vegetables.

I intend to eventually grow vegetables, but not this summer. For now, I have huge pink coneflowers, yellow coreopsis, black-eyed susans, and bright pink superbells. They smell heavenly. I'm even seeing honeybees.

I have to be careful around the bees, but their attention is focussed on nectar and pollen, not me.

The authorities must be busy chasing from people's front porches around thanksgiving

Nope, those would be "suitable" which means "normal".

Dead, rotting veggies on display = okay.

Fresh, wholesome, growing veggies on display = criminal.

Some vegetables and herbs would fit in beautifully in any flower garden. People grow sage [Salvinia] in planters. Pea blossoms and bean blossoms are beautiful.

Yes, but all the yards should all look just the same...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONEYGU_7EqU

They aren't all the same in my neighborhood. Coneflowers, lilies, and blackeyed susans are the most popular. I have two of the three, but I also have coreopsis, superbells, and some wildflowers that I'm very fond of. There are little purple asters with yellow centers in front of my house. There's yellow clover. There's white clover, which the bees adore. There's a little blue chicory, with its fantastic blue flowers, which the goldfinches perch on sometimes. I don't have any milkweed, but there's some in other yards. Butterflies use milkweed in every stage of their lifecycle.

Here's what I've got in my garden so far.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2064909915443.114000.1625635789&l=ab29a3f259

I don't have pictures of the veggies.