Most mornings, Wolf Ruck walks the mown paths in his yard in Mississauga, Ontario, watching for insects landing on the goldenrod, birds feeding on native seed heads, and chipmunk kits playing in the tall grass.
The septuagenarian artist, film-maker and former Olympic canoeist began rewilding his garden with native plants three years ago, as part of a growing movement across Canada towards replacing water-thirsty lawns with “naturalised gardens”.
Letting nature take its course has been a blessing to observe, Ruck says. But to city officials, his garden violates the city’s nuisance weed and tall grass control bylaw. Twice, officers responding to anonymous neighbour complaints have brought workers to forcibly cut Ruck’s garden, billing him later for the work.
“My property is not abandoned. It’s not a blight on the community. It simply seems to offend some neighbours who don’t like the look of it,” Ruck says.
A growing number of Canadian gardeners are facing legal action for their efforts to rewild their gardens, a movement that took off during the coronavirus pandemic, as people confined to their homes reconsidered their relationship with their lawn. Proponents of rewilding cite greater biodiversity, drought resistance, and lower upkeep as advantages.
Beyond sidewalk gardens overflowing with black-eyed susan, hairy beardtongue and white turtlehead, signs of the growing movement can be seen in the proliferation of community initiatives, such as wildflower seed libraries and butterfly ranger programs. In recent years big-box retailers and garden centres have started carrying native plants alongside Kentucky bluegrass seed and hybrid tea roses.
But the growing movement is facing blowback from lawn-loving neighbours complaining about gardens overrun with “weeds”. Prof Nina-Marie Lister says the Ecological Design Lab she directs at Toronto Metropolitan University is receiving more requests than ever to help gardeners facing bylaw complaints. “The number of cases we have supported with advice through my lab has more than quadrupled since 2020,” she says.
Across Canada and the United States, local bylaws regulate private gardens, often using subjective terms such as “tidy” or “neat”, arbitrary rules such as limiting grass height to 20cm, and vague or undefined terms such as “weeds”. Enforcement is driven by anonymous complaints and are carried out by often harried bylaw officers without specific botanical training, who may also be dealing with noise complaints, parking violations and vermin outbreaks.
Lister is helping local bodies update their garden regulations and cites 12 municipalities in Ontario alone that have updated or are updating their bylaws.
“The aesthetic of the lawn has been increasingly challenged as out of date, especially at a time when many cities – and the city of Toronto specifically – encourage residents to plant native species,” she says.
“The advice we give to municipalities is this: diversify the palette of what a garden looks like. Recognise the rights of residents to plant, cultivate and grow native species … the only proviso must be that they are not harmful to human or ecological health.”
For ordinary citizens concerned with habitat loss, environmental degradation and climate change, their garden is one of the few areas in which they have agency to act, says Lorraine Johnson, an author on native gardening. “The growing appeal is that it’s something you can do locally that has an important and demonstrable positive impact,” she says.
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Ruck agrees. “It’s certainly helping me in terms of countering that feeling of helplessness, because I can say at least I’m trying to do my part,” he says.
After his arguments failed to convince bylaw officers, Ruck took his case to court. Legal precedent supports naturalised gardening in Ontario, where in 1996 a court ruled that Sandy Bell, a Toronto gardener, had the right to express her environmental beliefs through gardening, overturning a fine issued to her under the city’s weeds and grass bylaw.
But Ruck, who represented himself, lost his case on procedural grounds after arguing that the city had applied the bylaw unfairly and arbitrarily. Now on the hook for the municipality’s legal bills of $6,000 (£3,450), he has filed an appeal.
Officials have tried to work with Ruck in dealing with nuisance weeds and tall grass complaints at his property, a Mississauga spokesperson said. “Because this matter is before the courts, the city does not have any further comment at this time.”
In the meantime, Ruck remains on alert for the sound of garden strimmers. “It’s a cloud hanging over my head,” he says.