An Oklahoma Family Is Fighting City Hall Over A Notice Requiring Them To Remove Their Vegetable Garden

One Oklahoma family is taking their fight over keeping their vegetable garden to City Hall. A family from Mustang, Oklahoma, recently received a notice that they must remove their vegetable garden because they received some complaints from drivers stating the garden hindered their vision at an intersection.

However, the Jameson family said that removing the garden will affect their healthy lifestyle. The garden is important to Lyle and Jessica Jameson because it literally saved their lives. Both Jamesons were significantly overweight and facing health problems until they started gardening. According to News 6, Lyle has lost 137 pounds and Jessica has lost 120 pounds in less than a year by incorporating gardening into their life.

The City of Mustang has said that the garden has grown to proportions that are simply a public nuisance and want at least part of the garden gone. The Jameson family is not having it and says they will take this fight straight to City Hall unless a compromise can be made.

Lyle notes that the family runs an in-home daycare on the property and she doesn’t see anything wrong with drivers slowing down a bit in front of her house. Lyle told News 9:

“If it slows drivers down, then that’s not the worst thing, because this is a daycare. Children play here all day.”

Lyle is also frustrated because the garden is finally becoming extremely successful and their harvest is bountiful. “We finally have a very successful garden, and now it’s kind of frustrating that we’re being asked to completely remove it,” Lyle Jameson said. The couple also notes that the notice comes at the height of cucumber season, meaning they would have to remove some vines that are currently in full harvest.

The Jamesons said they also received written permission to add the chain link fence that the vegetables grow on in 2013. They feel that they went through proper channels to get the fence approved and it was known at the time that the fence would be used for gardening. However, the City of Mustang says the fence, in its current state, is not what the city had agreed upon.

Jessica says she has no choice but to fight the notice because:

“I can’t live here without a garden. It’s a lifestyle for me now.”

This isn’t the first time the city has limited a resident’s ability to source his own food. An Air Force vet was told he could not raise chickens and turkeys on his 9-acre rural homestead.

The Jameson couple hopes that an agreeable compromise can be made with the city so that they don’t have to give up their garden. What do you think? Should the family take the fight over their vegetable garden to City Hall, or should they simply remove the garden and place it somewhere that there is no obstruction for drivers?