Couple battling municipality over 'nuisance' wildflower garden

By CBC News Ottawa, July 20, 2020

A western Quebec couple is in a battle with their municipality over a specially designed yard containing milkweed, tall grasses and wildflowers.

Last summer, the municipality of La Pêche informed Jazmine Maisonneuve and Samuel Cloutier, both 37, that the tall-growing vegetation on the commercial property surrounding a new workshop facility in the village of Masham constituted a "nuisance."

Last month, the municipality sent them another warning and told them they faced a $400 fine if they didn't mow it.

"We very deliberately and intentionally did not sow grass. We don't want to mow our lawn. We don't want a lawn, in fact — we want a meadow," said Maisionneuve, a landscape designer.

The municipality told the couple that a neighbour complained the yard — which is filled with milkweed, thistles, purple asters, Queen Anne's lace and other flowers that attract pollinators — lowered neighbouring property values.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/fine-masham-wildflower-garden-bylaw-lawn-1.5653829?ref=mobilerss&cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Ottawa_1643_61802

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