Left to right: Naturalized gardeners Karen Barnes and Julia Barnes Credit: Photo provided by Karen Barnes
Karen and Julia Barnes join me today to discuss the fact that after seven long years the City of Burlington has levied $400,000 in fines for non-compliance and is taking Karen, the home owner, to court because their naturalized garden apparently, “doesn’t conform to bylaw standards.”
That’s unbelievable because 29 years ago, Toronto resident, Sandy Bell, won a landmark case in Ontario. The 1996 ruling established that naturalized gardens, expressing environmental beliefs, are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' freedom of expression — as long as they don't pose public safety risks.
Today, we deconstruct why the City of Burlington continues to wage war on native plant species thriving on private property.
Karen Barnes has a master’s degree in ecology. She is a habitat gardener living in Burlington who began rewilding her yard in 2015.
Julia Barnes is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on protecting nature. Julia’s first documentary, Sea of Life, made when she was just 16-years-old, won the "Most Revealing" award at Cinema Verde, the Emerging Filmmakers Ontario 150 Film Challenge at WaterDocs, and the Award of Merit at the Impact Docs Awards. Sea of Life was also a winner at Ekotopfilm / Envirofilm and Cayfilm Cayman International Film Festival and a finalist at the Blue Ocean Film Festival.
Her documentary, Bright Green Lies, investigates the extraction-dependent and ecologically destructive reality behind “green” technologies.
Karen and Julia share with listeners their impetus to start naturalizing their yard in 2015 and the wonders that they have seen and experienced since then.
We discus the ways in which naturalized gardens differ from grass lawns in terms of environmental impacts and the relationship with nature that they represent as well as the specific species that can be found in Karen and Julia’s naturalized garden.
It’s important to discuss the hypocrisy of the City of Burlington and its naturalized garden bylaws over the past several years starting in the summer of 2018 when Karen, Paul Raun and myself received notices to remove native plants, and in Paul’s case native trees as well, otherwise the city would cut down our gardens and bill us.
Common milkweed Credit: Doreen Nicoll
In 2018 the City of Burlington served me with a notice to cut down my common milkweed that was thriving in my naturalized garden. Refusing to comply meant the city would cut down my entire naturalized garden and then bill me for the cost of that work.
At that time, the city had been giving away common milkweed seeds and plants for folks to plant in their home gardens. The city even had common milkweed growing on city property throughout Burlington. Local plant nurseries were selling milkweed plants and the David Suzuki foundation was encouraging folks to plant common milkweed.
I wrote an article for rabble.ca which caused a influx of emails from folks across Canada pointing out to Burlington council that common milkweed had been removed from the provincial noxious weed list in 2014 and was a plant that monarch larvae depend on for their survival. Six days later, the bylaw was changed — literally on the eve of my garden’s destruction.
Paul Raun purchased all of his native trees and plants from commercial nurseries specializing in local native species. Credit: Doreen Nicoll
Paul Raun were also threatened that year. In Paul’s case the only noxious weed on his property was a dog strangling vine — related to milkweed but deadly to monarch larvae. However, the vine was actually rooted in his neighbour’s yard. When Paul asked bylaw if they were going to speak to the neighbour about pulling out the vine that is still listed on the Ontario Weed Control Act, bylaw said, “no because no one filed a complaint about that garden.”
Karen Barnes’ garden was also threatened that year with city workers showing up to cut it down. Karen called the police who prevented the workers from trespassing on her property. But over the past seven years, Karen and Julia’s garden has been razed by the city multiple times.
In 2022, the City of Burlington revised its naturalized garden bylaw creating By-law 49-2022 that I have always maintained specifically targets Karen and Julia’s garden.
According to By-law 49-2022, “naturalized area” means an area of vegetation deliberately planted or cultivated with one or more species of wild flowers, shrubs, annuals, perennials, ornamental grasses, or combination of them, that is monitored and maintained by a person. However, bylaw officers appear to be interpreting this to mean that every plant has to be purposely placed or planted and that the bylaw prohibits self-seeding gardens which is not how the bylaw actually reads. In fact, the city maintains its own self-seeding gardens.
Karen and Julia’s garden — milkweed plants with seed pods that are well over 20 cm tall. Credit: Karen Barnes
The bylaw states that plants cannot be over 20 cm in height. However, most non-native flowering plants sold at commercial nurseries, like hostas, calla lilies, zinnias and Ox-eye daisies, routinely surpass that height restriction.
