My township calls my lawn ‘a nuisance.’ But I still refuse to mow it.

[Earth_First]

A mutilated garter snake, a sliced frog and countless slashed grasshoppers. That was the scene of carnage in my yard in September, after local officials ordered me to mow my overgrown lawn or be fined $1,000. Three months earlier, I had stopped mowing my nearly one acre of country land in a rural Ohio town. A diverse potpourri of plants began to flourish, and a rich assortment of insects and animals followed. I had essentially grown a working ecosystem, one that had been waiting for the chance to emerge.

So this season, I took a stand and refused to mow at all.

In June, my partner and I received an official written warning from the trustee board of St. Albans Township, stating that our yard had become “a nuisance.” Ohio law allows local governments to control any vegetation on private property that they deem a nuisance, after a seven-day warning to the property owners. But the law does not define what “a nuisance” is, effectively giving local leaders the power to remove whatever grass or plants offend them. In our case, the trustees decided that our lawn was too tall and thick and would attract “nuisance animals” such as “snakes and rodents.” If we didn’t cut it, they would hire someone to do so and bring law enforcement with them.

But the main point of growing a natural yard is to attract wildlife and build a self-regulating environment. The un-mowed plants in our yard attract plant-eating bugs and rodents, which in turn attract birds, bats, toads and garter snakes that eat them. Then hawks fly in to eat the snakes. Seeing all this life emerge in just one growing season made me realize just how much nature manicured lawns displace and disrupt.

There are 40.5 million acres of lawn in the United States, more than double the size of the country’s largest national forest. We disconnect ourselves from wildlife habitat loss by viewing it as a problem caused by industry and agriculture. But habitat loss isn’t a problem happening out there somewhere; it’s happening in our own back yards.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/03/my-town-calls-my-lawn-a-nuisance-but-i-still-refuse-to-mow-it/?tid=sm_fb

[Android3.14]

1. Besides, who cares if you ruin your neighbor's property value

I appreciate the sentiment regarding wildlife and such, but I'd bet money the real problem is your neighbors being unhappy that the lawn looks awful and the impact it is having on the property value..

[yeoman6987]

6. I hate to see the bill

Oh they will add it to the property taxes if they don't pay and of course eventually take the house if they still don't pay. Times like these prove I made the right choice in living in an HOA community. No way would any neighbor get away without mowing for months. After 8 days, the neighbors start wondering what is going on. Lol.

[GreatGazoo]

59. you get wildlife and your neighbor gets a tax break

everything wins!

[lumberjack_jeff]

69. Investments that are contingent on my neighbor's lawn care are poor ones.

I mow my lawn when and if I feel like it. I extend the neighbors the same courtesy.

[Android3.14]

72. No doubt.

Investments all too often rely on other people's actions.
But to pretend your property has no affect on your neighbors' property is a fallacy.

[lumberjack_jeff]

80. I encourage my neighbors to add the following disclosure when offering their property for sale:

Last edited Wed Aug 5, 2015, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)

"nearby property owner does not make any decisions based on his perceived influence on this property's value"

I just don't care, so caveat emptor prospective neighbor investor.

I avoid doing anything that interferes with the neighbor's quiet enjoyment of their properties and homes, that's simple courtesy. But their net worth? None of my business.

[magical thyme]

71. from the photo, I'd say the yard looks beautiful

as does the couple standing in it. And I suspect that 1/2 of that couple is the *real* issue.

[Sunlei]

111. number one is the school system, number two is the property tax, number three is flood risk.

those 3 items will make or break your home value on the sales market.

[hobbit709]

2. I knew someone that declared their yard a wildlife refuge.

[Lil Missy]

3. They should be fined by the day and thrown in jail. n/t

[Arugula Latte]

20. WTF?!

Seriously ...

I feel like I'm reading Free Republic.

[haikugal]

26. Glad I'm not alone....damn!

[lonestarnot]

28. Me fucking too!

[BlueJazz]

46. Really ! I thought I was on the wrong web page.

[daleanime]

52. Yeah, I'm not alone.....

[MoonRiver]

61. I'm thinking, hoping, they just forgot the sarcasm smilie.

[marions ghost]

88. ditto that

------things are changing

Lawns are optional now thank Aardvark.

[hollysmom]

106. have you ever had to deal with neighbors who did not maintenance

let their property fall into ruin and your house was no longer saleable?
if you want a nature park, move to a farm and let it go to seed, no one will care. And it will have more effect on the environment, I don't mow a lot and most of my front yard is trees and shrubs. but there is a little patch I mow for appearance, This may not seem important if you rent, but you do want to get along with your neighbors and not piss off everyone on something this little.
I can go along with some, as I have a hand mower for small patches, and an electric mower for the large back yard which is now seed since the battery died in the mower and I haven't replaced it.

my goal is to eventually have my yard completely treed and moss and natural shrubs. But that costs money, takes time and effort.

