Karen Barnes' naturalized garden in 2019.
Karen Barnes' naturalized garden in 2019. Credit: Karen Barnes Credit: Karen Barnes

In April 2019, Burlington City Council was lauded for unanimously passing a motion declaring a Climate Emergency. Council also approved a comprehensive Climate Action Plan to become net carbon neutral by 2050.

Less impressive has been their targeting of naturalized and rewilded gardens that have been popping on private properties across the city. But the attacks on Karen Barnes’ naturalized garden have been particularly brutal and ongoing since 2015.

Over the years there have been notices of non-compliance, threats to cut down the garden, and several years where the garden was reduced to nothing more than stubble by city workers.

Burlington created a new lot maintenance bylaw in 2022. Barnes’ garden made it to the end of the gardening season – October 15 – without incident. Later that month, Barnes received a notice of non-concompliance. That’s when she retained environmental lawyer David Donnelly.

Barnes then had author and native plant advocate, Lorraine Johnson, write a report that she shared with the City. The report stated that Barnes has a naturalized garden that presents clear signs of maintenance and management.

Johnson also met with a bylaw officer that November. She was able to show him goldenrod, milkweed, and native asters. All of these plants are vital for pollinators. None are listed among the 25 noxious weeds designated under the provincial Weed Control Act.

The officer’s only response was to state that the garden looked unkempt.

Barnes sees beauty in both her plants and the pollinators that they attract. But bylaws focus on health and safety. Not aesthetics.

In an interview with rabble.ca, Johnson said, “we’re at a moment when we really need to make a decision about what we value more. Do we value these very conventional, anti-ecological ideas about neatness vs. messiness, or do we value a different aesthetic that is based on nature’s model?”

Concerted efforts went into educating the City around the ways Barnes’ naturalized garden conformed to City standards. Nevertheless, on June 2, 2023, Barnes received notice that she needed to cut her garden to less than 20 cm, or 8 inches. She had four days to comply. If not, the City would do the trimming, and bill Barnes for the work.

The order highlighted three sections – the boulevard, the entire yard, and a hedge near the side pathway.

On June 5, Donnelly wrote to the City on behalf of Barnes. The City replied on June 7, stating they would not proceed with enforcement until they had completed a study of Donnelly’s concerns.

But that did not happen. On June 20, bylaw officers and city workers cut the boulevard and garden to the ground, leaving the hedge untouched.

The City of Burlington also notified Barnes and her mortgage company that they intended to fine Barnes $10,000 per day until she conformed to the bylaw.

Additionally, the City included a flat $100,000 fine for non-compliance in the newest version of the bylaw, which could be added to Barnes’ list of fines.

The city has yet to notify Barnes whether any of these fines are pending, and under what circumstances they will be enforced.

Johnson sees the fines as a ridiculous overreach. They could actually scare people away from even trying to create much-needed pollinator habitats.

Amy Schnurr, Executive Director of Burlington Green, shared in an email, “a diverse landscape is more resilient to changes in the environment and they provide a multitude of benefits to both wildlife and people. Naturalized areas with pollinators provide food and shelter for insects, birds, and wildlife such as opossums that consume pesky ticks.”

Schnurr also pointed out that naturalized spaces help sequester carbon and support stormwater management. This is thanks to native shrubs, plants and trees.

The 2018 lot maintenance bylaw allowed for passive restoration, meaning that plants could self-seed. The 2022 version, however, used the term “deliberately planted or cultivated.” It suggests that a thought process has to be involved in where plants or seeds are placed.

But the term “cultivation” is vague and open to interpretation and misuse. It actually means left to grow or encouraging a plant to grow. That can be as simple as not disturbing a seed that has fallen from a plant.

It could also mean ensuring the soil is healthy. Simply leaving fallen leaves that accumulate in the garden and letting them decompose the following spring enriches soils.

However, this bylaw doesn’t allow for that kind of natural fertilization. Leaves are to be removed from yards. They are either bagged for collection or left by the curb to be vacuumed up by City trucks – a service that was expanded across the city after council declared a climate crisis.

