On June 20, 2023, the City of Burlington, Ontario, mowed down a natural garden that Karen Barnes had been cultivating for more than a decade—a garden that was free of any provincially designated Noxious Weeds and that posed no threats to public health or safety. The City flagrantly disregarded the two Ontario Court decisions (Sandy Bell case and Douglas Counter case) that have affirmed the constitutionally protected right to a natural garden in yards and boulevards, subject only to restrictions for public health or safety.
In an Order to Comply dated Nov. 2, 2022, the City ordered Karen Barnes to cut down (to 20cm) the “New England Aster, White Panicle Aster, milk weed and golden rod” (specifically named in the Order) that she had been nurturing in her front and side garden—each one a native plant, each a valuable pollinator plant, none of them Noxious Weeds.
Native asters, goldenrods and milkweeds were among the plants growing in Karen Barnes’ garden in the autumn of 2022. The plants did not impede sight lines for drivers or pedestrians, and small fences prevented plants from flopping onto the sidewalk or driveway. (Photo courtesy of Karen Barnes)
After the garden was mowed down by the City of Burlington on June 20, 2023. (Photo by Lorraine Johnson)
Prior to the recent (June 20, 2023) destruction of the garden, Karen Barnes and I met with a bylaw official, on November 27, 2022, at the garden to discuss the plants Karen was cultivating and the maintenance practices she was following. My report on this meeting and the features of this natural garden, prepared for lawyer David Donnelly (who has represented and supported many natural gardeners), can be read here:
At no point during the site visit did the bylaw official point out any prohibited plants or health and/or safety concerns in the garden. His focus was entirely on aesthetics (something already ruled by the Courts as subjective and arbitrary, and therefore unenforceable). He didn’t accept the clear signs of maintenance and deliberate cultivation that were pointed out to him.
It’s important to note that Burlington’s Lot Maintenance Bylaw has long been a problem. In 2018, another Burlington gardener, Doreen Nicoll, was ordered to cut down her milkweed plants. (Read my article about this in the link below.)
The ensuing uproar led the City of Burlington to revise its bylaw. A new bylaw was passed in 2022 that specifically allows “naturalized areas” that are “deliberately planted or cultivated with one of more species of wild flowers, shrubs, annuals, perennials, ornamental grasses, or combinations [of] them, that is monitored and maintained by a person,” a definition that clearly applies to Karen Barnes’ garden. Yet it was under this new bylaw that enforcement action was taken against her natural garden on June 20, 2023.
The exemption in Burlington’s 2022 Lot Maintenance Bylaw allows for naturalized areas.
Karen Barnes’ natural garden clearly falls within the “naturalized area” definition in Burlington’s Lot Maintenance Bylaw. Karen has deliberately planted or cultivated the plants growing and she monitors and maintains them.
Not only is the enforcement action taken against Karen Barnes’ garden outrageous, but the new bylaw is littered with anti-ecological provisions that are, quite simply, indefensible and counter to environmental well-being and human reconciliation with the natural world of which we are a part. Just a few examples:
Leaves are labelled “waste or refuse” in the bylaw and must be removed from the front yard if the leaves are visible from the street. (Leaves, of course, have great ecological value as protective mulch and habitat for pollinators.)
All properties must be maintained “free from any nests of bees,” which means that successfully providing nesting habitat for the roughly 70% of native bee species that are ground-nesting and the roughly 30% of native bee species that nest in spent plant stems, logs, etc., is illegal in Burlington!
All properties must be maintained “free from any insects.” Seriously?!
This is the “new and improved” (?!) Lot Maintenance Bylaw in Burlington, in 2023?!
Karen Barnes’ natural garden after being mowed down by the City of Burlington, June 20, 2023. (Photo by Lorraine Johnson)
Details on how to support Karen Barnes’ constitutionally protected right to a natural garden will be forthcoming in another post, but for now, consider what the Bylaw Official said to Karen as her deliberately cultivated natural garden was being mowed to the ground by City workers: “Have you seen the whole street out front, all the houses? With lawns that are maintained just like everybody else? You have to do that.”
No, City of Burlington, she does not.