[hay rick]

119. Bingo.

There's a huge difference between natural habitat and an unmowed lawn.

[Arugula Latte]

121. Well, if you go au naturel you should be thrown in jail,

as the post I responded to advocated.

[hollysmom]

122. Look if you live in most towns in most states in this country, they just want you to keep

your front yard with in minimal standards, and there is a big difference between unkempt and natural.
Yes jail was over stated, but I have been fined for not weeding, I accept it even though I was ill. I could have hired someone to do it. Suburbs are small neighborhoods, and unmowed lawns are detrimental in multiple ways, like making the house look abandoned and bringing in robbers. If you don't want to mow a lawn, then plant something else, make the effort so it does not look abandoned. even an amateur can landscape, it may not look fancy dancy, but it can look acceptable.
Right now I have the neighbors from hell, you don't want to be those people. they should just leave the neighborhood, they try use land on your property.

[cyberswede]

130. I'd go postal if our town tried to fine me for not weeding.

I hate weeding, and fuck them.

[hollysmom]

135. in this case, it was at the beach and in a trailer park.

trailer parks can be classy or scummy, it is a fine line, weeding is not that hard in sand and the property is small, my problem is I got sick and could not make it down to the beach for the summer and the property got over grown. I could have called them and they would have sent someone for like 10 dollars, but I didn't so I was hit with a 30 dollar fine. Trailer parks are also communities where you are in your neighbors face all the time, you should be nice.

[muriel_volestrangler]

41. National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators

While our nation is a mosaic of land uses and ownerships, pollinating animals do not recognize humandrawn
boundaries. They make use of food and habitat anywhere it is found, whether on national park
land, a roadside strip, the edge of an agricultural field, or a schoolyard garden. Therefore, no single
organization, Federal or private, can independently shoulder the burden of helping pollinators, and the
Task Force has been charged with an “all hands on deck” approach to promoting the health of honey
bees and other pollinators.
...
Federal agencies will also be working with the private sector
to improve pollinator habitat on lands not managed by the Federal government, including state- and
locally-managed lands, such as parks and highway rights-of-way, and privately-owned lands ranging
from home gardens to corporate and philanthropically-sponsored acreage.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/Pollinator%20Health%20Strategy%202015.pdf

Shorn lawns are no good for pollinators at all. Bees need the mixture of flowers that grow naturally. I never thought I'd see someone of DU advocate fines or jail for people helping the environment.

Please tell us you were being sarcastic. The other people on this thread saying an acre must be mown to satisfy the neighbour's property values are bad enough, but fines and jail?

[XemaSab]

4. There are better ways to create habitat than by not mowing the lawn

This sounds like a justification for laziness.

[aikoaiko]

5. Nice idea, but sounds like the wrong place.

Oh well.

[procon]

7. Nah, I'm not buying that.

The chances of creating some sort of ecological wildlife waystation on the postage miniscule yard space available in the typical residential housing track is zero. Look at the traffic in any subdivision, there's a constant cars and service and delivery trucks, trash pickup, school buses, kids on bikes, skateboards and rollerskates, people walking their dogs and jogging, playing games, loud music, the buzz of power tools, and one tiny, overgrown yard is going to be an attractive habitat for any wild thing that just happens to be cruisin' in the hood looking for upscale weeds?

Someone needs to tell this nut that snakes can't read the little signs that say "Garter Snakes Only, Others Need not Apply." I presume there is also a sign that says "Ladybugs and Butterflies are welcome, but cockroach, don't let the spray gun hit ya where the good lord split ya!"

[KittyWampus]

8. I support a WELL-DONE natural yard. That has been landscaped

It takes just a bit of time, effort and imagination to do it so it's beautiful, natural and doesn't piss off the neighborhood and destroy property values.

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. Nice oxymorons there

a natural yard that has been landscaped. Effort so that it's natural.

I really have no idea what it is that you support. Something natural, or something artificial? Or something artificial that might be mistaken for something natural (but wouldn't the 'property values' of your neighbours be based on the appearance, not the amount of work you put into it to make it look as if you hadn't put work into it?)

[lumberjack_jeff]

70. Yup. Natural is great!... Unless it's untidy. n/t

[KittyWampus]

94. Not at all. You need to look up the word "natural"

"existing in Nature".

If you you really have no idea what I support then I can't help you.

There's an infinite number of ways to landscape your front yard so it's got tons of grasses, perennials, herbs to attract and support wild critters and insects.

