By RTL News·1 minute ago·Edited: 1 minute ago
RTL News
It's been a common comment in recent years: If you want to contribute to the fight against climate change or biodiversity loss, it's best to start small in your own garden. For example, by stopping weekly mowing and watering the lawn more frequently. In Canada, this is a little more sensitive.
This is what Wolf Rock experienced, and is now waging a veritable crusade against his municipality in Mississauga, a suburb close to Toronto.
Three years ago, he also decided to make his own garden more natural, by leaving the parched grass as it was and letting nature take its course. The result was wild plants, flowering grass, and a garden full of butterflies and bees.
He thus joined a broader movement that is also finding increasing resonance in Canada. It is better for nature, as less water is wasted in times of drought, and according to him, it is also a pleasure to walk through. But that was outside the municipality's accounts.
Regulation against tall grass
Because, like many cities in the United States and Canada, Mississauga also appears to have a municipal law “against weeds and tall grass.” It stipulates that the garden should be “tidy” and that the grass should not be more than 20 cm high. Those who do not adhere to this can easily find the municipal parks department in their own garden one morning.
Rack filmed how the municipal mowing crew, without warning, took care of not only his front lawn, but also the enclosed backyard:
At this same moment, he could only protest slightly, but he couldn't do anything else. But he did not leave the matter at that and went to court. He lost on procedural grounds, but the appeal has not yet been heard.
Neighbor with poison injection
But this clash with the Parks Department was not his first. A year ago, Rack had already met a neighbor in his garden, who, by law, had the right to use a lawn mower and poison sprayer in his garden himself. The municipality had also previously leveled his garden “in line with regulations” and recovered the costs from him.
Still can't get over that. “Global warming and loss of biodiversity pose existential threats to humanity and all life on Earth, yet the municipality considers tall grass and weeds a public nuisance that must be addressed.”
