A woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma is suing the city’s code enforcement teams after they illegally cut down her entire survival garden. Denise Morrison, who started the garden after becoming unemployed, had over 100 medicinal and edible plants in her front and back yard.
She told local Tulsa reporters that she started her garden after becoming unemployed as a way to feed herself and treat a variety of medical issues. Instead of relying on government handouts, this woman took matters into her own hands and decided to become self-sufficient. She filled her yard with things like fruit trees, berries, nut trees, and a wide variety of edible and medicinal herbs. She used these herbs to treat her diabetes, high-blood pressure, and arthritis.
Is the Self-Reliant Lifestyle Now a Crime in America?
All her hard work ended when the local code enforcement team showed up to her house and forcibly removed her entire survival garden. 
Morrison says that she tried to explain how everything in her yard followed the local code enforcement rules. You see, she had problems with these people in the past and this time she was determined to do things by the book.
She obtained the local ordinances and followed every rule to the tee. She made sure that everything in her garden had a purpose, and that her garden looked its best at all times. Local ordinances stated that no plant could be over 12-inches tall unless they were being used for human consumption.
Morrison made sure every plant in her garden could be eaten, but that didn’t matter to the city. They could care less about what the law actually said; they were determined to take out her garden. “Every word out of their mouth was, ‘we don’t care’,” Morrison said.
Over 100 plant varieties were removed by the code enforcement team, leaving her with no way to feed or medicate herself. They took almost everything, including a number of her fruit and nut trees. She told local reporters in Tulsa, “I came back three days later, sat in my driveway, cried and left.”
Government Crack Down on Liberty
While this case is extremely sad, it’s also becoming more and more common throughout the country. From “nuisance abatement teams” that have been forcing Off-Griders in California to hook back into the grid, to the heartbreaking story of Andrew Wordes who took his life after code enforcement teams seized his home, this country is making it harder and harder for self-reliant people to live on their own land.
While some dismiss these cases as localized issues, I believe they’re part of a larger movement to control anyone who dares to live a self-reliant lifestyle. I think evidence of this can be seen in the federal government’s attempts to regulate small farms out of existence, their use of the EPA to seize private land, the formation of the Department of Homeland Security’s Green Police Force, their attempts to seize control of the Great Lakes, oceans, and waterways, and their use of organizations like The National League of Cities to take control of local governments.
If Denise Morrison had been armed, this fiasco could have been prevented. I’m sure she has shovels n such to bury the bodies in addition to friends who would help dig the holes.
“Now for the rest of the story”
I live in central OK and folowed the story as it unfolded.
This was stricly over zelose (corupt?) code enforcement officers, the one who order the removals mother aperantly filed the complant. They removed to plants wile under enjunction by the district courts, and have sense ben ordere to replace and replant her garden. Strike one for the good guys.
Shame on you government of the United states!
This has been happening since the 1950’s. My neighbor over 15 years ago in Texas got in trouble for growing cabbage & lettuce in his back yard. Gardens weren’t allowed in the city limits. it’s abuse of power. It is about keeping people going to the local stores for food.
People why are you debating? There are no liberals not conservatives in power. There are people who serve their rich masters posing as two distinct Parties to keep us separated. There is no logical excuse for this- period. It should be unconstitutional if the constitution meant anything anymore- if our votes counted- if anyone cared. We are to be ever dependent upon the government and the corporations so we can be used. That’s the whole agenda.
Dems and Repubs in power have no reason to worry about issues like this that only effect weird individuals who represent such a small minority of voters as to have no power or influence. Wake up and start supporting Libertarian candidates if you want anything to change.
They want entire control to be in the hands of foreign imported processed treated products that have been treated with who knows what, that we pay exorbitant prices for inferior products. When will we have the rights to buy property and do with what we wish, as long as it’s not harming anyone else. I know I am dreaming of a time in the distant past.
you certainly went to politics in these comments quickly. what we really need is common sense, and we need to be as self reliant as we each desire. silly laws like these, and others (cant hang your clothes on a line to dry, cant collect any rainwater for your garden, well, we solved that one by disallowing the garden in the first place) need to be changed asap. we need to be able to care for ourselves, as we used to. this is totally wrong. laws were broken by the officials here, and she needs to be compensated by replacing the garden for a start.
theabyss You are right about that.. wow 2012..this has been around a while.. but still news worthy..
What a pathetic joke this country has become.
This is, after all, Oklahoma. In New England there are tens of thousands of backyard gardens, and nobody threatens them.
Cracks me up that people fight over which political party is responsible. Only one group is responsible: those that allowed governments to get this oppressive. ALL governments are puppets for a larger group in the background. How many more years will it take for Americans to get this? Don’t miss the message.
This sounds like NIMBYism, not government overreach. I have a friend who sent through all kinds of problems because her front yard had waaayy too many plants crammed into it. There are people who will complain to the authorities when the encounter anyone who is “different” who for some reason threatens their notion of what their neighborhood is “supposed” to look like, and who, for that matter, feel threatened by someone in difficult economic straits in their midst. I doubt that the survival aspects of the garden were the problem. I’m betting the aesthetics were seen as a threat to neighborhood property values. Since you’re running a news site, why don’t you call the local authorities and find out how the issue developed?
The only way to keep the evil gov’t marauders off of your property is to live in an ARMED community of like minded families and individuals Who are willing to fight to keep the predatory corporate mercenaries at bay! The reason the said they didn’t care that she was code compliant is because they are paid to threaten and shoot whoever they are told to threaten and shoot. They are criminals themselves! Laws don’t matter unless the authorities are committed to obeying them!
May EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM who think it right, to do unto others, they don’t want others to do unto them, be blessed in triple by the Hand of our Creator who knows all and see all in the name of our savior Yeshua Ha Mashiach. As helpless little people we can forgive others, but leave the fight in the hands of YHWH to do with them as HE see fit. Amein
Cudos to exceptions, but most of you Americans are incredibly stupid. A woman’s garden has been destroyed – she is not allowed to grow her own food, on her own land, but as usually you have turned this into a fight between liberals and conservatives. Idiots
It’s not hard to see what’s happening.. paid public servants in the service of a government of Killers, thieves and liars!! Clearly to push their agenda of making the masses heavily reliant on the government for everything to survive/live. Any government official or ANYONE for that matter caught pushing this ‘depopulate the planet’ agenda needs to be named and shamed!! then sentenced to life in prison without ever having the chance of parole!!! EVER!!
I would prefer public execution for these inbreds as they wont blink twice about depopulating the planet of you!!
We don’t own anything.We’re indentured slaves.
What was the reason given for them to destroy her garden?
People will have to start building homes with an open courtyard in the center, but no outside access to the center. The courtyard is surrounded by all four walls of your home where you live.