Kat asks how she can get solid food at her HOA - restricted home :
“ I am in cardinal Florida in Ocala and have a fishy back yard and a gay front railway yard however the homeowner assoc . does not permit growing in a front grand . I am wondering what food I could grow that does not involve a lot of Dominicus . I could fix up some pots on my lanai which gets some sun but not full Dominicus . As for the sides one east / one west , there is a little plot of ground on the west side only . Any ideas you may share ? ”
HOA limitation on gardening have been a blight on the state for years . Just considerthe Helvenstons press a decade ago . Even some non - HOA vicinity and cities put all sort of restrictions on horticulture , sometimes evendriving people from their homes with fee .
luckily , in 2019 , Governor Desantis signed into law CS / SB 80,which replace all local restrictions on vegetable horticulture .
The Legislature signify to advance the exploitation of sustainable cultivation of vegetable and fruits at all levelsof production , let in for personal use , as an significant interestingness of the United States Department of State .
( 2 ) Except as otherwise provide by law of nature , a county , municipality , or other political subsection of this state may not shape vegetable gardens on residential properties . Any such local ordinance or ordinance govern veg gardenson residential property is void and unenforceable .
( 3 ) This part does not preclude the acceptation of a local ordinance or regularization of a general nature that does notspecifically regulate veggie garden , including , but not limited to , regulations and ordinance relating to water useduring drought condition , fertilizer use , or control of invasive species .
( 4 ) As used in this plane section , the term “ vegetable garden ” means a plot of primer where herbs , fruit , flowers , or vegetable are cultivated for human ingestion .
division 2 . This act shall take effect July 1 , 2019 .
This should mean that you’re able to tell apart the HOA that you are planting vegetable in accord with your rights under Florida law .
Some years ago I give a gardening talking in an upscale Florida neighborhood with an HOA , only to happen upon that almost all the plants I recommended and grew were not on the “ O.K. list . ” This listing contained almost nothing but ornamental of very limited utility . The dweller of this blighted town were reduced to guerrilla - gardening ail chives amidst the liriope grass and hiding sweet potato in the English ivy .
Maxim:It is better to live in a trailer on your own poison ivy-infested sand than in an HOA with pickleball courts and manicured oleanders.
Because you could plant the ground at your trailer . And the speech sound of pickleballis driving people mad .
Now , the land of Florida has changed the law on gardens , and you should be able-bodied to bestow that law to your HOA , and then put in a garden .
However , if you ca n’t manage to beat the HOA and raise some intellectual nourishment , here are some peak for mature food when you subsist in an HOA :
1: Use Pretty Pots
Who could deny you a fairly vine growing in a nice green goddess on your patio ? Do they need to know it ’s an ube yam climb that treillage ? Nope . It ’s Philippine common ivy !
you may also develop potatoes in passel , as well as herbs , sweet white potato vine , bean , taro , chaya , special K , etc .
2: Grow Plants that Look Like Ornamentals
Garlic chives meet among the genus Liriope , of path , and sweet potatoes grow in the ivy , but you could also implant lemon grass instead of an ornamental skunk , edible flowers instead of non - comestible single , fruit shrubs instead of non - fruiting ones , etc . Some things veil quite nicely . Think “ edible landscaping ” instead of row crops .
3. Guerrilla Garden
I receive a couple at one of our plant sales a few weeks ago . They told me they were grow edibles in a lot just behind their HOA neighborhood . We ’ve gardened on a 1/4 acre lot a couple blocks from our flat when we were renting – perhaps you may do something similar .
4. Borrow Land
Do you go to church service ? If so , there ’s almost surely someone in your church that would let you borrow some nation to garden on . Do you know any retired person ? Perhaps they ’d like a vegetable garden but are n’t capable to grow one themselves . Help ’em out , and deal the produce . Volunteer anywhere ? Perhaps you may start a residential area garden .
5. Fight the Man
Or at least , learn to process with him . peradventure your HOA leadership is n’t as evil as they seem and they might countenance you progress a garden after all . Or perhaps there ’s some empty space that could be allocated to growing food . A bunch of hoi polloi love constitutive produce . If you ’re winsome , maybe you could convince the display panel to rekindle their love of life and give up some horticulture . Alternately , you could capture control of the panel in a coup , then throw all the garden - haters out of chopper .
We once develop yard - tenacious beans against the due north side of a rental house in Citra and got a output evenwithout any direct sun . Just the reflected sun off the baking - hot backyard was enough . If you have thick shade , pep will rise , and probably some greens , but it induce hard to grow roots and fruit .
The best way to find out , of path , is to prove .
First try taking that law to your HOA , however . Or call a legal expert and see if it tell what it looks like it says , because to my non - legal eyes it ’s a trump card card .
Finally , you could move . Living in an HOA is n’t conducive to ego - enough , especially if you ’d wish to flourish into raise chickens and/or taking control of more of your diet with dairy and nub animate being , or dustup of grain corn whisky , or sprawl patches of delectable pumpkins .
