Bartlett mows his native landscaping

My Bartlett yard (icode6.net/native suburbia) is a beautiful example of native plant landscaping. I recently received a mow order from the village asserting that I have violated the municipal code and that the garden in the parkway is a hazard.

Repeated attempts to arrange a meeting with the village representative that sent the letter, Jim Plonczynski, were met with curt responses insisting on mowing.

Based on my previous interactions with the Village of Bartlett, I believed that it was represented by reasonable people who face the difficult challenge of balancing a wide variety of resident concerns. My recent interactions with Mr. Plonczynski have shown that he is not concerned with any such balancing.

On July 15, I arrived home from work to find that the parkway garden had been mowed to about 2 inches high. Bartlett is a little less green now.

I had maintained this parkway garden for four years. I regularly removed weeds and trash, and ensured that the sidewalk was not blocked. I have had strangers stop and comment on the beauty of the garden. It was filled with a variety of native forbs and grasses, which provided stormwater management benefits as well as habitat for bees, birds and butterflies. The Village of Bartlett chose to reduce it to a barren patch of ground to address anonymous complaints from residents who are ignorant of the benefits that the plants provided.

It is disappointing that anonymous complaints will drive village officials to get creative with the interpretation of the municipal code. Even more disappointing is that while Bartlett claims to be going green, they ignore the benefits of a native plant garden in the parkway.

I would like Bartlett to understand that native plant gardens should be encouraged, not persecuted. It is time to embrace a new environmentally beneficial aesthetic.

Donald Zouras

Bartlett