You can spray your sidewalks and driveways and any area of your years with pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides that poison the insects, wildlife, humans, get into the ground water, etc and that is just fine. But have a wild garden and you will be endlessly harassed and fined. Yup, makes total sense.
@@Makrel94 I am a lover of this country and a patriot. This does not diminish that as I believe there is much to be proud of. I have the ability to both love the freedoms we have and want to preserve them and also see where we can improve at the Federal, State, and local levels.
cops being cops lol trying to bully her into submission! but this is a beautiful story otherwise 🦋 just shows how nature brings ppl together ❤ it is our direct connection to the divine! 💪😇
This tick excuse is crappy. If her garden is bringing in birds that eat ticks then it’s a pretty balanced ecosystem and there should be no increase in ticks. On top of that it’s HER PROPERTY! She bought it! Doesn’t sound like she signed an HOA contract! Leave her alone!
It is a city and county code issue, and without having it look tended and rather it looks unkept, they can and will eventually force her to do something years down the road and fighting it always ends the same way. IF YOU READ THIS, I hope she contacts her local horticulture and botanical societies. They can offer her some very valuable information on maintaining the garden while being in line with codes with simple things such as trimming the bushes and trees and use of garden decorations and walkways that clearly show the garden is cultivated and cared for. NY is one of the harder places in towns to dictate what you can and cannot do with your property. No one wants their property values to go down and that's what she truly is fighting.
That's what I said. I work on a small forested patch landlocked inside of a suburban block. We already had deer, raccoon, gophers & turkey wander through here often, before & there were ticks here before. Ever since it took off, I haven't seen a single tick & I walk through there all the time. Mosquito population goes through cycles that keep them relatively under control too.
@@lumindina699 It doesn't always end the same. See Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll, in FL. My town in the midwest just made plans for Native and Pollinator gardens and is educating the citizens AND the code enforcement people. THIS is how change is made. The CODE and the antiquated views of "pretty" (read "I have lots of money") needs to change. Not Jenae.
You can get your yard declared as a wildlife refuge. She should look into that. National Wildlife Foundation has a check list, online application and $20 annual membership fee. She can also check with her state Audubon or Native Plant Society. I think she's just missing a water feature. Surprised her attorneys didn't do that already.
@@Jenaesaisquoi They’ll care when the smack up against state and federal law. A federal nature preserve is nationally protected, once a area ha been declared a refuge they face jail time and fines if they damage and destroy it. You may wish to research the law that protects refuges, and speak to a solicitor educated in this area to assist you further.
Fight fire with fire. Stop apologizing and criticize the status quo for their insane lack of aesthetics. NO, the neighbor's lawns do NOT look better. They look lifeless and boring, like the culture that produced them.
And it takes SO MUCH water! Last year, I was flying into Albuquerque, NM, a gorgeous desert region. My gobs were smacked to see spots of irrigated turf grasses from the plane. I drove through a neighborhood to get to the La Luz Trailhead to hike and could not believe how many homes had green turf grass! I suppose it could have been manufactured turf, but the thought of watering a freaking lawn in New Mexico was nuts to me!
I live in the desert. During a drought, the HOA was sending notices that our lawns were not green enough. There was no way to water enough to keep it to their preferred level of greeness without violating the water restrictions in our area. Finally, enough of us complained that they backed off...for now anyway. Infuriating.
The crazy thing is, mowed lawns haven't always been in style. People used to love dandelions, wild flowers, etc. My neighbors use chemicals to keep their lawn green and weed free. How is that healthy for the environment?!?
I agree, if it's her property and it isn't spilling over into others and causing damage to others let her do what she wants, but I'll admit if she's attracting an abnormal amount of bee's and wasps and a neighbor is allergic it can cause issues but I'm sure they could find a way to make it work.
If Catskill NY doesn't like her flower and herb garden for fear of crime, they could always arrest, prosecute and lock up criminals. Instead of trampling on her right to persue happiness.
@@eibrahim22 serious question: what's the appeal of New York? With the stuffs people be talking it's like a GTA Online public lobby. Why would anyone want to live there? Coming from a Florida man
@DanDaFreakinMan as a southerner (im from GA) who currently lives and works in Upstate NY, i have to say, as lomg as you dont go to NYC, or the outlying counties that have that... culture. Its amazing up here.
@@DanDaFreakinMan How's that home insurance working for you in hurricane season in FL? At least you get to silence a company's free speech down there, I guess.
