Man fights to keep his lawn un-mowed and natural in Mississauga

What looks like a wild, unkept lawn to some people is a thriving habitat garden to others.

In Mississauga, sprawling green lawns were a hallmark of a city that grew rapidly in the 1950s and 60s when turf grass was king. But people are starting to rethink the traditional lawn in favour of pollinator or habitat gardens.

Mississauga resident Wolf Ruck transformed his front lawn from grass to pollinator habitat but has had to fight the city to keep it intact. His story has appeared in national news and in the London, England-based Guardian newspaper.

Since 2021, city bylaw officers have visited Ruck’s property, next to the Etobicoke Creek in the city’s east end. In 2022 and 2023, officers, acting on complaints from neighbours, cut down tall grasses and removed plants on his property.

Ruck went to court to fight the enforcement and the hefty fines that come with it. He tells INsauga.com that creating the garden is his freedom of expression, which is protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the city argued the lawn was contrary to the weed control bylaw.

He lost the court challenge in May and recently filed an appeal. He says there was a misrepresentation of his case.

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“I’m not challenging the constitutionality of the bylaw,” Ruck says. Instead, he says it’s a freedom of expression issue and the enforcement also violates the Ontario Weed Control Act. He also says he wasn’t given clarity on the reasons behind the enforcement on this lawn. He believes neighbours simply don’t like the look of his property but he wasn’t provided with proof that the plants were a safety or health hazard.

“Well, if you are charged with something, you should know what the charge is,” he says. “Well, [the officers say] ‘there’s a risk of fire, there’s a risk of health, there’s a risk of sight lines being disturbed, and there’s a risk of rodent infestations, etc.’ But there’s no evidence that has been provided to me by the city.”

Ruck documented the bylaw enforcement officers cutting his lawn in a video.

Because the matter is before the courts, a City of Mississauga spokesperson says they do not have any further comment on the case.

Ruck’s fight comes as more people are choosing to tear up their turf grass in favour of a habitat garden.

The Toronto Metropolitan University Ecological Design Lab, led by Professor Nina-Marie Lister, has seen calls from the public increase in the last four years.

“We’ve seen a fourfold increase in the number of calls we get for help,” Lister told INsauga.com.

People call asking what to do when a bylaw officer issues a ticket or a notice of violation for weed or tall grass infractions.

Part of the work of the Ecological Design Lab’s Bylaws for Biodiversity project is to help municipalities in the “revision of outdated, colonially-rooted weed and grass by-laws.”

Lister said the lab has had productive conversations with officials from the City of London, Prince Edward County, Kingston and Burlington about policies. Thus far she hasn’t spoken to staff or councillors from the City of Mississauga but would welcome queries.

The City of Mississauga spokesperson says the city updated the Nuisance Weed and Tall Grass Control By-law, By-law 0125-2017 in 2023 and has no plans to update it at this time.

Some cities, such as the City of Toronto, have updated their bylaws to address concerns around growing a habitat garden.

Lister notes that there are rules when it comes to habitat gardens or naturalized yards.

“We’re not suggesting that people turn their backs on their yards and let them become a part of the feral condition of anything goes, which could include plants and species that are harmful to people and to other species. We don’t support inclusion of invasive species or harmful and noxious plants,” Lister says.

In Toronto, there is now a list of prohibited plants, which are harmful or invasive, and it also specifies turf grass as the type of grass that must not exceed 20 centimetres in height.

While the revisions to the Toronto bylaw are an improvement, Lorraine Johnson, a writer and community advocate who worked on the bylaw, tells INsauga.com there are still issues.

“Unfortunately, our experience in Toronto with this much-improved bylaw is that enforcement has not caught up with the progress,” said Johnson.

Johnson notes that bylaw officers have a lot on their plates.

“Bylaw officers have to enforce a huge array of issues on which they have to be knowledgeable, or at least have a possible understanding,” she says.

Correctly identifying plants takes experience and detailed knowledge.

Ruck says bylaw officers who visited his property mistook some native plants for harmful weeds.

Turf grass should also be specified in Mississauga bylaw, he says. There are hundreds of different types of grasses, Ruck says, and cutting tall grass is so vague, it’s unenforceable.

“Some grasses grow naturally, three feet high and they’re beautiful and they’re ornamental and/or they’re native flowers or plants. They are not what’s called turf grass,” says Ruck.

Mississauga bylaw officers are provided with a detailed package to identify noxious weeds that are listed in the bylaw. In addition, and as required, Mississauga Forestry staff will attend properties to assist in identifying noxious weeds.

But some of what Mississauga labels as “noxious weeds” are from the provincial list meant for agricultural properties, Johnson says. 

“So many of those plant species are on the list of regulation for agricultural reasons and they absolutely cause no problem whatsoever in an urban situation, they impact farms,” she says.

A sow thistle plant. Photo: David Brown

One example is the sow thistle, which was growing on Ruck’s property as well as along nearby creeks. Sow thistle is on Mississauga’s noxious weeds list but is not a problem in an urban setting, Johnson says.

“It’s not an invasive plant in natural areas, it doesn’t cause ecological harm. It doesn’t cause any threat to humans,” she says.

Johnson, who has been writing about native plant gardening and naturalization for more than 30 years, says milkweed was once on Ontario’s noxious weed list. Now, milkweed is in many habitat gardens as it is the only known larval host plant for the endangered monarch butterfly.

Common milkweed. Photo: Ryan Hodnett

The movement to create more habitat gardens has spurred a call to action recently.

Last month, a group of conservationists including Johnson, Lister, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and the David Suzuki Foundation, published an open letter to Canadian municipalities urging municipal bylaw reforms to support the development of habitat gardens.

While many cities, including Mississauga, encourage the native species and pollinator gardens, some bylaws hinder these gardens on private property. Most municipal property standards or grass and weed bylaws remain outdated and do not reflect current environmental, social, and economic realities, the letter states.

Johnson is hopeful that more municipalities will change their bylaws.

“What’s really fantastic is that this movement for reform of these bylaws has really taken off in the last few years, as more and more people start fighting back when they receive a notice under a vague and arbitrary bylaw,” she says.

Photo: Wolf Ruck

Ruck just hopes to garden his way on his property.

“Other people’s expression is a well-tended garden with beautiful cultivar flowers…,” he says. “I’m not interested in that. My expression is nature. That’s what gives me meaning and fulfillment when I look out I see that I’m doing my little part, you know, to fight the decline in biodiversity by providing food and shelter and place for insects and small animals to propagate.”

For more information on Ruck’s fight, see his website here.