Thread: Couple refuse to rip up ILLEGAL vegetable garden after demands from draconian council

Couple refuse to rip up ILLEGAL vegetable garden after demands from draconian council

By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 08:37 EST, 23 July 2012 | UPDATED: 12:31 EST, 23 July 2012

As the world battles an obesity epidemic, one Canadian council is going around ripping up thriving vegetable gardens.

This spring, Michel Beauchamp and wife Josee Landry planted an elaborate vegetable garden on the front lawn at their Drummondville, Quebec, home and the cucumbers, tomatoes, beets and Brussels sprouts they grow have helped him shed 75lb and her 25lb.

But town code states such a garden can only take up 30 per cent of front yards in the St-Charles-de-Drummond neighbourhood where they live - the rest must be grass.

Enlarge Fight: Michel Beauchamp and Josee Landry are petitioning to save the thriving vegetable garden, pictured, their Drummondville, Quebec, council wants to rip up


As such, the couple were given two weeks to tear up most of their garden, which feeds them and many of their grateful neighbours.
The deadline was yesterday, but Mr Beauchamp and Ms Landry refused to comply.

They are now petitioning for the council to relax its draconian rules, which will see them facing fines of up to $300 a day from tomorrow.

'It must be a right to be able to grow our vegetables on our land. It is nonsense to ban it,' Mr Beauchamp told CBC.


Hard work: The Canadian couple planted the garden, pictured, this spring and have lost a collective 100lb since eating it's produce




Fight: Michel Beauchamp and Josée Landry, pictured during a photo shoot, are fighting rules that require them to rip up 70 per cent of their vegetable garden in Drummondville, Quebec


The gardeners have garnered more than 6,000 signatures promoting their cause.

Authorities told the TV station that community members had complained about the blossoming garden but Mr Beauchamp said no one had complained to him and that they share much of what they grow.

'They love it. Everybody is surprised by the kind of taste we can have from fresh vegetables,' he said.

The city plans to make all front lawn vegetable gardens illegal this fall. But the measure would only apply to new gardens.

WATCH HOW THEIR GARDEN GREW



Read more: Drummondville couple fights to keep vegetable garden - Montreal - CBC News

Couple Michel Beauchamp and Josee Landry petition to stop council ripping up their 'illegal' vegetable garden | Mail Online