They might as well tell everyone they have to have their lights on 24 hours a day Because a house with the lights on is less likely to be burglarized than a house with all the lights off.
I hate this obsession with manicured lawns, it's artificial and boring. We should all be planting native plants. My mother is a master gardener and for the last 5 years she has been doing exactly what this woman is doing and it has paid off in so many ways.
And these “perfect lawns” also reveals the stupidity of the people who likes them. Look at all those water guzzling lawns being grown in the middle of deserts where water is already extremely scarce.
If you want to pick on someone, aim your gripes at Monsanto for wiping out much of the pollinator population. When I think of the Catskills, I think of wilderness & natural beauty! We need a .ot more wildflowers, not manicured lawns. Our food supply needs to support pollinators.
Totally agree!, I have sheep they do most of the mowing for me!, most properties have a city easement, I never understood why home owners had to mowing that city should!
Reminds me of my neighbor who constantly complained about the squirrels but had a plastic squirrel among the "decorations" in the gravel coated patch of "garden" in her yard.
I totally agree with this woman. People need to get over their 1950s “My lawn is better than yours” competition. This is so shallow. Pollinators need us. Let’s be decent and live in harmony with nature.
I wasn't at all surprised to hear that it's in Catskill, NY. I grew up about 25 minutes away from there. Over the past 20-or-so years we've had a lot of folks from NYC move into Catskill and the surrounding areas (including my town). This in of itself isn't a problem, except a large amount of them arrived, threw fits over the local farmers (especially dairy farmers), people with chickens in their yards, and people with bigger wilder gardens, who'd already been established there for generations. They'd hound the local town governments and harass to try to shut down the farms, gardens, home coops, etc. and I wouldn't be shocked if that's the situation this lady is dealing with here, too.
We’re experiencing this in SC with Ohio transplants right now. One actually got booed and laughed out of a small local gas station this weekend - with power outages and wifi down, they could only take cash and this fella was not happy. Thought he could just skip the line and yell at the attendant with a whole crowd of locals watching him.
For all the people complaining about climate and eco harm. They want to destroy a fantastic way to keep the eco thriving. Some people have no common sense!
The people complaining about climate change and eco harm would be supportive of this woman. She is doing exactly what everyone should be doing to combat some of our environmental problems.
I am a man, and my yard looks like yours. Listening to your story, reminds me of what my mother says to me, about my yard. Keep doing it. You're making the world a more beautiful place.
The state should be paying her and anyone else to create native gardens, supporting the local biosphere that gives/supports life for EVERYONE. We need nature education in every school. Seriously.
Grass is the most inefficient, labor intensive, high polluting way to maintain a property. Lawn fertilizers, weed control, soil conditioners for lawn have such a negative consequence to soil and ground water.
We have a lawn. We don't water it or fertilize it. If it grows, it grows, and we mow it. My husband loves to mow. I spent decades trying to figure out how to make my gardens pretty, beneficial, and easy to care for. And how to keep him from mowing everything. I gave up. Let him mow.
Unfortunately that is the way of life! I have one neighbor who constantly calls code on me because I have livestock on my property. I am zoned residential agricultural and I have the right to have livestock on my property and grow the plants I choose to grow. I will continue to fight for my rights because when you don't you lose those rights! Besides I lived on this property for many more years than them. They knew what was here BEFORE THEM!
Thats the problem. Everybody up in someones kool-aid. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS PEOPLE! She finds happiness and peace in gardening. Whats wrong with that? I identify as a human being.
I ❤❤❤ Natural Gardens. And she is right, it invites birds and dragonflies and more positive bugs that control bad bugs like mosquitoes. Arent there bigger issues her neighbors could work on than a yard that doesnt look fake?🙄😇
It’s funny they use mosquitoes as an excuse that it’s bad but 99% of mosquitoes lay the eggs into a discarded coke can or a bit of rubbish that has accumulated a bit of water. In other words 99% of mosquitoes breed in human waste. If they’re that worried about mosquitoes being a problem they would clean up the cities and towns from all rubbish.
@@noellerilleau6529 But she’s introducing invasive species into the backyards and in the process destroying the ecosystem by eliminating native species.
I MUCH prefer natural gardens like this to a trimmed lawn. It's much better to have garden that supports a variety of species, and keeps eco-systems going, rather than something that may be "neat and tidy", but is practically a desert compared to a garden like hers.
