Wood Chips: Never Too Many

Yes, I am that person who, when she hears tree work being done in the neighbourhood, runs outside (sometimes in my pj’s) to find out what and why they’re cutting. More than once, my questions have led to better pruning by the Hydro crew. (Stop hacking the main trunk, people!) I consider it a public service in defense of the urban forest.

I also consider it a public service that many arborist companies will give people free wood chips when you ask. Oh, and I ask! Most years, we get one big load dumped in the driveway.

And then I spend the next few days wondering, what have I done?!

And yet, miraculously, the pile gets absorbed into the garden without fail.

Sometimes, the wood chip disribution turns into a community event, and the neighbours bring their shovels.

Every year, after many hours of hard labour lugging the load to the backyard, I delight in the look and foot-feel of the newly replenished wood chip path.

Gaying Up the Garden for Pride

Haapy Pride everyone!

And just for fun, a Pride flag of native plants that are larval hosts for swallowtail butterflies!

 From left to right:

Paw paw (Asimina triloba), host for zebra swallowtail
Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), host for eastern tiger swallowtail
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), host for spicebush swallowtail
Hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata), host for giant swallowtail
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), host plant for eastern tiger swallowtail
Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla), host plant for pipevine swallowtail

Sedges Instead

I’ve long wanted to do a demonstration planting of native sedges—gorgeous, totally undervalued plants—as a low-maintenance alternative to lawns. So when an opportunity for a public space arose, I jumped at the chance.

Say hello to a boulevard in the west end of Toronto that is now home to the project Sedges Instead!

I solarized this bed for about a month and a half to suppress the abundant weed crop prior to planting.

The first small bed has now been planted with awl-fruited sedges (Carex stipata). Thank you to Lara Mrosovsky (of Miinikaan Innovation & Design) and Ryan Godfrey (of World Wildlife Fund—Canada) for rescuing these plants and passing them along.

Seeing the awl-fruited sedges sway in the wind, with their graceful blades, is a delight.

Awl-fruited sedge in the small, unsolarized bed to which I added new soil.

A bigger bed is being solarized in preparation for a mid-summer planting of many more great sedges and native pollinator plants!

The beds will be a “seed orchard” and the seeds will be collected for distribution to community projects and growers in order to propagate more sedges and make them available for plantings. Not only are sedges rare in gardens, but they’re also rare in the nursery trade. This project is a small part of trying to encourage the growing of sedges! Especially if you’re looking for an incredibly low-maintenance and ecologically valuable alternative to lawns.

(Many thanks to WWF-Canada and the Pollinator Partnership for supporting this volunteer project.)

Height Limits for Lawn Grass

Back in the 1990s, I went on a mission to measure and photograph the lawns of City of Toronto Councillors. Many were on the cusp of legality.

Like many municipalities, Toronto regulates the height of lawn grass at 20 cm (8 in). It’s the main method the City uses to ensure maintenance of “neglected” yards.

Why do we care how high someone’s lawn grows? I’m asking this in all seriousness.

It’s useful to consider what threats unmaintained lawn pose.

One often hears that long lawns harbour rodents, but this is not specific to long lawns—it’s specific to hiding places and garbage and rodent food and living in cities. And at any rate, most municipalities already have bylaws that mandate rodent control, so if a neglected yard is a rat factory, there are existing mechanisms that cities (and neighbours) can enlist to deal with the problem.

However they are dressed up, height restrictions for lawn grass are purely and simply aesthetic regulations used as a convenient stand-in for an altogether different issue: neglect as a threat to “property value.”

The whole idea of a property’s value is constructed by social agreement. A long lawn can be said to diminish a property’s value only because we (whoever that is) agree that it does.

What would happen if we instead valued a yard according to its ecological value? Long lawn grass, allowed to flower and feed insects with pollen and nectar, would win every ecological contest compared to manicured lawns if one were to measure insect value, water use, energy use herbicide use…

It’s more than a theoretical question to ask why we care how high someone’s lawn grows. The answer has consequences—on the ground.