Exclusive | California man slams city after being fined for growing food at home: ‘I don’t trust the system’

Unbe-leaf-able!

A Southern California city is waging war against a green-thumbed taxpayer — slapping him with fines for planting a sumptuous, front-yard garden full of fruits and vegetables.

Michael Sherman of Chino was shocked when a $750 fine for “overgrown vegetation” showed up in his mailbox in April — followed by a $500 fine in August.

Now, the landscape contractor says he faces still another $500 fine this month — if he does not quickly comply with the city’s seemingly-draconian order to remove the alleged eyesore.

“People should be able to grow what they want on their lawn as long as it doesn’t affect directly any other neighbor or create a real health and safety problem,” Sherman, 49, told the California Post.

Sherman started growing produce in his front lawn in 2019, he said — after finding himself concerned over chatter he’d been hearing about potential food shortages.

Today, his impressive yard yields crops of sweet potatoes, squash, ginger, turmeric, ginger, horseradish, bananas, sugar cane, plums peaches blueberries, passion fruit, comfrey, mullen — and even dandelions “on purpose,” he said, touting their medicinal qualities.

Despite the city clampdown, Sherman insists his neighbors support him — all but one, whom he suspects was behind the initial complaint that led to the citations.

“I’ve never met a neighbor in person that doesn’t like my yard besides my neighbor right next to me,” said Sherman. “Even my other neighbor on the opposite side, on the south side, he likes it. He thinks it’s great.

But another neighbor told CBS LA that they have concerns about the garden.

“I’m worried about rodents,” Monica Siepert told CBS LA. “They’re not always trimmed. … It’s not always kept up.”

Sherman says he’s had issues with rats on his lot in past — but not for years.

“It doesn’t matter what your landscape looks like. You don’t even have to have a landscape. There’s still an issue, just by having dirt with a house on it. You’re going to have a conditions that could be a rat problem,” says Sherman.

The prolific planter says he’s copped to many of the city’s demands, but the fines still come.

“I don’t know what the city wants. I think the city code enforcement needs an education about how these type of plants grow. They’re annual plants, squash and all those are annuals. So they grow, bloom, and die within like under a year,” Sherman says.

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“They didn’t have a problem with them before, but now they’ve grown into what they’re supposed to be, and they’re having a problem with them. And I don’t even know if it’s those plants they’re having a problem with because they won’t tell me what what plants are the offending ones.”

A Chino city spokesperson told CBS LA that while progress has been made on the garden, the violations will continue until Sherman removes or trims remaining overgrown vegetation. 

The California Post reached out to the city of Chino for further comment.

“I don’t trust the food system, I want clean vegetables that I know what has or has not been sprayed on it,” says Sherman.

“I want a safe food supply for my family as much as possible. I understand I live in a small lot, and its not possible to live 100% off of that. But I can get as close as I can.”