And out of that infinite variety, none include just being too lazy to mow or figure something out.

[avebury]

9. Where I live, if a home owner fails to mow is/her lawn

and it gets turned in the home owner is given a set periord of time to mow it. If the home owner doesn't mow it, the city sends someone to mow it and sends the home owner an extremely hefty bill. They have got to make money off of that because the bill is way over what it would cost someone to mow it.

[kwassa]

10. Mow the lawn, lazy one.

[Arugula Latte]

19. This isn't a matter of laziness.

Read the article to see the benefits of unmown yards. We think giant lawns are the norm, but in most of the world they seem odd.

[RKP5637]

128. Far too many Americans IMO have a lawn fetish. Americans seem obsessed by what makes a lawn/home

attractive by falling for all of the propaganda that goes along with it to sell goods and services. To me, I see nothing wrong with a yard that is endemic to the area. Many weeds, for example, are beautiful, but Americans are programmed that they must eradicate them. I see some people going out with scissers to trim a few blades of grass, a bush with a leaf out of place. IMO it's a bit strange. To me properly maintained natural landscaping can be quite beautiful.

[hunter]

11. I'm so glad I don't live in a busybody part of the U.S.A.

Lawns as status symbols are silly.

Here in drought stricken California the only people who seem to be watering their lawns are the selfish-wealthy.

The lawns in our neighborhood are all going brown.

The major concern now is fires, and clearance of fuel from around structures is strictly enforced.

[Le Taz Hot]

50. Me neither!!

"I'm so glad I belong to a homeowner association . . . " Really? It's amazing to see how many "liberals" (nod not, wink wink) just love their authoritarian overlords. And "throw them in jail" even! For not mowing a fucking lawn.

And you're right about California. I drive all over my city for my job and in the poor and middle class neighborhoods there's not a green lawn in sight. In the foo-foo sections of town (you know, the ones with homeowners associations) maybe one out of 50 houses has a brown lawn. The rest, green as can be with sprinklers running right on schedule.

[BainsBane]

90. This isn't about watering

The guy refuses to mow his lawn. I don't water mine, but I do mow it. There are city ordinances. It's not a question of being a "busy body." You get ticketed if you don't mow or shovel snow.

[hunter]

98. If the unmowed lawn isn't spewing noxious weeds, what's the problem?

The photo looks fine to me, and the article says they control noxious weeds.

Lawns are boring.

[BainsBane]

105. Of course it's spewing weeds

and attracting rats and snakes, as it says in the article above.

[PatrickforO]

12. Well, Earth, you are clearly ahead of your time.

Not, unfortunately, ahead of your Homeowner Association.

[LeftyMom]

13. They need to plant native and make an effort at attractiveness..

Just letting a lawn grow is going to result in a mess of largely invasive weeds. It's a fire hazard, it's butt ugly, and it's going to make every person with allergies in a three block radius pray for your death.

Lazy asshole needs to make at least a minimal effort to be a good neighbor to more than rats.

[tblue37]

23. She *doesn't* just let it grow into invasive weeds. From the article:

For me, growing a natural lawn doesn’t mean just letting it go. I spend a lot of time weeding out invasive, non-native plants — like thistles, burdock and garlic mustard — that can take over and create a destructive monoculture of their own <emphasis added>.

[Luminous Animal]

95. No only does they work to keep out invasive species but they also have a vegetable garden.

It usually is a good idea to read an article before cussing someone out.

[Codeine]

14. Yeah, I'm sure this guy's fucking weedlot

is a regular Little Yellowstone. Cheesy justification for being a lazy fuck.

[hunter]

18. I don't shave. Anything.

[haikugal]

27. Uh, too much information....lol. n/t

[snooper2]

63. People like this crack me up "I had essentially grown a working ecosystem"

No you didn't...


It's called a fucking field

[LanternWaste]

82. No doubt you've assured yourself of that.

" I'm sure this guy's..."

No doubt you've assured yourself of that, and further rationalized his work ethic as inconsequential while you were at it.

[magical thyme]

93. from the photo it's lovely. And I can assure you that scything and weeding out the

unwanted non-native plants is far more work than pushing or riding a mower around.

Try reading the article. Or at least scan through the thread and get a look at the picture. You might notice something in the picture that is far more likely the cause for the notice than the wildflowers and other plants growing in their yard.

[Luminous Animal]

96. Did you see the picture? It is lovely. And not only that, they weed out invasive species which

probably takes more effort than hopping on a riding mower.

So quick to judge.

[AwakeAtLast]

15. The field behind me hasn't been mowed

which really wouldn't bother me except that it is full of thistle and ragweed. I am tired of pulling it out of my yard.

