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Before starting his garden he reviewed the city’s ordinances to ensure that he was following all the necessary rules in regards to front yard landscaping.
Ferguson, Missouri, city officials were not as impressed with Karl’s due diligence and his desire to feed his family with food he sustainably grew in his front yard.
His landlord (his fiancee's brother) was cited for “Failure to meet the minimum standards of the City of Ferguson exterior appearance code" when Tricamo tore up the front lawn and converted it into an heirloom veggie garden.
"He is in support of the garden, which is solely my endeavor," say Tricamo, 29. "But he was the one facing any legal repercussions such as fines, court, etc. I just faced losing the garden itself."
It's not clear if his garden was targeted because of any complaints, but at least one neighbor was on Team Karl. "My immediate neighbor even let me put two tomato bushes in her front yard planter box, as a show of solidarity," Tricamo informs me.
He says that last year he had a front yard 15' x 20' vegetable garden just a few blocks from the current garden that has caused a stir. But imagines that the garden wasn't detected by city officials because it was partially obscured from the street by a hedge.
On his blog, Vegetable Yarden, Tricamo documented his experience once he received the citation for his current garden. Along with listing ordinances that supported his case, he documents what seems like intimidation by code enforcement that routinely drove by or sat in front of his house as he disregarded their orders to remove the vegetable garden and plant grass.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that last week Tricamo’s months long feud with the city ended when the city’s Board of Adjustment voted 4-1 to throw out the citation against his garden. Tricamo and his future brother-in-lawn were represented by Dave Roland, a lawyer with the Libertarian group Freedom Center of Missouri.
The lone vote against Tricamo’s garden came from board chairman, Joe Schroeder, who doesn’t seem too happy about the law being in Tricamo’s favor.
"The board felt that, technically, he had the law in his favor," Schroeder told the Post-Dispatch. "But I think that all of us on the board agreed that the garden is an eyesore. It goes against common sense, really, to put a garden in the front yard instead of the back."
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