Earlier this week, we'd posted North Mankato declares “Monarch Wayfair” lawn a public nuisance from “infestation of the premises by plants, animals, and birds.”
Now Star Tribune guy John Reinan picks up the story--and tells it so much better--in Retired professor fights to keep his North Mankato yard natural; N. Mankato man's natural yard attracts insects, wildlife, complaints:
Ed Borchardt's yard doesn't look like any other on his block. And that's his intention.
"The bees and the butterflies love this," Borchardt said, pointing out plant varieties. "They'll be out here working all day."
Borchardt, who taught physics and botany for 33 years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, has lived in his modest ranch home for nearly four decades. And from the start, he planned his yard as a natural haven.
The yard bursts with milkweed, goldenrod, peonies and hostas. With crabapple, pear, plum and elderberry trees; with high bush cranberries.
Borchardt's plants are leafless now, of course, but in the springtime, "this will all be flowering, and it's beautiful," he said. "The whole yard will be beautiful."
With the flowers and berries will come bees, birds, butterflies and other insects, providing endless fascination for Borchardt and his wife, Ann.
But not everyone enjoys looking at Borchardt's yard. After a series of complaints going back several years, the city of North Mankato last week cited him for maintaining a nuisance property, calling out the "rank growth of vegetation" that "unreasonably annoys a considerable number of the members of the public." The citation also mentions "the infestation of the premises by plants, animals, and birds."
"We have … complaints about growth of vegetation on the property," said Michael Fischer, the city's director of community development, as well as "reports of raccoons, woodchucks, mice and feral cats on the property." . . .
Good Lord! Groundhogs gone wild.
Read the rest at the Star Tribune.
Related posts:
- North Mankato declares “Monarch Wayfair” lawn a public nuisance from “infestation of the premises by plants, animals, and birds.”
- Buzz kill: North Mankato Planning Commission not so much into lawns to legumes
Photo: Welcome to North Mankato, except for critters and birds.
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