Well I'll be. I've been turnin my half acre into a nature preserve too!
Posted on 07/07/2009 5:38:01 PM PDT by fanfan
OTTAWA — Henry and Vera Jones have a dream of a new kind of backyard, one that is an oasis of nature. But that dream is threatened by a City of Ottawa bylaw that appears to suggest they should mow it all down.
For nine months the Constance Bay couple have been planning a new ecologically tuned garden on their half-acre lot on Allbirch Road. No manicured lawns to be watered, fertilized, cut and weeded. Just lots of flowers, trees and vegetables to create a sanctuary for wildlife, especially the kind that pollinate flowers.
They call it the Allbirch Pollinator Garden. The city calls it a violation under bylaw 2005-208.
A few days ago they got a registered letter from the city saying that their property is in violation of the city's bylaw because they had failed to remove heavy undergrowth, long grass or weeds. The city instructed the couple to cut the long grass on their property by July 8 or risk having the city do the job, then bill them for the work.
They were shocked.
They have planned their return-to-nature garden for many years. They used to live in Nepean and bought their house at Constance Bay a year ago. Henry was a scientist with Fisheries and Oceans and has accumulated a lifetime of concern about what we are doing to the natural world. Vera is an environmentalist who believes that caring for the natural world is a deeply moral issue and that the alternative yard being created is their free expression on that issue.
So their garden is no monochrome piece of Kentucky bluegrass. It's more like a meadow in training, with a diverse array of plants and wildlife. There are some paths mowed, but there is also tall grass, a lot of wildflowers, many perennial plants and trees. They have also planted fruit trees.
The Fletcher Wildlife Garden at the Central Experimental Farm has donated 140 plants and they are being installed.
There is no trimmed lawn because Vera and Henry Jones don't like how lawns suck up precious water, become ecological dead zones that fail to support insects and birds, and sometimes encourage soil erosion.
Their first year with the alternative garden has attracted lots of birds and dragonflies, frogs, pileated woodpeckers, a family of cardinals and large numbers of goldfinches.
Vera concedes that the garden is very much a work in progress. She says it will take many more months before all of the plants have filled in and grown to create a rich meadow that doesn't require watering or significant maintenance and is mowed only once a year, in the spring. When the garden is fully planted, they hope that people will come by and see it, and that the idea of an alternative garden that returns land to nature will spread.
But someone isn't impressed. The city got a complaint about the property and a bylaw inspector visited on June 23 before issuing the order.
Vera says to follow the city's order would mow down nine months of work in a few minutes. "This is anything but a derelict property. The city has more serious issues to deal with."
Henry says the garden project is an attempt to "leave something for the kids of the future," and to mow it down "would be a violation."
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry, who represents West Carleton-March, said Monday that he has asked city bylaw officials to hold back on the complaint until a supervisor in the department has visited the couple's garden.
El-Chantiry said the city's bylaws regarding property standards are a complaint-driven process and complaints cannot be ignored. The city doesn't want to see people neglecting their properties and claiming they are doing it for environmental reasons, he said, but if people are just gardening in a different way, that shouldn't be a problem.
The couple promises a legal fight if the city pushes the matter. They say they have a growing group of supporters, some with legal expertise, who want this new kind of garden to flourish. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
It doesn't have to be a sanctuary, it's Constance Bay.
The Central Experimental Farm of Ottawa
We have a federal government operated farm in the middle of the city which is assisting the Jones' in planting a natural garden, and the "city" is telling them to mow it down because someone doesn't want to look at it.
Constance Bay is out in the country.
Sometimes we have deer on the lawn.
Same here.
1/2 acre - that could be in a fairly dense neighborhood. Those “meadow-like” yards also harbor a lot of nature that most people don’t find very friendly. Rats, raccoons, mice. Maybe even deer and larger animals.
It’s one thing to plant a butterfly garden and quite another to grow a colony of rats. People who want a yard like this should make sure they live in the country and not in a suburban neighborhood.
OFGS!
I live in a small village in the country....we have deer, woodchucks and even bears.......we still have laws about our lawns.
My husband’s aunt in Dallas had something like this in her neighborhood. Two gay guys were growing a meadow garden instead of a lawn in Auntie’s exclusive community.
One of the busy body ladies in the neighborhood got upset with the way it looked so she took her lawn guy over and ordered him to mow. He started, one gay guy came out and screamed STOP. The woman said MOW. Back and forth they went. STOP/MOW/STOP/MOW! The other gay guy came out with a gun and a cell phone. He was crying as he called the police.
When I asked my husband “well who won? Did it get mowed or not?” He said he didn’t know. He overheard the story being told at his mother’s funeral but he didn’t hear the end of it because someone came over to offer condolances. I said “you mean you didn’t go ask what happened?!?”
Very nice!!!
Where? (PM me)
Ironically, the victims here are probably liberals and would readily F* with someone else whose taste they found objectionable.
Same here.
I’ve had more birds at my feeder this year than ever.
:-)
:-(
See #24.
Similar to what I was thinking. The next door neighbor gets too annoying, I will put up about a hundred pink flamingos on my lawn.
Some cats will take care of the rats problem.
That was a joke picture. Though I am gardening like crazy come to think of it.
It's native plants being introduced with a goal of eliminating a lawn.
Also, the city is not spraying for weeds, nor cutting them down fast enough. We can't even see our way clear at some intersections.
This wreaks of the nanny state.
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