When Life Gives You Lemons

It turns out that our little village, like many communities across the U.S., has an ordinance that outlaws grass (and other things) over 12" in height and noxious (along with other unnamed) weeds. When we were told (and later served with a letter) in May 2014 telling us we had 7 days to comply with the ordinance or they would mow for us and charge an undetermined amount to our next property tax bill, I decided to ask for an exception.

Below is (believe it or not) the abbreviated description of what has happened since...

It just so happened that the pronouncement came two days before the monthly council meeting. I did more research (I'd already been doing extensive research and planning on the switchover from expansive mowed lawn to mixture of Natural Landscaping and vegetable/garden beds). It turns out that there is quite a large movement afoot to shift the language in these types of ordinances so that they include folks like us who are wanting to move toward more earth-friendly choices. Cincinnati has just passed a revision of its original landscaping law so I know this isn't foreign to Ohio.

I arrived at the council meeting with handouts explaining what I viewed as my First Amendment rights (both freedom of speech for arting and religion), and asked that I be excepted from the ordinance due to the intentional nature of my Natural Landscaping. I invited the council, mayor, and legal counsel to visit us for a tour and explanation and gave them the addy of my website. They were gracious enough to give us a stay until the next month's council meeting. No mowing took place.

I continued to research and asked each of my neighbors for their blessing on our project (the homework assignment my mayor had given me). Happily, all our neighbors were okay with what they were seeing -- a few going so far as to say things like, "What you do in your yard is your business." I took their comments to the next council meeting and gave them to the group.

Unfortunately, their month to think about it only served to lengthen the taproots of the folks on the other side. Only one council member came by for the tour, several others merely walked by or drove by. There were some very vocal members talking about how ugly the grass was, what a nuisance it was, and how it lowers property values in the neighborhood. The legal counsel offered a (what I thought was win/win) compromise telling us how the ordinance could be rewritten to allow for folks like me to do our intentional Natural Landscaping while also letting them continue to mow empty-housed yards or other problem properties. They called an executive session to discuss and vote on it. When we came back in, they gave us the edict: Mow it or Hide it.

We had a brief discussion with me reminding them that this was a long-term project and that my intention was to plant more fruit trees (which would take some time to fill out and overtake the grasses under them) and that I'd already planted comfrey which I expected to eventually cover a front section. I asked what kind of timeline we were working with here and was told they would be patient as long as they saw active progress.

The next day I was down at the village office asking for a map showing the lines of our easements (we're on a corner so have 2 streets involved). I wanted to be able to start redoing my plan to stay within the easements. I ended up calling back to ask what the rules were regarding working outside the easement borders and was referred to the attorney for the village. He told me it was all very gray and I would likely be okay as long as no one complained.

I continued to refine my plan and was starting to round up plants from friends (now that I knew I should try to get plants moved as soon as possible rather than waiting until Fall when it would be easier on the plants), when we were served with a second letter (on the Monday after the Thursday night council meeting).

Color me quite confused as I thought I had been granted patience with active progress. I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that getting the easement map, planning, and gathering was active progress. The new letter said that we had until July 7, 2014 to Mow it or Hide it or they would come mow and weedeat for us at noon on that day. Of course, now our grass gardens are so tall that they may require a bush hog instead of the regular mowers which will cost more and, I'd already relocated (earlier in the Spring) a bunch of sunflowers and comfrey into parts of the grass so I would have to move those (or so I believed).

I scrambled about, covering several bases at once, to figure out the best way forward... one that would allow for me to remain true to myself while figuring out if there was a way through this that wouldn't emotionally cripple me for the rest of the Summer. You see, I've been spending so much time in my sanctuary (what my yard has become to me) since early Spring, and have so many deep emotional ties throughout the property at this point that someone coming in and forcibly insisting their opinion on my creation feels akin to assault.

