Ragweed can burn in hell.

The term “weed” is stupid. Arbitrarily deciding that certain native plants are undesirable is such a colonizer mindset

Damn I hope they win against the city. The typical law has to die, it’s ridiculously useless and detrimental to biodiversity.

Why should we have to maintain one type of plant which has problems surviving without lots of upkeep?

Based Karen.

Yes but also no. I agree but there is a big grain of salt to be had here. Yards like also help pests thrive too. Particularly ticks and rodents come to mind. Lots of hiding areas that are safe for rodents to avoid seen / caught. Easy safe pathways for skunks, raccoons, possums etc. Ticks are gona love the tall plants and moist conditions. Earwigs are gona be all up in almost everything that is there. If there is anything that grows fruit, well you vet your ass theres gona be way more paper wasps/balshead hornets/ yellow jackets etc. Is the increased pollen going to now cause more allergies for 8 year old Timmy next door? When winter rolls around all those wonderfull bugs and critters 100% gona want to cozy up in your 2000sqft home. From attic, basment, or kitchen Cupboard.

Eveyone seems to miss the fact that a diverse environment doesn’t only just attract bees and Butterflies. It wouldn’t be "diverse " if it did.

The big reason we grow grass and keep it short is for pest control.

ignoring the obvious fact that you’re effectively declaring entire clades of sentient animals to be basically biological waste because i know im going to make exactly zero headway with a human supremacist in this comment; if the primary consideration were pests, wouldn’t stones or pavement be a more ideal solution than grass with all the maintenance and upkeep that requires being baked into the law?

Wonder how much this fruitless battle is costing taxpayers.

i feel comfortable declaring centipedes, you know those ones that look like eyelashes? those are biological waste because they freak me the fuck out. every time i see one i have nightmares for a week i’m going to wake up with beautiful gorgeous long eyelashes, but they’ll turn out to just be centipedes with a thing for my eye juices. if they have any other purpose in the universe than giving me eye juice nightmares i don’t want to hear it

ignoring the obvious fact that you’re effectively declaring entire clades of sentient animals to be basically biological waste because i know im going to make exactly zero headway with a human supremacist in this comment; if the primary consideration were pests, wouldn’t stones or pavement be a more ideal solution than grass with all the maintenance and upkeep that requires being baked into the law?

Oh, are you talking about House Centipedes? Great for controlling other insects in your house!

And also, at my current phase in my life, the closest thing I’ll have to some creature cuddling me at night.

Yeah, we have some good things, besides “free” healthcare.

The closest thing to an HOA in Canada is when it is a shared building like a Condo, then we have a Strata.

It runs as a legal corporation, with some property (such as building, roof being common property, and some outdoor spaces being shared or limited common property) the difference is each year you get to vote in a new council (if people want the role) and changes to bylaws are voted on as a majority by the owners. Minor things 51% majority, major changes are 75% majority.

So if something like a “no yellow doors” policy bothers you, you just propose a motion to allow yellow as a building scheme for doors, and hope enough residents agree. Since the housing market where I live has such a high resell rate, its rare you’d be stuck with the same ultra staunch voters for every council.

A Burlington homeowner is fighting charges over her “naturalized garden” of native plants in her front and back yards. The city is taking Karen Barnes to Provincial Offences Court, seeking up to $400,000 in fines for violating a bylaw order to cut it down.

Barnes is challenging the case on constitutional grounds, arguing her right to freedom of expression through gardening is protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

She says her garden supports pollinators, biodiversity and wildlife, reflecting her environmental and spiritual beliefs. She appeared for a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday and is scheduled for a two-day trial in November, according to her lawyer, Vilko Zbogar.

Zbogar says the case is about more than the fine. “Courts have recognized since at least 1996 that freedom of expression under the Charter protects natural gardens as expressions of profound environmental values,” he said. “For Karen, it’s also a spiritual exercise — tied to her creed and beliefs. This falls under Sections 2(a) and 2(b) of the Charter: freedom of conscience and religion and freedom of expression.”

Experts say naturalized gardens and meadows can attract far more pollinators than regularly mown lawns, while also using less water and improving soil health.

Constitutional right to a wild garden with weeds and bees to be tested in Ontario court

A Burlington homeowner is fighting charges over her “naturalized garden” of native plants in her front and back yards. The city is taking Karen Barnes to Provincial Offences Court, seeking up to $400,000 in fines for violating a bylaw order to cut it down.

Canada's National Observer (www.nationalobserver.com)

Grass seed is significantly cheaper and faster than stones and pavement. Grass also provides some water retention during rain, helping reduce demand on storm drains.

Yes you will not make headway with this human supremacist for the fact that I have zero interest in paying thousands of dollars in repairs. Because some coon decided to live in my crawl space and fuck my shit up. Or worse yet, have a rat chew up wires and burn my house down. Fun fact, rats love the texture of Romex wire on their teeth.

That’s literally just an HOA, but only for multi-tenant buildings. Like, I get that you don’t have them for detached single family homes, but every aspect you’re describing is just how HOAs function in the US.

The term “weed” is stupid. Arbitrarily deciding that certain native plants are undesirable is such a colonizer mindset

It’s also, in the simplest way, incompetent.

All those weeds provide some ecological service in some way. If you look at my yard and note it’s covered in tall straggly white flowers, you could say weedy, and be right. I would clarify that wild carrots are helping convert our heavy clay soil into good tilth, and supporting a massive number of pollinators and pest predators.

And why would we put up with yellow dock going to seed everywhere? It’s the most nutritious chicken fodder, and it also gives tilth to heavy clay.

Don’t get me started about dandelion!!

Ragweed can burn in hell.

Unfortunately many tax payers will support it, because non-standard property appearance drags down property values. Or people just get their panties twisted by stuff. Some of my city’s aldermen are trying to make it illegal to grow corn (technically “vegetable gardens over six feet tall”) in city limits because they have gotten so many complaints from neighbors. Having a food plant visible near a residence? The horror!

Corn is a garbage crop to grow at home. The height thing is kina dumb, because they probably wouldn’t bat an eye about sunflowers and roses up on a trellis. But corn basically robs all the nutrients in the gardens soil incredibly fast, starving the other crops. Also as produce corn is the cheapest and most abundant staple and to grow a some what substantial amount you gota give up a significant portion of your garden.

I think the term is fine if you approach it from an “invasive species” mindset rather than an “undesirable” mindset.

I don’t know if it was intentionally done by my teachers, but that’s the impression I always got about the term since it was usually brought up in the context of introduced species of plants causing harm to native species. Stuff like dandelions and such.