If it was a field of wildflowers, I would not make one complaint. Alas, it is not to be.

[Sunlei]

109. mow a 10 foot wide barrier in that field and keep it short as your lawn.

use the same weed and feed, & insect control on the 'barrier strip' you use on your regular lawn. you'll find much less weed encroachment with a barrier mow.

[AwakeAtLast]

114. There is one already

There is just too much of it and too advanced.

[Sunlei]

115. thats good, if you keep it cut short the 'barrer prevents a lot of weeds encrochment onto your grass

Snakes too and other critters, fire ants also will tend to stay out on the over grown brush lands. The barrier strip tends to grown nice grass if its kept mowed.

[pnwmom]

16. The writer could probably make a few natural sheep happy, and her neighbors, too.

[MisterP]

17. goats!

[Juicy_Bellows]

21. So the entire state of Ohio is one big HOA?

F that.

When we bought our home we refused to consider any HOA neighborhoods. Friggin busy body ass clowns.

Sorry, I get animated when people tell you what you can and cant do with your yard or color of house or whatever. You move in next door and put a ten foot statue of bobs bigboy in your yard..... im coming over with beers. Cheers!

[lumberjack_jeff]

81. +1 n/t

[marions ghost]

89. +++

agreed.

Hate manicured neighborhoods where all the houses look alike, have identical shubberies and putting green lawns. Where the people with no imagination live.

[tblue37]

22. Their yard is beautiful:

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

[haikugal]

31. Looks like a lot of our place...

We have acres of the stuff...we do mow some areas and the horse eats some but the majority of it is returning to it's natural state...the wild things love it and all are welcome, including snakes. We don't have rats or cockroaches..we have cotton tails, ground hogs, deer, porcupine, possums, skunks, fox, red and grey squirrel, bats, herons, various snakes..a wide variety of birds. I could go on.

A weed to one person is a wild flower to another...even so called noxious weeds (thistle) are food to birds among other things.

We live on the edge of town, outside the city limits but they have tried to interfere here in the past, only once.

I mow as little (frequency) as possible on the highest setting. Even so, our yard is huge...but we're filling it with perma culture, food plants for us and the birds. Just a different way of looking at things I guess.

Some of these places won't let you hang your laundry outside...I couldn't live like that.

Looks like they have goldenrod...it is lovely in the fall and the bees and other insects love it.

[eridani]

38. And they are too! In a vey beautiful setting

WTF is the matter with their neighbors?

[SwankyXomb]

56. Now that I see that picture

I think I know what their *REAL* complaint is.

[magical thyme]

68. yeah, that was my first thought too. nt

[RobertEarl]

24. Some people hate nature

A few of them on this thread show it.

Some people have a weird curse of wanting everything MAN-icured. And they use their curse to attack others that appreciate natural life.

If you can't stand the heat, get off planet earth.

[Juicy_Bellows]

30. You said it - calling them all sorts of names.

Their yard is beautiful! I think some didn't bother to look for an image or maybe they did and they are as you say nature hatin'

[KittyWampus]

58. No, I was a landscape gardener. As I said, there's lots of ways to do it RIGHT

Just allowing weeds to grow tall isn't it. Not in a neighborhood. Not around the front of your house.

[underahedgerow]

25. Their garden is really pretty! I detest mowed lawn landscapes, it speaks to nothing more than

conformist, non-ecological, water wasting, chemical sucking cookie cutter suburban sprawl with a house's garage being the focal point of the home.

The exception to that unimaginative American habit, is the sheep-shorn English country mansions on which formal gardens are accented by grass lawn to create order and panoramas.

I love a natural garden filled with wild flowers, rocks, fragrant shrubs & trees. Stone lined paths, dynamic berms, little ponds, shady spots, sunny spots and just a little chaos. I have absolutely no use for a lawn, they're static and boring and require too much focus on the perfection of the mundane rather than focal points of natural beauty.

Grass lawns rely on chemicals and massive amounts of water and destroy and prevent a natural eco-system where creatures create their own balance.

Did you know that people living in homes in proximity to golf courses have a shockingly high incidence of cancer and auto-immune diseases? Due to the cancerous and toxic chemicals necessary to keep the lawns in perfection.

[haikugal]

32. Lawns are a desert...

[RiverLover]

43. Golf courses are the worst.

They need to be outlawed. It will never happen...

[KittyWampus]

60. Doesn't have to be a "mowed lawn landscape". There are infinite ways to do a natural yard

without just letting every invasive weed grow tall.

And I speak as a landscaper gardener.

[MissB]

75. You are my kind of people.

I said in a different thread that I just don't understand the attraction of lawns and suburban shrubbery.