I'm not good with continuing emotional strife so I was NOT looking forward to the village mowing because the visual reminders would have simply tapped and retapped the damaged nerves. I needed to find some choice. I got a couple of estimates for mowing from other folks and have them at the ready. I considered legal avenues, and have some possibilities there. I ended up out into our yard at 4 am one night to test an arting adventure. Thanks to a Facebook friend, I'd discovered grass-braiding a few months back. While it looks fantastic, it takes me far too long and kills my already iffy back to do too much of it. During a wakeful period previously that night, I wondered if rolling the grass as I often have done with my hair might work. I decided to try it. It turned out to go much more quickly and didn't tax my weak back in the same way at all. I'm able to work for longer periods and do much more than I can braiding.

The next morning, I asked the administrator (who it turns out is in charge of the ordinance enforcement) to come by so I could get more clear on the meaning of the letter. I asked him to pretend that it was now the deadline and asked him to tell me what they were going to do so that I might be able to do it so they wouldn't have to. We walked and talked our way through the yard and it became clear that it really is just the grass that they're having fits about. There were some weeds (I'll get to that in a moment) that would have been mowed as well. I asked him about my sunflowers and comfrey. He told me that as long as I cleared an area around them large enough so they could see that those things were intentionally there, they should be safe. I showed him my experimental area (see below) and asked what if all the grass was done like that? He thought it would be in compliance as the ordinance says 12 inches in height. (After checking, that was confirmed.) A small glimmer of hope settled into my heart, even though the feel of the rolled grass is nothing like the free-flowing way that I love. At least the spiders and other insects making their home in my grass would likely still be happy.

fleabane (above) yarrow (below)

The next step was to ask about the "weeds" as I have plenty of weeds on my "to do list" because, ya know, it's Summer! He said they wouldn't bother any weeds in my flower or vegetable beds, just the ones in the grass gardens.

There were some pretty blue flowers blooming on a few tall plants that I confirmed he would classify as weeds, even though they weren't on the noxious list and I felt they were pretty. Neither of us knew what they were. I have since identified them as chicory and asked that they be able to remain since I intend on harvesting them for tea. He consented. It continues to make me giggle that the mystery plant is chicory because that old jingle for the product Chock Full O Nuts starts up in my head and I can easily imagine the farmers wondering what that goofy woman is up to this time...

chicory (above) fescue (below)

Because we had gotten such mixed messages about this whole process from the village, we asked for that small bit of patience to be put into writing but it was refused. My husband remained highly suspicious and untrusting about what might happen when the deadline arrives (no matter how much I've gotten done). I chose to rest in trust and peace and continue to work my arse off as I am able. It was the hot, humid, stormy time of the year and much easier to do this work at night. I put in another 2 hours between 1:30 and 3:30 the morning of June 28 and an hour and a half from 7 to 8:30.

While I actually enjoyed working outside in the cooler peace of the night, I was hoping that my sleep disruption didn't reorganize itself back to old patterns of insomnia more permanently. My glutes definitely got a workout during that time!  The shorter stints didn't seem to be upset my back. It was quite lovely to have the meditative time to infuse loving intention into my yard and grass gardens in this way but the energy of them bundled up was not the same at all as the original state of them (the latter definitely being my preference). Even though it was always a temporary plan, until more native and other intentional plants replace the grass, I was drawing so much positive energy from my grass. Obviously, others weren't. Amazing sometimes how differently humings can view things, isn't it?

I was sure many would think the wind rows looked cool. For me, they were certainly a better option than the assault of forced or enforced mowing. I would have loved to be able to pursue legal avenues so that I could continue to build my garden more freely in the future, but there was no money to do so.

More middle-of-the-night workings... Learning more and getting more creative as I progressed... My hands were getting small cuts on them that were getting irritated. I couldn't use my normal gardening gloves due to their stiffness so opted for my winter gloves. They worked marvelously. I was able to flex my hands and feel the grass as I moved along.