98% of prairies and almost as many of the wetlands (fens, marshes, mangroves, floodplains, etc) in the US have been destroyed. We fix the environmental crisis by replacing the unnecessary parts of privately owned lawns with the original (before European colonization) plant selections. Areas that do this effectively see massive jumps in property value because of the added value of wildlife and environmental stability. Also, as ticks do not form in maintained or managed landscapes, so an influential person must be very annoyed with the beauty and honor Jenae is cultivating.
My aunt is still fighting the good battle on everything from this (she actually neatly cultivates weeds along with a number of other tea, herb, medicinal, fruit and vegetable plants and trees), compost toilets, different housing structures (including yurts and earthships, and houses made of clay), water collection, and grey/black water recycling systems. She's proof that no matter water what, first your neighbors, then your local government, will try to be all up in your business and make you conform to the only system they understand.
This shows the complete ignorance of every code enforcer and neighbor. They clearly haven't a clue what they're looking at and they need to spend more time actually being outside and less time looking out their windows.
She's right; plainting native plants will attract more polinators, which will allow nature to thrive. This is one of the ways we can take to begin healing the climate, but for some reason these people want a boring flat yard. Ya'll leave her alone and let her fairy self heal nature!
If it violates the code, it violates the code. You don't call it harassment when cops arrest criminals and protect you, do you? Laws and codes exist for a reason, to keep order and for everyone safety.
@@Aluzky.Irezuminot necessarily, alot of times. Code just means to keep things uniformed. Not all the time for safety. Sometimes being an outlier can be a bad thing. Even in a free nation. They just want you to conform and be like everyone else.
That was my fear also and agrees with the post I left about whether we were being shown stock photos because that plot of dahlias with the bees on them was surely beautiful, huh?
YES!!!!!! thats what i was thinking when theyre trying to tell her she is in danger in her home cuz of this, i immediately felt that they were jealous lol why cant they do their therapy and inner work already!?!?
This is why I’m a libertarian. Leave people tf alone and let them live their lives how they want. Telling land owners how they can and cannot manage their land is the epitome of governmental overreach. Such a waste of time and money for everyone. Jesus 🙄
And she’s helping the ecosystem to keep pollinators alive that contribute to sustaining 75% of all flowering plants on Earth and 35% of our crops for food, versus her neighbors killing those pollinators and wildlife with pesticides and useless grass.
Sounds like the 'gated community' types moved into town and brought their home owners association mentality with them, and more importantly, took over control of town hall. I'm in the suburbs and we get field mice all the time, it comes with the territory. She's in a town that looks much more rural than the suburbs. Why would you make it look like the suburbs?
she "owns" her land ... after all the harassments she still seeks government approval, spends extra time and money, worrying if the government is stalking her, taking pictures , taking notes on what she does, and literally has to spend 3 months out of the year working for the government (taxes).
she's a wise, nurtiring woman, with the rare ability of thinking for herself, and taking action into what she thinks is the right thing to do, regardless of what "the other people think," because she doesn't live in fear like most people. i absolutely adore her and i think she's a role model. the world would be a better place if we were a little bit more like her. i also love my native plants. they make me, the bugs and the birds very very happy.
There was a time when all yards looked this way, and was even encouraged during the Wars to increase self-reliance in the country. It's where the term "Victory Garden" came from. The whole "man exerting its dominance over nature" thing is so passe and overrated.
@@gloriouslumiPart of me wonders if the grass lawns were pushed in order to prevent people from growing their own food, forcing them to buy it instead. Even one or two plants make a world of difference in my grocery budget.
I live in MA and am currently selling my house. In looking for a new house I look at news articles about towns that I may consider moving to. I took an interest in Catskill NY because of it's central location to my needs and the beauty of the mountains nearby. When looking at news stories about Catskill I came across this story and it killed dead any desire I may have had in relocating here.
Her yard sounds like a normal yard in Portland. That is one of the things I absolutely love about Portland, beautiful thriving yards with no mowed grass.
We moved into a neighborhood that just had grass lawns, not even flower beds. You couldn't hear a single bird. We immediately started putting in a variety of plants. After a year, we had a family of bluebirds move in and return every year after that to raise their babies. Cardinals too and others that I don't know names for. Our yard had food for them and they came!
Right? With the price of seeds and plants, and having to sometimes source far and wide to find the right Native species, it's not cheap. I'd be so furious if I were her. So insulted.