You said it way better!

[lumberjack_jeff]

83. I would prefer to convert my entire lawn to garden.

But I don't need a half acre garden, so dandelions are fine.

[Cheese Sandwich]

29. My yard is too wild. Next year all that poison ivy and shit is coming out.

This I promise.

I have hawks, groundhogs, fuckin snakes and shit. Some say bigfoot.

But look, people should be able to do whatever they want on their lawns. As long as it doesn't affect anybody else.

You do have to mow your lawn somewhat, or you can attract too many snakes and that's not fair to the neighbors.

[haikugal]

33. Only if you mow slowly with an eye out for them...so they can get out of the way..lol..that's how I

do it....I had an immature eagle stop by during migration last year! I couldn't believe my eyes!

[Cheese Sandwich]

35. That sounds so cool. I love birds now.

I watch them.

They don't lay eggs in the yard here. Somewhere out in the adjacent wild section they might?

[haikugal]

36. If you have bushes, trees, or a ledge...once a wren built a nest in my clothespin bag lol..

Another time a wren built a nest in the bar-b-que! Robins on top of the fuse box, on and on. They're there...if you hear any birdsong in your yard there is a nest nearby probably..lol

[Mariana]

100. Most snakes eat rodents.

Generally, if you have a snake hanging around the place, you have a lot of that snake's favorite food living there, too - they'll move on if there's nothing for them to eat. Unless your particular area has a population of venomous types that are likely to move into your yard, you're doing your neighbors a favor by attracting snakes.

[Historic NY]

34. Just one word "ticks".

they just love thick high grass.

[awoke_in_2003]

37. Yep

And in Ohio that means Lyme disease

[marions ghost]

92. Ticks can be found in any vegetation or brush

--mowing doesn't stop them. Pine needles they love.

To make the world safe from ticks you'd have to pave everything.

[DetlefK]

39. Get some goats.

[LanternWaste]

84. Expenses are approximately $1000.00 per goat per year.

Expenses are approximately $1000.00 per goat per year. Not everyone may easily afford that.

Next.

[CountAllVotes]

102. astroturf?

how much does this run exactly?

[DetlefK]

123. Snails. A shit-ton of snails. Or locusts. Or leafcutter-ants.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

42. Enjoy Lyme disease, folks

I'm sure you think some herbal tea will clear that up.

[RiverLover]

45. Enjoy spreading irrational fear, folks.

I'm sure watching Fox will make you feel all better about it.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

47. No, you're right, Lyme disease doesn't exist

I'm sure my aunt who's been suffering for the last seventeen years would like to know this.

The shot about me watching FUX Noise is so fucking stupid, it only confirms you're not ready to sit at the big kids table. Kinda like Rick Perry.

[RiverLover]

48. Yes, we're all going to run through people's yards now that they're wild & get lyme disease from

the ticks we don't remove properly.

I hike ALL the time in wild nature, with my long haired dog, we've both managed to do it without getting Lyme. I'm sorry for your aunt. But don't conflate what happened to her to making nature a bad thing.

(I'm off now to drink my "herbal" tea)

[LanternWaste]

85. Seems you're only allowing two possibilities...

Seems you're only allowing two possibilities: either Lyme disease does not exist, or anyone with anything less than a putting green lawn will suffer from its effects. Both are flawed conclusions. Kinda like irrational.

[RiverLover]

44. I almost posted this story when I first read it in the local paper, but I didn't think it

would interest most people. lol So glad its gone national! I hope many other people are inspired to let their yards grow wild.

Here's an open letter in support of the Baker wild yard~

... Will you begin a campaign to require all township residents to mow our fields and flower beds more often? Will you hire staff to monitor the township for additional violations of this so-called health and safety issue? Will you hire your friends to mow our property and send us the bill? Your decision has scary implications!

I have worked in natural areas conservation for most of my career and have served as Ohio’s endangered plant species coordinator, vice president of the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association and president of the Natural Areas Association. I would like to think that I know more than most people about nature, wildflowers, and the social and emotional pleasures that plants and “greenery” can bring to a community and individual. Why don’t you just call her yard a large wildflower garden and let her enjoy her rural or semi-rural life?

Give her property with its native plants a few years to grow and improve, and I believe that with her nursery and flower knowledge, her property will become a great asset to the community. I might understand your attitude better if this were a large city with many residents detached from nature, but we live in a predominately rural county and I believe most all of us can understand that a small property with native plants and wildflowers does not constitute a health and safety risk....

Alexandria is a tiny hamlet, not even a one stoplight town, there are no stop lights. I drive through it on my way to a nature preserve close by.

