Weed law in Chicago sends native plant gardeners to court  Mary
Schmich  May 19, 2013   Chicago's growing season is still young,
and so far the alleged villain in Kathy Cummings' garden is only
2 inches tall.  By summer's peak, however, the accused will
stand 4 gangly feet once again, and once again someone is sure
to mistake it for a weed.  It's milkweed. That is not a weed.
"If my award-winning garden got a ticket for weeds," Cummings
said one sunny day last week, standing in the small yard outside
her West Town three-flat, "how safe is any garden?"  This
question has nagged at her so hard and so long that she has now
set out to reform Chicago's weed ordinance.  But let's back up.
Last fall, as my colleague Jon Yates chronicled in the Tribune
in December, Cummings, a retired teacher, was ticketed for
violating the weed law.  She went to court. She explained that
the little dirt plots outside her home are filled with native
plants. She showed the judge the plaque she received from the
city of Chicago in 20