Looking at the history of this legislation it was first introduced into the FL Senate by Sen. Bradley in Nov 2018. A companion bill was introduced in the Fl House by Federoff in Jan 2019. While Hage did vote for the bill he does not seem to have written it. Nor, of course, is his opinion of what it says binding. The interpretation of the law is by the judicial system. You can read the analysis of the effect of this law prepared for the legislature


My reading of this, and I am most assuredly not a lawyer, is that local government cannot restrict fruit/vegetable gardens without an extremely good reason. And deed restrictions are not going to cut it. The reason this law was written was because some local communities were restricting and fining Floridians for having vegetable gardens. The state legislature has pre-empted the local government's authority on this issue.

Yep, it really is JUST an opinion, until such time as the first case...winds its way entirely through the legal system. :ho:

Excellent post...thanks! :thumbup:

It's really something else, but luckily it's not around us. I would never put the address as that is just wrong. I wouldn't report it either.

The majority of a whole lot of neighborhood that I am familiar with are full of great people with an occasional Nudge sprinkled in just like the rest of the world. Who cares? The fight is over of course if your Dog has a problem on our lawn then it's on! :1rotfl:

I can't get that damn Green Acres Song outta my head. LOL :)

What reasonable person would want a garden in their front yard instead of their backyard?

Yeah this part here:
doesn't really need to be interpreted. It's plain English. The Villages cannot forbid vegetable gardens on a residential property.

It CAN still restrict water useage, types of fertilizers, and it still CAN restrict the types of vegetation -such as invasive species (which is also clearly worded in plain English in the next sentence of the law).

So, if corn requires certain water useage and fertilization that more Florida-friendly plants don't need, the Villages can say "sure, plant that corn, just don't water it, and don't fertlize it." You won't get much corn out of it, but you're allowed to try. Cabbages, crucifers, beets, peppers, would probably do much better, and can be grown organically, be a decorative asset to the flower bed. Most of those are very low-growing as well, can can grow in dense clusters, which serves as excellent ground cover (which is very good for the soil) and fill-ins between flowering herbs - and those tend to keep insects away and attract honeybees and hummingbirds.

Most people I know have gardens in their front yards. Some of those plants are vegetables, some herbs, and most of them are flowers and decorative grasses.

Some people don't get enough sun in their back yards to grow vegetables, which typically need a lot of it. Tomatoes don't grow well at all in the shade so if the only place you get full sun for most of the day is your front yard, then that's where you'll be growing your tomatoes.

I highly doubt anybody will plant corn? IMO tomato’s taste like crap in this area. About the only thing that’s tastes are peppers at least till the white flies kill all the leaves. I also doubt anybody will be planting in their front yards. Most yards are full to trash left over from the building and poor soil on top of that. You can water with garden hose all you want by hand.

With all due respect are you talking about in The Villages? I use to have a garden prior to retirement and coming to The Villages but wouldn’t think about growing one in my front yard here. We are a deed restricted community and for the most part we have “small” yards in TV. A garden like I use to grow would look completely out of place in The Villages in my front yard. And there is always the local farmers market or Publix which is 5 minutes away by golf cart. Reasonable people can disagree but I don’t believe the intent of the legislation was to over-ride deed restrictions like we have in The Villages.

Those deed restrictions HAVE BEEN overridden by law. That's what this thread is about. Those deed restrictions are no longer enforceable. By the way the deed restrictions about clotheslines were never enforceable, and the ones about antennae and aerials haven't been enforceable in over 20 years (which is why you see a lot of satellite dishes on top of the houses and no one forcing anyone to take them down).

I was responding to your post which asked "what reasonable person would plant a garden in their front yard?" You didn't clarify - you didn't ask about vegetable garden, you didn't ask "in the Villages." I tend to take things literally unless the person gives some indication that they're joking. If you had posted what you actually meant, I probably would not have responded as I did.

Not so fast. Wait and see. You are safe, no deed restriction about this stuff where you live. I'd check before I grew Pot though. (But Pappy's workin' on it) For the people, you know.

You need to do more research as to why.....

Deed restrictions, for the most part, always supersede laws for this type of thing.

The two attorneys have stated the new law's affect on TV. It's seems to me that they should know.

...unless the law expressly states that communities are not allowed to restrict something.

(edited out bad analogy)...

If the law says you can do something, and the law says your community is not allowed to forbid it...


then your community is not allowed to forbid it.