I'm also doing the same. I want to be part of the solution not part of the problem! Jenae and others, keep doing what you do and continue to help pollinators with your natural garden. 🙂
Loool this reminds me of when HOA wrote a bunch of complaints to my mom cuz the tree in her front yard had some dead leaves at the top (mid July, in Vegas. 120+ degrees) I wrote them an email on her behalf stating that I spoke to an arborist and if HOA would just give her an extension until mid October, the problem will deal with itself. Something called “Fall” lolol It worked! Hahaha they gave her the extension 😂 it probably helped that I mentioned no gardener is willing to work on the top of a very tall tree in 120 degree weather. so ridiculous of them. I thought HOA was for egregious amounts of garbage and hoarders or horribly destroyed yard. Now it’s become knit picking and following the HOA boards taste. And all of it is extortion, under the threat of stealing your home.
People not only would love this garden in Portland, it would be encouraged. I love the culture of this city when it comes to embracing things like natural and native gardens. It’s excellent for the environment and can be aesthetically pleasing. One of my favorite things to do around here is to admire all the fun gardens.
She seems like a lovely, spirited women, a modern day "Snow White". I hope she doesn't let her nasty neighbors crush that spirit. I'm a fan of genuine, good people like her - we need more like her.
Haha the "weed" police. Anything that isnt grass is a weed, even wildflowers. My neighbors be spraying glysophate everywhere, reporting my obscene displayal of mother nature on my own goddamned property. Meanwhile deer love it, birds love it, insects love it and they come here to grab a bite.
We have a sign right by our front door from the National Wildlife Federation, showing that our property is a certified natural habitat. Yesterday (it happens once or twice a year) a young solicitor working for an exterminator knocked on the door, oblivious to his surroundings (as happens every time) attempting to convince my Wife to buy the service. As always, she directed him to read the sign and took the opportunity to educate him on the benefits of our balanced organic environment with an abundance healthy caterpillars, spiders and pollinators. I doubt it convinced him to immediately change careers, but hopefully the lesson will affect his future career choices.
She's dealing with a bunch of city transplants who wish to keep their idea of cookie cutter suburbia alive. I think what she's doing is very interesting and frankly, I like it. My former neighbors had a semi natural garden, semi being they pruned and weeded somewhat, but otherwise let wildflowers etc grow...
Not urban people. Urbanites mind their business. Typical of suburbanites to have HOAs, gated communities, and fear anyone doing something outside the norm.
Talk with Nancy Lawson and her sister Janet Crouch. Janet changed the laws in Maryland to support conservation landscapes and Nancy, The Humane Gardener, creates absolutely poetic books and presentations about the beauty of her home's natural landscape and the delicate web of life that we're just beginning to understand and can appreciate in our own back yards if we just allow nature to do what it wants.
Pay attention to what this lady and what others like her do around the world. We should all have gardens like this on our properties, no matter where we live. Also, work together with your neighbors and local community to plant a garden without the government's help.
I have this area of my yard that had failed grass lawn, failed plantings of flowering shrubs, and finally I gave up and put down weedcloth and mulch. The whole area burst into bloom with poppies I had not planted. I said, "ok mother nature, so that is what should be here." I give them some occasional water and they come back every year. I smile.
@@BenneWill it totally could be that’s why I said we don’t know enough to say who it is. But there’s certainly generational differences that might make you for or against this which is why I made the joke because that much we do know
Anything and anyone that's different and moves differently gets harassed. It's ridiculous this place did this to this woman. Of course they wouldn't comment.
here in Sweden they encourage us to grow in our gardens. exceptions can be rental apartment and condominium. but if it's a patio that belongs to the apartment, you can grow in pots. I myself grow tomatoes on my balcony. and my brother, who has a house in a residential area in a smal town a mile from the center. grows apples, pears, cherries. plum. small greenhouse with tomatoes and grapes. latest project is flower field 15 x 40 feet for butterflies, bumblebees and bees. with a rich wildlife, deer with babies. badgers, squirrels and small birds.
I have always found things like with the city so contradicting because the city can own fields and be nothing but dry grass which is a fire hazard, but if you have an "not to standard" yard, it's against the rules.
and other issues local governments can focus on like dog owners not picking up after their dogs, litter and illegal dumping, water conservation, invasive species, etc.
What a wonderful person - passionate about Nature. As a permaculture practicer/enthusiast myself, your passion is great to see. Your neighbors should be thankful to you. May be you can spend a little time organising awareness workshops to gain local support. Shame how some of the 'elitist' thinking members of our society think about what is 'natural'.
You can spray your sidewalks and driveways and any area of your years with pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides that poison the insects, wildlife, humans, get into the ground water, etc and that is just fine. But have a wild garden and you will be endlessly harassed and fined. Yup, makes total sense.