The 2018 bylaw was created after I received notice that I had to cut down the milkweed growing in my naturalized garden. I challenged the notice because the City was giving away milkweed seeds and plants to residents. I also challenged the bylaw because milkweed had been removed from the provincial list of noxious weeds in 2014.

The evening before the City was to cut down my milkweed, I received an email letting me know that Chief Planner and Director Heather MacDonald released a memo stating that Burlington was aligning its lot maintenance bylaw with the Provinces Weed Control Act, which removed milkweed from the noxious weed list in 2014.

Yet, the hypocrisy continues.

“The city has created naturalized boulevards on Plains Rd. It’s really hypocritical of them to expect me to mow down my yard and boulevard when they themselves are doing the exact same thing,” Barnes told rabble.ca.

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna, and Deputy Mayor, Rory Nisan, released a joint statement on August 8 that contained a number of omissions and problematic errors outlined in Donnelly’s response of August 9.

It stated that “the recent Star story listed a property that does not comply with our bylaw for naturalized gardens.” That is pretty egregious when you consider Barnes’ garden contained no plants from the noxious weed list.

In fact, since Donnelly took the case in October 2022, “there has never been a suggestion from city staff that Ms. Barnes is not in compliance with the schedule.”

There was no obstruction of the walkway to the front door.

The order directed Barnes to mow the boulevard to a height of 20cm. Donnelly points out that the boulevard is public property. Donnelly also notes that “you cannot compel someone to maintain someone else’s property, against their beliefs. This right is constitutionally protected.”

That means the sole grounds for issuing the order was that Barnes’ native plants grew taller than 20 cm in height. The Superior Court of Ontario has accepted evidence that this height restriction is irrational, given the fact that about 90 per cent of native plant species in Ontario grow higher than 20 cm.

Effectively, Burlington has placed a ban on provincial native plant species.

The statement made no mention of the over-the-top fines, nor the fact that the City contacted Barnes’ mortgage company. These are not-so-subtle forms of financial as well as emotional abuse.

Ultimately, landscape design is an art form and artistic expression is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That makes it unconstitutional to impose an aesthetic standard on anyone else.

The joint statement also disingenuously claimed that “this matter was recently before the courts and the ruling was in the City’s favour.”

Turns out, the matter referred to was actually a trial that took place 18 months earlier concerning a 2019 offence.

Seems the authors of the joint statement failed to acknowledge that the city took Barnes to court because she had a bull thistle and a sow thistle in her garden.

These plants are listed as noxious weeds. But that is for strictly agricultural reasons. They compete with alfalfa and reduce the quality of hay. Yet, the city spent thousands of dollars going to court to have Barnes remove two thistles, which pose no harm in an urban setting.

The case had absolutely nothing to do with the constitutionality of the 2022 bylaw as the joint statement suggested.

Donnelly has extended an olive branch, requesting a meeting with the Mayor, City Staff and the City solicitor to try to untangle this mess.

“The street where we live is an ecological desert. People have lawns like golf courses full of pesticides and mowed down to almost nothing. That is not habitat for anyone,” said Julia Barnes, filmmaker and Karen Barnes’ daughter.

“It’s especially important that we have gardens like this in urban spaces where pollinators are not going to otherwise find food. It’s a bit of an oasis for them and something to help them on their journey,” Julia Barnes said.

Schnurr maintains that the current state of the environment requires both common-sense solutions and common-sense municipal bylaws.

From the writer’s point of view, that is going to require a lot of work on the City”s part. After all, how rational is it that someone could have their home taken by the City of Burlington simply for creating a pollinator sanctuary during a biodiversity and climate crisis?

Karen and Julia have set up a fund to help them with the costs of their ongoing legal challenge. You can donate here.

You can also show your support for naturalized gardens by emailing:

Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward [email protected]

Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Benetivegna [email protected]

Ward 3 Councillor and Deputy Mayor Rory Nisan [email protected]

Doreen Nicoll

Doreen Nicoll is weary of the perpetual misinformation and skewed facts that continue to concentrate wealth, power and decision making in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. As a freelance...