Homeowner Faces Citation for Her 'Woke' Garden: Native Plants, KY 🌿

[appalachiablue]

'Gardener faces citation for her ‘woke’ garden: ‘Glad this is spreading’ Yahoo News, Oct. 18, 2023. 🌱 🦋

Reddit recently joined an ongoing debate about one Kentucky homeowner’s native plant garden. According to the Courier Journal article this Redditor shared, master gardener Jacquelyn Hawkins-McGrail lives in the Hunting Creek neighborhood of Prospect, Ky.

In 2005, Hawkins-McGrail decided to turn her yard into a certified wildlife habitat, replacing her grass with a variety of native plants that support birds, monarch butterflies, and other living creatures.

This didn’t go over well with Hawkins-McGrail’s neighbors, the Courier Journal reports. At least one posted online to accuse her of “woke gardening,” while at least one other reported her to the city of Prospect, resulting in a citation, which Hawkins-McGrail was fighting.

Native plants have a wide range of benefits for homeowners and the environment. They don’t need much beyond the natural rain, sunlight, and soil in their native region, so they’re easy to keep, saving owners time, money, and water. They also support local wildlife, including the insects that feed larger animals and the pollinators that keep plant populations healthy...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gardener-faces-citation-her-woke-200000651.html

[diane in sf]

1. Some of her neighbors are morons and their boring chemical yards are death zones. Eom

[jimfields33]

7. You can use earth friendly chemicals now. It's 2023, not 1970.

I’d hate that yard for a neighbor. If it was nicely done is one thing, but I believe she’s just lazy and doesn’t want to mow her yard.

[getagrip_already]

9. It probably takes more time and thought than yours

And the key word here is it is HER yard. Go.pound some sand in yours, respectfully, of course.

Seriously, most of us live in an urban dessert. There are no food sources pollinators can use because people who want green and tidy kill them.

There are no wildflowers, no dandelions, no goldenrod, no wild blackberries, no nothing.

But certainly, kill your grubs, and your mites, and your midges, and mosquitos, and crabgrass, and broadgrass, and dandelions, and weeds of all kinds, and anything that crawls or Flys or stings or bites.

And turn your neighbors in if they let their lawns go a quarter inch too high. Lazy bsstards.

[appalachiablue]

11. ++

[jimfields33]

15. It is strange that you don't see dandelions anymore. They used to be everywhere.

I literally don’t think I’ve seen one in person in over 10 years.

[niyad]

35. See post 21.

[niyad]

36. YES!!!!

[LuvLoogie]

16. I'm pretty sure you'd hate our yard.

I'd dare you to call my wife lazy, though.

[jimfields33]

18. I have no idea one way or the other.

I’m in one of those pesky HOAs that everyone hates who don’t live in one.

[shrike3]

27. Just my personal experience: people who live in HOAs tend to be the "ma freedom" types.

Yet they love control, so long as it's for everyone but them.

[jimfields33]

30. Could be. But everyone no matter what must comply or they get kicked out of fined.

They are definitely not for everyone. That’s another form of diversity in differences where you decide to live. Every person can live where they want which is nice.

[shrike3]

41. Doesn't sound too American to me, ie., Democratic. But that's me.

Really weird. People who say they're all about freedom (the people that I know) don't want freedom for anybody else. Want everyone to be controlled. Strange. Why I'd never live in one.

[niyad]

37. Nothing was said in the article about an HOA, but keep on

attacking people in this thread. We need the laughs.

[jimfields33]

38. Laugh away.

I’d didn’t realize you couldn’t add to the thread. Sorry. I’ll definitely ask you next time if it’s cool with you.

[appalachiablue]

32. Well done

[niyad]

21. Her yard is a certified wildlife habitat, NOT "she is lazy". it

is fairly obvious that you pay no attention to the environmental toll that the passion for useless green lawns causes, which is a pity. And, by the way, I do not know where you live (clearly, not next door to me, Goddess be thanked), but where I live, dandelions are EVERYWHERE, especially in spring. And, equally clearly, you know nothing about the beneficial uses of those beautiful (look at them closely) little plants, every part of which is useful. The leaves are used raw in salads, or brewed as a tonic to clear winter sludge. The flowers are made into dandelion wine and jelly. And the dried roots are used for intestinal issues. Many nurseries sell many different varieties of dandelions, so, no, they have not been eliminated.

[jimfields33]

39. Yep. My neighbor brings me food. Thank god!

I’m not sure you’d do that.

[niyad]

40. I don't see why not. Would even make one of my special

dishes.

[RockRaven]

2. Note that she made the changes (or started to) in 2005...

Wasn't aware "woke" gardening was that old.

Man, her neighbors are idiots.

[appalachiablue]

33. Saw that, the neighbors are dying to use woke...

[Mossfern]

3. Native gardens don't need to look messy

A bit of planning and borders and pathways can make them look quite pleasant.

My next door neighbor does what she thinks is native gardening, but has so many alien invasive plants in her yard. I tried to educate them about invasive plants diminishing, even eradicating habitat, but was told that it was too much work for them to monitor and eliminate them from their property. They have a National Wildlife plaque on their property. They hand feed deer - so much for National Wildlife Federation quality control.

