Chelsea Chen

ENC3331
HELVESTONS: THE BATTLE FOR FRONT YARD GARDENS IN ORLANDO
Jason and Jennifer Helveston were hardworking Americans that strived to
lead a sustainable life and were found in violation of the City of Orlandos Land
Development Code. Afterwards, they became socially involved which Ekman and
Amna defines as taking interest in politics and society and later evolved into
becoming actively engaged. What started out as individual civic engagement, like
discussing issues with their neighbors, led to the collaboration of those with similar
opinions and formed a collective group campaign.
In their crusade for front yard gardens, the couple demonstrated good will
and virtue towards changing the law so that they could maintain their green
lifestyle, which instigated the Patriot Gardens Movement that changed the
landscaping code to allow for front yard vegetable gardens. Their symbolic actions
reflected their genuine intention to make the city more environmentally responsible
and educated others to help engage the community in collective civic participation
for a better future. The Helvestons recent victory is a significant step towards the
building a sustainable environment for future generations.
The Situation
On October 8, 2012 the Helvestons were sent a letter from the City of
Orlando notifying them of a code violation and were requested to install and
maintain ground covers on property and front yard must be restored to its
original configuration and ground covers restored (Helveston, 2013). The
Helvestons were not originally active protesters, but the threat of a $500 daily fine
spurred them to take action. In addition to similar attempts in making Orlando
greener, they also began to initiate change and collaborated with other
organizations that had to the same goals. With the threat of decreasing resources
and heavy reliance on nonrenewable resources, these days organizations like,
TreeHugger, Campaign for Liberty, and Kitchen Gardeners International, are
working to make sure the children of today will be able to live in a world with good
environmental conditions. These beliefs fueled the fight to keep the Patriot Gardens
and were supported by institutions and the community.
Taking Action
Symbolic action is expressive human action that people use to induce
cooperation, generate identification, produce division, enable persuasion, and
constitute identity (Palczewski 2012). The Helvestons actions were focused on
bringing people, with similar concerns as they do, together and initiate change to
persuade those in power that this is an issue worth recognizing.
At the start of the campaign, a petition was launched to appeal for the right to
allow sustainable vegetable, fruit, herb, and nut harden landscape varieties
(Helveston 2013) without receiving violations or being harassed and states practical
reasons for why these gardens are beneficial. This action accumulated over 6,000
signatures since it started and continued to grow, demonstrating the significant
amount of people this situation has affected and drew the attention of the rhetorical
audience.
On the Patriot Garden website, people can request a pack of free Patriot
Garden radish seeds to plant in their own homes, as another way of spreading the
message that both raises awareness and benefits the rhetor and the receiver. It
allows the audience to take action into their own hands and effect change directly.
The name Patriot Gardens is an emotional appeal to the audiences sense of
patriotism in order to unite their individual actions and identify them for a larger
cause.
Goodwill and Virtue
The Helvestons were upstanding citizens in their neighborhood and church
community, and established a persona that was credible and genuine. Jason
Helveston worked as a developer and had previous knowledge about city codes and
was seen as trustworthy and knowledgeable about the issue. He utilized his
experience to educate the audience and show that his reasons for protesting were of
sound reason that was not shrouded by his passion. Their actions were perceived as
having the quality of being motivated by the audiences best interests, as putting the
needs of the audience ahead of the rhetors own interests and motives, which
Palczewski defines goodwill to be. The two of them took time and money out of their
own personal lives to stand up for what they believed in and accomplish their goals,
exemplifying similar selfless sacrifices a friend would make for another. Their goal
was not to force the issue on people, but share their story and knowledge to raise
awareness and have people engage at their own will.
Peaceful Action
Throughout their campaign, they stuck with their goals and peacefully
protested against the violation. Green movements are often envisioned as groups of
hippies yelling and slandering the government; yet rather than attack the code
enforcers, they worked to support their claims and demonstrated the substantial
benefits of having front yard gardens. There was no ill will towards the government
officials and showed they were crazy, but not too crazy. (Jason Helveston 2013)
They presented themselves in a very straightforward manner that convinced me
these were not like the protesters that would complain about the corruption of
government and not take action. When matters got tough, they took it upon
themselves to solve a problem out of the goodness of their hearts and compassion
for their community. This paved the way for a civil negotiation that resulted in a
victory.
It Just Makes Sense
In the letter to the Helvestons from Mayor Dyer, he states, As societys taste
change, we continue to adapt out development and landscape codes, admitting that
the code should be changed. Laws should be reviewed as times change and new
issues arise, because front yard gardens were never considered until now, the law is
ambiguous on the standards for one. Jason states, If it makes sense to have chickens
in the backyard, why cant we have vegetables in the front? If organically grown
vegetables are good, and the Helvestons front yard organically grows vegetables,
arent front yard gardens good? Despite its lack of aesthetic charm, it proves its
utility tenfold, providing food for the community and reducing the citys carbon
footprint.
Conclusion
This phase of the campaign was a success, but it is not over. Changing a law is
just a step towards bigger goals to effect bigger change. There are a variety of ways
to continue, like starting a grocery delivery to soup kitchens or shelters to provide
fresh produce for those in need, or set a goal for 100 people to have patriot gardens
now that the city allows it. During the holidays, Patriot Gardens can host a dinner
featuring all the vegetables theyve grown that allows people to enjoy the fruits of
their labor and spread the word about the gardens many benefits. Sixteen months
changed one law and there are many things to accomplish in the years to come.














Works Cited
Helveston, J., Helveston, J. (2013, December 12). Patriot Gardens. Retrieved from
http://patriotgardens.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-
08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=6

Helveston, J., (2013, December 12). Stop Digging Up Our Vegetable Gardens.
Retrieved from http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-digging-up-our-vegetable-
gardens

Helveston, J., (2013, December 12). Patriot Gardens. Retrieved from http://patriot-
gardens.com/

Ekman, J., Amna, E. (2009). Political Participation and Civic Engagement: Towards A
New Typology.

Placzewski, C.H., Ice, R., Fritch, J. (2012). Rhetoric in Civic Life. State College,
Pensylvania: Strata Publishing, Inc.