Naturalized lawns could soon become commonplace in the City of Belleville.
At its next meeting, City Council will consider amending its land maintenance by-law to allow naturalized lawns.
Naturalization involves turning a cultivated landscape, such as a lawn, into a more natural landscape using native species of grasses, wildflowers or other plants.
It can create habitats for pollinators and require less watering and fertilization.
Several other municipalities including Quinte West and Prince Edward County have already made the move.
Belleville’s lawn maintenance by-law was last updated about 10 years ago.
The city’s Green Task Force chair, Councillor Chris Malette says thev have had an increasing number of people asking about creating a naturalized lawn.
“Promotion of pollinators which, as we all know, is very important for the biodiversity of the planet. And we do need the pollinators to be healthy and one of the ways we can do that is to have a more natural environment.”
He says times certainly have changed.
“Our mom and dad always thought that that was the coolest looking thing around was you know, a bowling green or a putting green front lawn. But it’s not really a diverse place for, you know, flora or fauna to flourish and it certainly isn’t too friendly to the pollinators.”
Malette says allowing naturalized lawns won’t mean people can throw away their lawn mowers and let the weeds grow.
“This by-law introduces about a half-dozen or more new weeds that other agencies such as Quinte Conservation has said, you know what, seeing as you’re updating your by-law, you can throw these six new weeds on there to add to the list.”
A recent public survey by the city indicated a lot of support for naturalized lawns.
The by-law amendment will be up for approval at Belleville City Council’s next meeting in August.