And, I bring up height because the Superior Court of Ontario has accepted evidence that a 20 cm height restriction is irrational given the fact that about 90 per cent of native plant species in Ontario grow higher than 20 cm.
A section of Karen and Julia’s garden with asters and cascading goldenrod — BTW it’s ragweed that folks are allergic to, not goldenrod. Credit: Karen Barnes
The bylaw changes prohibit the use of popular bee homes that attract native solitary bees like mason and leaf cutter bees which are amazingly hard-working pollinators. The by-law also mandates cleaning up fallen leaves where butterfly larvae overwinter; toads, shrews and salamanders hide and hunt; and beneficial microbes and worms thrive.
It’s important to note that while skunks, raccoons, and opossums may forage in naturalized gardens for insects and seeds, they do not live in naturalized gardens because they would be too vulnerable to predators — particularly the human kind. Instead, skunks, raccoons and opossums live under gazebos, decks and sheds when they’re not foraging for ticks and grubs.
Karen and Julia’s garden after the city cut it down. Credit: Karen Barnes
Karen and Julia discuss the trauma of having the city cut down their garden multiple times over the years as well as the financial abuse and trauma of being threatened with fines including a flat fee of $100,000 for non-compliance in addition to fines of $10,000 per day until they conform. The city also notified Karen’s mortgage company of the fines.
Author and gardening expert, Lorraine Johnson, was brought in to create a report that was shared with the city. Johnson’s report supported Karen and Julia’s naturalized garden. The city chose to ignore Johnson’s expert advice. Over the years, Johnson and I have discussed the fact that bylaw officers working for the Building and Bylaw Department have little to no knowledge about plants or gardening. It seems only prudent that the city should implement mandatory training for bylaw officers around native species, naturalized gardens and their protection under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The City of Burlington has yet to implement such training.
Karen and Julia’s side garden of New England asters. Asters are important for late-season pollinators like migrating monarch butterflies and a food source for rabbits. Credit: Karen Barnes
Then, of course, there’s Sandy Bell who won her case at the Superior Court of Ontario 29 years ago establishing that naturalized gardens, expressing environmental beliefs, are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' freedom of expression — as long as they don't pose public safety risks.
The same side garden after city workers cut it down. New England asters are native to ON, are not invasive nor harmful and have never been on the noxious weed list. Credit: Karen Barnes
Instead of honouring their right to freedom of expression, the City of Burlington is taking Karen and Julia, to court this fall. We discuss what that looks like and what that means for the future of their garden as well as the pollinators, birds and other wildlife the garden supports.
It’s worth noting that in April 2019, Burlington City Council declare a climate emergency in order to deepen the city's commitment to addressing climate change and protecting its economy, environment, and community. Yet, the city has seen fit to devote the time and resources of legal staff, bylaw officers and parks and recreation workers to engage in a seven-year-long fight with two women who are doing exactly what we should all be doing during a climate emergency and that is, planting native, self-seeding annuals and perennials that are able to live on rainwater, survive droughts and provide shade and food for pollinators, birds and small animals.
Wood-poppy, an endangered species growing in Karen and Julia’s naturalized garden, is threatened by habitat loss, degradation and invasive species. Credit: Allen Woodliffe, from Ontario Government Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks website.
We have entered the Anthropocene and the standard suburban lawn with its non-native grasses adorned with non-native, often invasive and exotic, commercially grown plants is only exacerbating our race towards extinction. Mainstream suburban landscaping demands huge amounts of electricity and gas to power mowers, edgers and leaf blowers; additional watering to keep lawns green during heat waves when water should be conserved; petrochemical-based fertilizers; and yes, folks still use Roundup and Weed BGon, which contain glyphosate as well as 2,4-D, dicamba, MCPP-p, and quinclorac respectively, despite Ontario's cosmetic pesticide ban that took effect on April 22, 2009. And, yes, herbicides are pesticides marketed under a more “palatable” name and yes, they are just as toxic and dangerous.
The cognitive dissonance of this entire situation is truly unbelievable and the City of Burlington’s relentless attack on Karen and Julia’s garden is not only baffling, it’s extremely dangerous.
*Karen and Julia have set up a fund to help with the costs of their on-going legal challenge. You can donate here.
Feel free to email Burlington City Council about this environmental disconnect during an undeniable climate crisis and Anthropocene epoch. Here’s the Mayor’s and Councillor’s email addresses.
*A version of this article was originally published on rabble.ca.
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
You can also find my work in herizons, rabble.ca and on my Wix site. Follow me on Instagram, X @doreennicoll61, Bluesky @nicollneedschange and Facebook.
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