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Appeal Court rules in favour of property owner who let his lawn go wild, after neighbours complained.
Published Jan 12, 2026 • 2 minute read
A mix of May greenery that sprouted at a residential property, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Cornwall, Ont. Photo by Hugo Rodrigues /Cornwall Standard-FreeholderArticle content
Since Jan. 6, Wolf Ruck has been sitting back planning his garden for this year’s growing season like fellow gardeners across Canada.
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The difference is that while others are planning what they will grow, creating new beds and planting new trees, Ruck’s plans involve what he won’t plant or maintain while waiting for Mother Nature to surprise him with what seeds blow in or are carried in by wildlife to the garden he has enjoyed since the 1970s.
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In 2021, Ruck decided to stop growing a manicured garden on his Mississauga property and to let nature lead the way as to what grows and where, while he sits back with binoculars and watches wildlife enjoy it. This isn’t to say he does nothing as he keeps mowed pathways through the tall grasses and clumps of what many refer to as weeds.
The City of Mississauga received its first complaint about Ruck’s naturalized garden in 2021. Then, in 2022 and 2023 it received more complaints. As bylaw action is usually initiated by complaints, the city issued a notice of contravention. In the following years, Mississauga took matters into its own hands and cut and cleaned Ruck’s garden itself, using city owned equipment and employees.
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The costs were added to his annual property tax bill.
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While all this was going on, Ruck and Mississauga fought it out in the court system. Basically, the city’s bylaw, which prohibits the growth of grass over the height of 20 centimetres as well as prohibiting certain noxious weeds to grow on one’s property, versus Ruck’s right to self-expression through his gardens located on his own property.
When two lower-level courts both decided the bylaw contravened Ruck’s basic rights under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the fight was taken to the Ontario Superior Court where Ruck represented himself.
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Mississauga used the argument that, according to its own report, the bylaw “contributes to a healthy and safe environment for occupants within the city,” as well as a review of similar bylaws in other jurisdictions.
In other words, everyone else is doing it so we are too!
On Jan. 6, Superior Court Judge M.T. Doi released his ruling that agreed with Ruck.
He stated, “no evidence was led to show how a maximum grass height of 20 centimetres, or the removal of enumerated nuisance weeds and seeds would impact public health or safety and ecological diversity in urban settings where the bylaw applied”
The judge also wrote, “it is not sufficient to say we are doing what everyone else is doing.” He did not grant Ruck any of the monetary awards he had requested.
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As it now stands, a naturalized garden in any city or town which has a bylaw against gardens containing long grass or weeds is protected by this court ruling.
I feel such bylaws are purely attempts by municipal governments to maintain a standard of beautification within their borders, keeping a uniform look to houses and gardens for everyone driving by. Individual expressions of beauty, which differ from the norm, and especially those held by councillors and administrative staff, are not allowed.
Doi’s decision supports the concept beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Canadians have the right to enjoy their own gardens.
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