I now love wild yards!! Thanks for posting this, Earth First!

[Vinca]

49. I was looking at my lawn the other day and had a thought: perennials.

There's a property in the middle of a nearby town that has a "perennial" yard and it's gorgeous. No grass, just flowers and ornamentals. Surely they can't make you mow your flower garden. The trick is to design a yard that will have a continuous bloom, but it can be done.

[KittyWampus]

57. Or even more low maintenance is ground cover...

Vinca or pachysandra, for instance. Beds of it with day lilies poking out.

[Vinca]

67. I've got both Vinca and Pachysandra growing on a hill in front of the house.

It's easy to transplant and grows like weeds. I've also got tons of daylilies I can divide and hostas, hostas and more hostas. (When we bought the house nearly 20 years ago I planted 1 of just about everything and they've either spread on their own or in need of dividing. Free plants!)

[Historic NY]

97. Yes I have more than 3/4's in perennials around my house

and 1/2 of my garden this year is seeded with wild flowers. Yes your right the trick is to make it look like it belonged there in the first place.

[Vinca]

101. I guess that will be next summer's project.

[Adrahil]

51. Depends on their neighborhood.

If a neighbor of mine did that, I would be pissed. Our lots are about 1/2 acre, and we have LOTS of small children living here. A lot like that attracts snakes. Copperheads and kids don't mix.

Also, it's very hard to play catch, or frisbee, or have a picnic in such a space.

Ya live out in the sticks? do what you wanna. In a neighborhood? Gotta consider your neighbors.

[RiverLover]

53. They are in the sticks.

Its very rural.

[Adrahil]

54. That's why I said it depends on THEIR neighborhood.

Without seeing their situation, I'm not gonna make a judgment, though surely they knew the rules, and choosing to IGNORE the rules could have nasty consequences for them.

I'm saying I would that unacceptable in MY neighborhood.

[melm00se]

55. you appear to be replaying

something that happened in my hometown over 30 years ago:

http://www.csmonitor.com/1985/0701/hken-f.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/16/nyregion/man-to-defend-his-unmown-lawn-in-court.html
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/High-Court-Declines-to-Review-Lawn-Stephen-Kenney-Case/id-9093d5d97b4c1a484391080ee4a0bb35

[Sunlei]

62. IMO, local ordinances are the most restrictive of personal freedoms. Its the reason

so many people are locked in poverty with no way out. They are banned by local over-regulation to operate small home based business for self-employment.

For example, That one acre of 'lawn' in article can grow 300 bushels of corn in less then 3 months. Or grow hundreds of other types of plants to sell. or have a car repair pad, and someone could self employ and repair one car at a time for an excellent income.

[MADem]

107. Local ordinances are the free expression of the people to live as they would like.

If the people, as a community, don't like the existing ordinances, they are free to overturn them. That's how that freedom thing works.

People who don't agree with the ordinances are free to try to convince others to join their cause, and if their neighbors and community peers say "Hell no, you're crazy," then they are free to pull up stakes and move somewhere where people agree with their POV.

Car repair paid? LOL! That'll do wonders for the environment!!! I wouldn't want to buy any bushels of corn grown next to that "car repair pad!"

[MADem]

112. That's just foolishness. If you want a home business, don't buy a house in a residentially zoned

area. DUH.

If you don't believe in rule of law, that let's us all know exactly where you sit.

Ordinances don't come down from the sky, they express the desires of the community. And if you can't "rally a township," then maybe, just maybe, your idea sucks. Good ideas find an audience.

Lawn slaves? You might want to tone it down a tad.

[MADem]

116. Then stop complaining. You found a place that abides by the town ordinances, that your

peers in the community have voted for. You worked within the law.

Your opinion is just your opinion. If everyone--or even most people--shared your opinion, those ordinances would be different and more to your liking.

Sometimes you just have to realize that you have to do things according to the rule of law--or ordinances.

[MADem]

118. Now we're back to the beginning. Get the law changed if you don't like it.

Otherwise, deal with it.

Either ask for a variance or ask your community to change the law. If your community doesn't want to change the law, you've lost the battle--they don't agree with your ideas.

It's not about biggest dogs, it's about your neighbors not wanting to look at your shit. That's the bottom line.

You solved your problem, within the law, so you have nothing to complain about.

[Sunlei]

120. we're not at the beginning, we're on a totally different planet apparently. only

positive of this discussion is (I hope) we're both D voters.

I think I'll just delete my posts and let the lawn lover laws' win the DU day.

