The Perils of Going Green in Orange: California Couple Charged for Planting Environmentally Friendly Yard Without Grass

While Christopher Sheehan is being prosecuted in Florida in a case involving his iron garden, here, Quan and Angelina Ha are being prosecuted in California for their wood chip garden. The Has sought to conserve water in the drought-plagued City of Orange by replacing their lawn with eco-friendly plants and chips. They have now been charged with a misdemeanor and told that they must have a water-consuming lawn.

Two years ago, the couple decided to go green by pulling up the lawn that was consuming tens of thousands of gallons of water a year and replace it with wood chips and lavender, rosemary, horsetail and pittosporum.

The city insisted that 40 percent of their yard must have grass or live plants.

By making the change, the couple reduced their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009.

This is not the first environmentally friendly grass felon, here.

They are now criminally charged. This is yet another example, in my view, of the criminalization of America, here. Even if the city has good reason to insist on ground cover, there remains the question of why such matters must result in misdemeanor charges.

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