OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article about the city ordering a resident to cut her lawn, published Aug. 18.
This thing about yards is not so simple.
But to begin simply, there are people who sincerely care about bees and the state of the natural world and there are people who might use such a cause as an excuse to be lazy and let their properties become overgrown and appear derelict.
A little balance and a willingness to be reasonable are in order.
In practical terms, those who no longer wish to manage grass could grow lawns of clover. Clover is a happy, easy-to-grow, bee-friendly ground cover that reaches heights of three to eight inches depending on the variety, with the option to mow or not to mow. (The city might consider clover as a substitute for grass on boulevards.)
Those who wish to provide more specific habitat for bees and other worthy insects could set aside part of their yard as a natural environment in the same way that part of a lawn has traditionally been devoted to more conventional gardens. A two-thirds orderly to one-third wild/natural, or some other percentage, could be decided upon and guidelines put in place.
Allowing homeowners to give their entire yards over to nature is risky as there is no beauty in absolute chaos and most would not want to make the effort to think out and maintain a design including the height of plants, blending of colours and finding a balance between order and abandon.
It is the tension between order and disorder that makes a landscape beautiful. A path running cleanly through a riot of flowers, a clearing surrounded by a woods, the sweeping limbs of a graceful tree set against a tightly clipped hedge please both eye and soul.
And that is important because not only does a yard reveal a great deal about its owner; neighbours and passersby are impacted for better or worse psychologically and emotionally, not just financially. Deciding in favour of life includes not just the natural world but making sure that humans, the most dangerous of all creatures, feel inspired and purposeful rather than adrift, confused, and depressed. Unhappy people cause no end of trouble.
With a little effort, thought, and consideration, we should be able to accommodate both the well-being of bees and people. You may not believe it but yards affect the human condition, and those who don’t look after their yards may be disheartening others. A yard should be as beautiful as an owner’s circumstance allows, or at least send a positive message of being loved and cared for.
Humans and nature are inextricably linked and both have a delicate balance. But human nature may be the most complicated of all. Letting your yard run wild is too easy an answer.
Kate Grigg
Orillia