I'm a Master Gardener in New Jersey, so I know a bit about this issue.

[calimary]

13. Appreciate the expertise!

I guess maybe it's just the individual circumstances - some people have time to put into their garden. I'm retired so that includes me. But others can't for all kinds of legitimate reasons ranging from job to kids to sick/elderly relative to take care of and more.

Ever thought of offering some sort of educational Garden Visit in your neighborhood for an hour or two on a nice weekend afternoon in the front yard? I'd sure go to something like that! I'm a total amateur, but I enjoy it, and I'm getting to know all kinds of plants and shrubs and trees and ground-cover that we sure didn't have in SoCal! And right now, it's leaf-changing season, and the profusion of color is simply amazing! You should see my garage - on work tables and even the floor, COVERED in leaves being pressed and dried for crafting and stuff. I take the best ones and laminate them for bookmarks, easy gifting, and other flat fun.

I'm curious about what kinds of plantings your neighbor has.

[Mossfern]

14. There really are no plantings, just whatever comes up.

I did notice that recently they planted a single privet on their front lawn. Privet is considered an alien invasive species. Honestly, I'm tired of trying to explain to them.

I'm especially disappointed because the gentleman who live there previously was the person who initiated the Master Gardeners program in our county. He kept an organic vegetable garden that provided for him and his wife throughout the year. He was an early advocate of organic gardening - since the 1960's I believe. A wonderful man who would place a lawn chair in the middle of his garden, invite any of my children to have a seat and supply them with an Audubon book and a pair of binoculars.

[DeschutesRiver]

17. She is also a Master Gardener

…according to the article on the Courier Journal.

[Mossfern]

20. Then she should know

how to make her native garden attractive.

[niyad]

22. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.". I found her garden

charming.

[appalachiablue]

34. +1

[niyad]

4. Some of her neighbors, and whoever issued that citation,

are beyond morons. hmmmmm, perhaps a midnight visit with lots of mint seed would be in order???

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. I can supply the mint and some multiflora rose.

[niyad]

6. Ahhh, a person after my own heart! That will be even more fun

than the sunflowers I had planned for the obnoxious, unwelcome business in our neighborhood.

[DBoon]

8. or maybe catnip instead?

[niyad]

23. Catnip (catmint) is a member of the mint family. It grows

wild everywhere around here.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

19. Hah! You want the invasive species that ate the South

Plant some Kudzu in their yards...

[niyad]

24. Actually, kudzu has various healing properties, in some

Eastern practices. But it is, indeed, an invasive thing.

[Ocelot II]

28. Poison ivy.

[niyad]

29. Now there is a thought.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

42. Purslane and kudzu

Good luck eliminating those once they get even a hint of taking root somewhere.

[niyad]

43. I had forgotten about purslane.

[Auggie]

10. "Woke" gardening? That is sooooooo mind boggling STUPID!

[niyad]

25. I had to read the title three times. I was certain I was not

reading it correctly.

[barbtries]

12. i'm truly baffled

how a person's garden is objectionable? fucking right wing shit stirrers, someone should tell them to get a life.

her garden is beautiful. only right wing idiots could find that offensive. smh

[Ocelot II]

26. I, too, practice woke gardening,

and I'm also a Master Gardener. I eliminated my lawn about 10 years ago and filled my yard with mostly native plants which were chosen intentionally to include species that attract pollinators and birds. I remove invasive plants, but if useful ones turn up on their own (and they do) I don't bother them. So in addition to plants like joe-pye weed and black-eyed susans and coneflowers and bee-balm and decorative grasses I've also wound up with Philadelphia fleabane and New England asters and a few others that have just appeared by themselves. A few areas are very shady so there are non-native hostas and pulmonaria and a few others along with native solomon's seal, ferns and jacobs-ladder. Fortunately my city doesn't get heartburn over non-turf yards, so there are many others like this in my neighborhood of old houses and smallish yards. I did have a next-door neighbor who hated my yard and regularly let me know how much he hated it, which included by spraying Round-Up all along the property line, killing several valuable shrubs, and by cutting tree branches beyond the property line and throwing them into my yard. But praise the goddess, last year he and his nasty wife and bratty child moved away, probably to some suburban development with a fascist HOA to regulate its cookie-cutter McMansions and lawns of useless turfgrass.

[Bayard]

31. Prospect neighborhood

That says it all. Lots of wealth there.

When we moved here 10 yrs ago, the whole front part of the property was a dead grass wasteland. The only trees were in the woods. I've lost count of how many trees we've planted, and some of the fast growers are now twice as tall as the house. Plus, we don't feel like we're living in a fishbowl now.

We also put in a large run off pond (which is now down to a small puddle--no rain), for the ducks, geese, and wildlife. I have a huge flower garden right in front of the house. The only thing we water is newly planted trees.

We have goats on one side, and horses on the other. They are quite efficient at mowing.

I actually lived next door to neighbors like this woman for several years in Louisville. It was terrific. They filled their backyard with native trees and plants, that had paths through it to look at everything. It was scandalous to the rest of the neighborhood, but we loved it.