[Tanuki]

64. I like their yard. Whenever I see the rare yard like that in my neighborhood,

I smile and admire how natural and healthy it looks and wish I were brave enough to do the same. I don't see how it's anyone else's business as far as telling them what they can grow and how high they can grow it . I'd rather see a yard like this than one that has obviously been poisoned with all that Chem-Lawn crap, that runs off and poisons anything downstream. I'm stunned by all the narrow-minded judgment here. Their yard, their choice as far as I'm concerned. For all of you that are worried about Lyme disease, I hope you realize that it is a vector-borne disease carried by the deer tick, so unless the people in the story were hiding deer somewhere in their tall grass, I wouldn't worry.

[mopinko]

65. lawns are a pox on humanity.

and just because they dont mow doesnt mean they dont weed. i weed my weeds.
and i dont really give a shit about the "property values" argument. someone show me a property appraisal where there is a line item of -$xxx, neighbor has a messy yard.
just one.

[ProfessorGAC]

74. My Landscaped Yard Apologizes

So do my wife and i.

[LanternWaste]

86. No doubt, shallow appearances are often much more important than sustainability

No doubt, shallow appearances are often much more important than sustainability to many people, regardless of apologies or the allegations of their sincerity.

[ProfessorGAC]

124. Yes, Your Lordship (nt)

[sub.theory]

66. Pure libertarian selfishness

This is exactly the sort of "I can do whatever I want" libertarian selfishness that has been instrumental in destroying any sense of civic duty. After all, I don't owe you anything and I can do whatever I want, right? Screw everyone else, right?

[LanternWaste]

87. No doubt, many people believe that a wild landscape is selfish.

No doubt, many people believe that a wild landscape is selfish. On the other hand, many people may believe the same in regards to putting-green lawns and the selfish desire to use more resources to better maintain the shallow and impractical appearance. Screw everyone else, right (part II)?

[Bonx]

73. I let my yard go one year (out of laziness)

The ticks & chigger bites were of the hook.
Never again.

[closeupready]

76. Sorry, but I'm reminded of the episode of Wife Swap in which

one wife from the San Francisco area traded places with a wife from New Jersey, I think. Ms. San Fran had abysmal hygiene; Ms. New Jersey was obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness and neatness. They both had issues, and I was utterly grossed out by Ms. San Fran's lack of hygiene particularly because she was raising children, too.

These people in the article just sound lazy, rationalizing their sloth in pseudo-ecological nonsense.

[B Calm]

77. Any snakes in your house?

[Cleita]

78. In my county you have to mow because of the fire danger, but I agree

allowing Mother Nature to do the landscaping gests more attractive results in about three years and brings in a variety of wildlife.

[ileus]

79. I like my new neighbor she says she mows to keep our yards looking "even"

Much nicer lady that the IL hillbillies that lived beside us for two years. They mowed 3 times a year....I still remember them pulling out for the last time. I waved adios as I was mowing their yard...biggest smile on my face ever.

[BainsBane]

91. If I had snakes and rodents coming into my property because the neighbor refused to mow

I'd be furious. My next door neighbor doesn't mow hers very often, but she doesn't have vermin living in it either. This time of year when it's dry, the grass doesn't grow that fast. Even moving once in a while helps keep things in check.

[we can do it]

99. Sorry, all organic yard full of native plants here. Get rid of the grass and plant something else.

You can have a wildlife friendly yard without being a nuisance.

[Matariki]

103. I applaud not wanting a manicured lawn - but

depends on what is beyond the borders of that photo. Not mowing a lawn close to a house enables critters to infest the house. That's definitely a nuisance.

So, as usual, there is probably more to the story than anyone here can know and consequently pass judgement on.

[hollysmom]

104. this is the wrong form of protest, if you don't want to mow a lawn plant Pachysandra

or some other limited growing groundcover.
There is a reason that towns have restrictions is to preserve a certain appearance, I had a neighbor pave her front lawn so they family could park cars - nope, you can't do that, need some green in the lawn, also can't cut down street trees, or the neighborhood is old, so our street trees are over 100 years old. Even in the trailer park, I had to weed the property or be fined when they sent a weeder over to my property.

Now right now my back yard has gone to seed, but that does not fall under the same rules, as it is pretty private with hedges around it.

Like I said for neighbors who don't want to mow their front lawns, they grow Ivy.,
You have to make a commitment to your neighbors and your town, but your back yard, no one cares.

[Release The Hounds]

108. If they're that concerned about the environment

than they should be living in a more compact, walkable neighborhood. Not wasting an acre on sprawl.

