TAMPA - Trisha Davies clipped blooms from her Hyde Park garden for her day in county court.
And she told Judge James Dominguez all about her sunflowers, which honor her dead grandmother.
"I'm not a criminal," she told him, defending herself against city claims that her garden has gone awry. "I do not believe I have committed a criminal act in gardening. To ask me to cut this down is like asking me to cut my children up into little pieces."
But summer will be gone and fall will have come before Davies learns the fate of her garden.
Dominguez on Thursday postponed until Sept. 22 a court hearing to decide whether Davies must pay $76,685 in fines or possibly go to jail for city code violations.
"I'm torn," Davies said of the continuance. "It has robbed me of my spring and my summer, and it is going into my fall. I wanted it resolved today."
Davies calls the free-form, organic garden at her home at Dekle Avenue and Albany Street "legendary." She began growing it 18 years ago.
The city of Tampa calls it a violation. Code enforcement has been fining Davies $35 a day since June 1999, citing her because her garden obstructs the right of way, the city said.
Jorge Martin, a city attorney, said the daily fine will continue to accrue "every day until she brings it into compliance."
"If she goes out there and brings it into compliance, the fines will stop tomorrow," Martin said.
In May, Mayor Pam Iorio established a criminal code court to handle longstanding infractions. A code enforcement official went to Davies' home that month and took pictures of the garden.
Davies declined a $250 settlement offer. So, the case went before Judge Dominguez Thursday.
The city maintained that the garden forces pedestrians to walk in the street and it blocks drivers' views. Davies countered by saying that her garden replaced fire ants and sand spurs.
Neighbor after neighbor flanked her in court to say they consider the garden a community jewel and not an obstruction.