I determined that the rolling was NOT going to allow for me to get anywhere near the deadline with this project, if proceeding alone. So, I opted to try another method. I started by taking small bunches on the near bank (bottom left photo) and tying them in square knots. I quite liked the look and it seems to stay put much better than the rolls. Some of the rolls have had to be primped back into place because I'm having to sit on them as I work -- mostly because I promised the administrator that I would start at the bottom of the hill and work up since that is the most "offending" section.

After finishing with the front corner, which is heavily mixed with clover and other ground cover, I got back into the thick of it. Because of the heavy volume of grass involved, the tying didn't work as well and would have taken forever (just like the rolls). So, I decided to press sections flat (thanks to the lead Mother Nature's winds had already given), then tie them down with square-knotted pieces on top. The grass underneath is held flat while the knots are secure and artistically display their long ends. Still undetermined, of course, was whether they passed muster with those who held the power.

I can't tell you how often I pondered how a small sacred space of paradise for me could elicit such disdain from folks surrounded by fields of wheat, corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and fields laying fallow... tis truly to each her own, I guess.

I continued for several nights (or should I say early mornings) to flatten and tie. I finished the whole bank and left some of the gardens in the upper part of the yard long. As I worked, though it was nighttime and darker, I could tell there were any number of insects and arachnids living in my tall grass. The lightning bugs lived in the upper tiers; crickets, spiders and grasshoppers lived in the ground floors. There was such an abundance of life in this otherwise hidden world. I felt happy knowing that the way I was working the grasses, even though I prefer them tall and flowing, was going to continue to provide a complex environment for all these helpers and vital parts of the food chain.

Over the span of 5 nights, I was able to complete the bank and edges of the upper garden. I called my work "Windrows and Crop Circles". I asked the village administrator by to see if we could pass muster and whether they would lift the deadline and threat of force mowing. He gave me a thumbs up, and promised he would not be coming by to mow. He agreed that we were on the same page as far as what I was doing (as in he understood my explanation, though I doubted he would ever follow such a path himself).

I asked for something in writing saying that they wouldn't be coming to mow our yard. The village declined to do so. I called for the mayor. He ended up calling me back and telling me that if the Admin said it was okay, he trusted him. As it happened, I spoke with a council member who proceeded to tell me that neither the Admin nor the mayor had the authority to okay what I had done and that council did and that he did NOT feel that we were in compliance. He also insisted that if we got away with this, he would insist that the village stop mowing any yards out of compliance. I was also told that we were being lied to so I was completely unsure as to where we stood. ::sigh::

After a very sleepless couple of nights and rather tense household due to the stress looming about the village coming into our yard and mowing and weedwacking at will, then proceeding to charge us an unknown amount of money attached to our tax bill, we decided to mow it ourselves. Our friend Ali conspired with our youngest son to use her mom's mower and our friend Henry's trailer (to get the mower to our house) and offered their assistance. They brought moral support along which was helpful practice for outlining exactly where all this was coming from... this whole saga.

You can see a photo of the mowed down grass (center bottom row) in the first gallery of photos above. I told Ali that she was a very talented and able butcher. Where we couldn't be assured that the village would have mowed around our sunflowers and comfrey, or that others we could have hired would either, Ali carefully navigated each and every one, leaving them happily intact. She commented on how many insects she saw flying off as she proceeded. Afterward, I could see spiders continuing to relocate. Several starlings decided to enjoy the buffet.

While I have no doubt some viewers (and many village members) prefer the "beauty" of "normal" and "common" in our freshly mowed yard, this brings me heartache in its destructive ugliness. To me, it's ugly visually. I much prefer the tall, free-flowing grass with the flattened grasses coming a distant second. To me, this "choice" is ugly in its insistence of man manipulating nature to his will over the diversity and support of other species in a naturally, beautifully varied landscape. Where evidently a few on the village council insist that my original choice is "ugly and a nuisance", my own aesthetics find large expanses of mowed lawn to be ugly, bad for the planet, and an enormous waste of time and resources. The truly offensive part to me is that their aesthetics can be forced onto me, my property, and my lifing. Legally, they cannot force their aesthetics on me. Constitutionally, they cannot do so either. However, they can and have so through an old, antiquated, and ignorant law.

