In defense of weeds.

Homeowners are Letting Their Lawns Go to Seed

June 3, 1994 was an ideal day for a home garden tour in Tulsa, Oklahoma - the weather was beautiful and the plants were in full bloom. That day, over 800 people had visited Evelyn Connor's garden, and they had been impressed by her lush naturalistic landscape, which includes Mullein pinks and a mass of three-foot-high native purple coneflowers.

The mailman also came to Evelyn's home that day, but not to appreciate the flowers; he delivered a citation from the city charging the 82-year-old widow with violating Tulsa's weed ordinances. An anonymous neighbor had phoned in a complaint about Evelyn's front yard, calling her wildflowers "weeds," and demanded that they be mowed.

By the next day, after Evelyn made a few calls of her own, her plight was on the front page, not just locally, but all over the country. The Associated Press picked up her story and TV stations sent out crews to interview her. Angry calls also started arriving at City Hall. The city of Tulsa concluded that it had picked on the wrong 82-year-old widow, apologized, and withdrew the complaint.

While this case is charming and inspiring (a TV movie is planned) the sad fact is that from coast to coast, homeowners who choose to deviate from the conventional look - well-trimmed lawns, clipped boxhedges and annuals lined up neatly in rows - run the risk of being loathed by neighbors, cited, and fined by their communities.

The Million-Dollar Lawn

Myrdene Anderson of West Lafayette, Indiana is a professor of anthropology at Purdue University, and also a natural gardener. Her neighbors aren't, and were infuriated by her prairie grass and wildflower landscape. In 1988, a petition was filed with 68 signatures asking the city to make her mow it all down to what they considered an acceptable height. Myrdene is still fighting the citation, but with a penalty of $500 for every day she refuses to mow, she is now looking at a fine of over $1 million.

Going to court is an extreme step that most people would rather avoid, says Bret Rappaport, a Chicago attorney who specializes in fighting weed laws. Instead, he believes that educating people about the benefits of natural landscapes will go a long way toward ending discriminatory weed laws.

In most cases, Rappaport asserts, traditional weed ordinances are used against natural landscapers, not out of vindictiveness or meanness, but out of ignorance. "It's not really surprising,' he says. "We all grew up with the conventional lawn landscape. It never occurs to most people to try anything else."

People tend to label as weeds any plants they aren't familiar with and which aren't standard nursery stock. Native plants are often mistakenly called "weeds" but, in fact, weeds do not occur in nature. Weeds are alien invaders that thrive in disturbed areas. Johnson grass, nutgrass and crab-grass are just a few of the more common ones. Often they arrive in home landscapes with a truckload of topsoil.

Rewriting the Laws

Rappaport makes it clear that he is not against the concept of weed ordinances, because "some people let their yards get out of hand and hurt the neighborhood." What he is against, Rappaport says, is the use of these ordinances as weapons against neighbors who don't conform to the standard "acceptable" look. "We grant our neighbors the right to have colored gravel, tacky concrete statuary and Astroturf on the front porch," says Rappaport. "It's only fair that we also grant homeowners the right to have natural landscapes. And they reduce watering, eliminate the need for chemical pesticides, and provide sanctuaries for songbirds, butterflies and a host of desirable wildlife."

One approach that is being adopted by communities across the country is the "setback" ordinance. "Imagine a natural landscape: wildflowers, groundcovers, shrubs, accent grasses, trees, all growing much as they do in nature. If the homeowner put a two- to five-foot low border around this natural area, it would have a landscaped, planned look. Again, it might not be a neighbor's idea of a traditional landscape look, but it has become more acceptable."

This approach has worked for Walter and Nancy Stewart of Potomac, Maryland. Their natural landscape was once called "disgraceful" by an anonymous neighbor who stuck a warning note in their mailbox. Cited by the city, they prepared for their day in court. "When the city saw our witness list - people from The Audubon Society and other leading environmentalists," Walter recalls, "and when our story got told on Good Morning America, they backed off. Not only that, but they revised the ordinance to allow for a set-back."

Largely because of his involvement with weed laws, Rappaport has become an advocate for natural landscaping."We have to understand," he says, "that we do not live apart from nature. We are a part of nature."

CONTACT: The Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, 180 North LaSalle, Suite 2700, Chicago, IL 60601/[phone].

ANDY WASOWSKI is a Texas-based freelance writer and photographer specializing in gardening and environmental issues. With his wife, Sally, he has co-authored several books on native landscaping.