For 17 years, a South Florida couple grew vegetables in a front-yard garden until a new town ordinance was passed limiting such gardens to backyards.

Now, the couple is asking a judge to uproot the ban they claim violates their constitutional rights.

According to the Associated Press, Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts say they dug up the garden in front of their Miami Shores home in August 2013 when town officials threatened to fine them $50 a day if they didn't. The threat came a few months after the Miami Shores Village Council adopted a new zoning plan for the town of about 10,500.

The Miami Herald, in an article on the banned garden, pointed-out that a front-yard garden is considered an eyesore, but yet gaudy lawn ornaments, like plastic flamingos, pass the ordinance test.

At a hearing, their attorney said the ban violates the Florida Constitution in several ways.

During World War II, victory gardens were encouraged by the government, to help lower the cost of vegetables to feed the troops. Citizens would plant gardens in whatever space was available.

As the government enters into the knacks and crannies of our lives, is this just a case of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” or just another nit-picking community ordinance?

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