Florida Couple Forced to Dig Up 17-Year Old Organic Garden

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. You got that right.

A few years ago I got rid of all of my lawn and planted (mostly native) flowers, shrubs, fruit trees and vegetables. My next door neighbors had a fit - when I told the neighbor what I was doing, he said, "No! I LIKE grass!" They have been giving me a hard time ever since, griping that it's "wild" and "untended" (it is neither). If they had bothered to listen to me I could have told them why each plant was there and what it did; why native plants attract pollinators and are hardier and more disease-resistant than non-natives; why a carefully-designed garden is eventually less labor-intensive than a lawn; why a garden benefits the environment in ways a lawn doesn't, etc., etc. But they like the golf-course look, which can be acquired only by using pesticides and herbicides.

I wish they would move away and leave me alone.

Fortunately, at least my city doesn't mind (and actually encourages) what I'm doing.