[B Calm]

125. Wouldn't your yard be a fire hazard in the fall?

[RiverLover]

126. Baker: "It's struck a nerve... It’s like I’m attacking their identity.” (notice upthread!)

Follow up story in Ohio local news~

Licking County couple's fight to not mow yard strikes nerve across the country
The Columbus Dispatch
8/5/15

....Turns out, Baker says, it might have been a good thing that the trustees didn’t buy Baker’s plea and instead ordered her to mow her seven-eighths-of-an-acre yard outside of Alexandria in rural Licking County. Maybe it was OK that they didn't accept pleas to let her yard grow, allowing nature’s checks and balances to take over in what she calls a working ecosystem.

The Dispatch wrote about her fight with the township on July 20. More than 62,000 people read the story online that day, and more than 100,000 people shared it with friends on social media.

Then The Washington Post took notice.

An editor called Baker at her work, Baker’s Acres, a greenhouse and garden center owned by her parents in Licking County, and asked her to write an op-ed piece for their web feature, “ PostEverything”

Baker’s own authored piece appeared on the Washington Post website Monday, and it blew up. By day’s end, it was the most-read piece on the site, drawing more than 1,500 comments from Post readers.

Tuesday, Post columnist Christopher Ingraham followed Baker’s attention-getting piece with a second editorial, headlined, ”Lawns are a soul-crushing timesuck and most of us would be better off without them.” Baker said the paper has asked her to write an extended version for their Sunday print edition.

...Baker said she feels a bit overwhelmed with both the outpouring of support as well as the criticism.

“It’s struck such a nerve,” she said. “It’s fascinating to me how uncomfortable it makes people. It’s just fun to point out something that’s so common, that everyone does, like brushing their teeth, and asking, ‘Why are we doing this again?’ It’s like I’m attacking their identity.”

....In the end, she said, “I guess it was a blessing that those three township trustees didn’t like the way my lawn looked. Because of them, I was able to tell even more people about the benefits of not mowing. I really should get them a ‘Pick-Me-Up Bouquet’ or something.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/08/05/lawn-fight.html

[liberal N proud]

127. Get the yard secured as a wildflower sanctuary

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

129. Why does the text in the OP not match the text at the link?

From the link:

A mutilated garter snake, a sliced frog and countless slashed grasshoppers. That was the scene of carnage in my yard in September, after local officials ordered me to mow my overgrown lawn or be fined $1,000. Three months earlier, I had stopped mowing my nearly one acre of country land outside of a rural Ohio town.

From the OP:

A mutilated garter snake, a sliced frog and countless slashed grasshoppers. That was the scene of carnage in my yard in September, after local officials ordered me to mow my overgrown lawn or be fined $1,000. Three months earlier, I had stopped mowing my nearly one acre of country land in a rural Ohio town.

There's a rather substantial change in how people view the actions based on that one small word change. People tend to think people who live IN town should mow their lawns, but more people don't care so much if people OUTSIDE of town mow their lawns.

[RiverLover]

131. There's a correction on the Post, noted at the end. Good catch though. The OP should be amended

Corrections: The original version of this piece incorrectly compared the land area of lawns to the land area of crops. Also, the headline incorrectly stated that the author lives in a town. She lives in a township.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/03/my-town-calls-my-lawn-a-nuisance-but-i-still-refuse-to-mow-it/?tid=sm_fb

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

132. I guess I should have read the link all the way to the end.

I only took the link to see the picture that someone mentioned in another comment. It looks like a generic meadow somewhere, albeit with less 'grass' and more flowers.

[RiverLover]

133. I live about 25 minutes from their place. I'm going to try to find it & take pictures sometime soon.

I have no doubt this is their yard. But I think it needs more angles so people can literally get a better view.

[d_r]

134. i think that lawns

are such a waste of energy. I'm saying this as east of Mississippi person. Out west where it is dry there is of course a whole nother bunch of reasons why a lawn is a bad idea, using the water. But here we would have growth.

This is how I think about it.

Everyday the sun is shining and bringing down energy. The grass is catching that energy. I think about this the way I think about trees. If we use a tree in a camp fire we are releasing the energy it took years to store up slowly in an hour or so quickly. Or if it sat for millions of years it would be compressed even more to oil and coal and natural gas.

But with grass we use gasoline or electricity to cut it. So we are wasting the energy it is sucking up from the sun and storing and instead using other energy to get rid of it. We do the same with fall leaves. We rake them and bag them and sweep them in the street so the city can collect them.

Think of all the miles and miles of lawns with people cutting the grass and raking the leaves. We are just wasting that energy and wasting more energy to clear it.

I think that neighborhoods should get goats. People should share the goat and let it eat the grass and leaves when they fall. That would use the energy, then in the fall we could have a barbecue and have the whole neighborhood get together. That way we aren't just wasting the energy the grass was collecting we are putting it to a good use and people still get mowed lawns and we all get some barbecue.