Florida residents now have the right to plant food in the front lawns of their own properties.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the new law into effect on Monday in an effort to protect vegetable gardens, NPR reports.
For six years, Hermine Ricketts and her husband Tom Carroll fought for the right to plant vegetables in the front yard of their home in the Miami Shores Village.
“I will once again be able to legally plant vegetables in my front yard,” Hermine Ricketts in a statement. “I’m grateful to the legislature and the governor for standing up to protect my freedom to grow healthy food on my own property.”
The couple tended to a garden on their front lawn for 17 years before a city ordinance forced them to uproot all of their vegetables.
They could plant anything, ranging from pomegranate trees to papayas, but were not permitted to plant vegetables, according to NPR. The fine for planting vegetables in their garden would cost them $50 per day.
Determined to fight the local ordinance, Ricketts and her husband teamed up with lawyers at the Institute for Justice, a national advocacy group, to sue the city and restore their right to have a front-lawn veggie garden.
“What is sad is that this fight even needed to be waged in the courts and the capital,” Ricketts said. “We had a beautiful, nutritious garden for many years before the Village went out of its way to ban it and then threatened us with ruinous fines.”
To celebrate their victory, the couple hosted a replanting ceremony where they planted vegetables such as okra, cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, and squash.
“Finally, the state has ended a senseless assault on our property rights,” Ricketts said.