I slept well the night after the mowing (partially out of exhaustion, I'm sure, due to the stress and copious hours of hard work now undone). My friends had us over for a lovely healing potluck between the mowing and the sleeping. It was wonderful to have such support and understanding in person. We have received so much support from our friends online and around the world. But, with the loudest most obnoxiously aggressive voices coming in the form of people with the power to cause major problems even if we could eventually prove them to be wrong, it was very nice to share time with helpers who not only brainstormed with us but also offered to share the bounty of their own native plants with us.

I continued to plot out our course (albeit more quickly than I might have so that I didn't have to look at my own yard as it stood, how sad is that?). I would have preferred a longer period with the flowing grasses of the grass garden meadows. I have worked hard to replace them with habitats that keep all the wildlife happy and satisfied. I hoped that the abundant baby bunnies, that have a couple of my manly neighbors softening while showing their excitement about having so many present this year, would find enough cover to evade the local stray cats. I also hoped that the lightning bugs are as well. Unfortunately, 2014 brought no baby bunnies as compared to more than we've ever seen the year before. The lightning bugs were less affected.

This project is far from over... neither is the fight to change an ordinance that is so poorly written that the village could actually mow down all the vegetable gardens if they got too maniacally out of control. Though, we seemed to skirt the disdain in 2015. There is a teeny loophole that we possibly slipped through. They evidently don't force us to weed the tall grasses out of our beds or vegetable gardens. My spring 2014 duties included creating the illusion of beds from all side viewed by the public. I was also able to completely cover the bank with free mulch by the winter. It took a lot of work, and I would still prefer the long grasses, but for now...

It was not to be during 2014, my husband was correct. We were forced to mow and had a good friend do so for us so that we didn't have some open-ended charge on our taxes. The year 2015 brought a completely different story. I had attended nearly all the council meeting since that initial one and the members (I believe) came to see that I meant no harm to anyone and was simply creating my garden art to my own tastes (more below). From the outside (of our yard) it also appears that all "nuisance" grasses are in beds. Since they cannot enforce such things as almost all yards have weeds and errant grasses growing somewhere on the property, we enjoyed our gardens intact for all of 2015.

Below is the bank partially mulched with free mulch from tree removal dudes.

As a break from the stress, during the battles, I worked up the Wanted poster to the left. It helped to be able to vent my creative juices into my computer since my hands were being tied elsewhere. Talking to others, especially friends who share my passion for the planet and all living things was of enormous help.

But, in a world so full of strife and serious problems, how people can make mountains out of molehills like this continues to boggle my mind.

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Update, June 2016

I was informed during the Council meeting last Thursday (6/16/16) that we will be getting another notification letter about our having to mow and remove noxious weeds... It begins again. Stay tuned.

I've written a couple of blogs on Mother Earth News (here and here) about the current state of our yard and garden... the next council meeting is Thursday, July 21, 2016 (7pm)... Wish me luck!

UPDATE (April 2017): I can't tell you how deeply this affects my husband and me. Long story short, I believe that we've reached a place of agreement.

They tried to power over us not only with the letter mentioned above, but also with a vote to force us to mow and weed. Since we were in compliance (all tall grasses—other than our sweet grass and Little Bluestem—were removed and all noxious weeds were pulled) they still didn't like how our property looked (with chicory and lambs quarters present and looking "wild"). We countered with our being legally in compliance with the law and insisted the recusal of a couple of the voting members.

The mayor came for a chat and actually saw our garden from inside the yard. He could finally see what we're doing. He even learned something about sweetgrass. We continued our disagreement about the chicory and lamb's quarters... he's a farmer and they are the bane of his existence. I understood this, but pointed out that we use these plants as do the wildlife and we don't see them in the same light as does he.

We all agreed that going forward, the whole process will be more friendly with discussion about any complaints. My husband started going with me to the monthly council meetings. So far, so good.