It's just nuts!!
Absolutely insane, isnt it? Dont forget all of the noise and pollution from leaf blowers etc.
USA USA USA !!!!!
@@Makrel94 I am a lover of this country and a patriot. This does not diminish that as I believe there is much to be proud of. I have the ability to both love the freedoms we have and want to preserve them and also see where we can improve at the Federal, State, and local levels.
@@kbc1883 USA! USA! USA!
What a waste of taxpayer dollars hassling this woman for her healthy garden!
cops being cops lol trying to bully her into submission! but this is a beautiful story otherwise 🦋 just shows how nature brings ppl together ❤ it is our direct connection to the divine! 💪😇
Yeah well it’s the “new normal”
Only in the US!
Ignorant folk who have lost connection with the Natural World. Ignore them and do what is in balance with Mother Nature
I bet HOA is gonna raise the rate on the neighborhood 😂 blame it on empty reserves or something. They’re petty and love extortion
This tick excuse is crappy. If her garden is bringing in birds that eat ticks then it’s a pretty balanced ecosystem and there should be no increase in ticks. On top of that it’s HER PROPERTY! She bought it! Doesn’t sound like she signed an HOA contract! Leave her alone!
It is a city and county code issue, and without having it look tended and rather it looks unkept, they can and will eventually force her to do something years down the road and fighting it always ends the same way.
IF YOU READ THIS, I hope she contacts her local horticulture and botanical societies. They can offer her some very valuable information on maintaining the garden while being in line with codes with simple things such as trimming the bushes and trees and use of garden decorations and walkways that clearly show the garden is cultivated and cared for.
NY is one of the harder places in towns to dictate what you can and cannot do with your property. No one wants their property values to go down and that's what she truly is fighting.
Research communism and why self sufficiency is bad. The state is your god now.
That's what I said. I work on a small forested patch landlocked inside of a suburban block. We already had deer, raccoon, gophers & turkey wander through here often, before & there were ticks here before. Ever since it took off, I haven't seen a single tick & I walk through there all the time. Mosquito population goes through cycles that keep them relatively under control too.
@@lumindina699 It doesn't always end the same. See Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll, in FL. My town in the midwest just made plans for Native and Pollinator gardens and is educating the citizens AND the code enforcement people. THIS is how change is made. The CODE and the antiquated views of "pretty" (read "I have lots of money") needs to change. Not Jenae.
@@eb9720actually it does.
You can get your yard declared as a wildlife refuge. She should look into that. National Wildlife Foundation has a check list, online application and $20 annual membership fee. She can also check with her state Audubon or Native Plant Society. I think she's just missing a water feature. Surprised her attorneys didn't do that already.
That is a fantastic idea and I hope someone has already recommended it to her!
She shouldn’t have too
I did it two years ago, the town doesn’t care
@@Jenaesaisquoi They’ll care when the smack up against state and federal law. A federal nature preserve is nationally protected, once a area ha been declared a refuge they face jail time and fines if they damage and destroy it. You may wish to research the law that protects refuges, and speak to a solicitor educated in this area to assist you further.
Thanks for this comment I forget you can go farther to get the more specific designations.
Fight fire with fire. Stop apologizing and criticize the status quo for their insane lack of aesthetics. NO, the neighbor's lawns do NOT look better. They look lifeless and boring, like the culture that produced them.
And it takes SO MUCH water! Last year, I was flying into Albuquerque, NM, a gorgeous desert region. My gobs were smacked to see spots of irrigated turf grasses from the plane. I drove through a neighborhood to get to the La Luz Trailhead to hike and could not believe how many homes had green turf grass! I suppose it could have been manufactured turf, but the thought of watering a freaking lawn in New Mexico was nuts to me!
I can't stand boring uniform grass everywhere with no variety.
Sell something as "organic" and sue the neighbours for infringing on your business. 😉👍
I live in the desert. During a drought, the HOA was sending notices that our lawns were not green enough. There was no way to water enough to keep it to their preferred level of greeness without violating the water restrictions in our area. Finally, enough of us complained that they backed off...for now anyway. Infuriating.
@@lucindabreedingExactly, and imagine how lovely a cacti rock garden would look and how much more suited to the weather and soil too. Smh.
The crazy thing is, mowed lawns haven't always been in style. People used to love dandelions, wild flowers, etc. My neighbors use chemicals to keep their lawn green and weed free. How is that healthy for the environment?!?
Areas around marble falls Texas let their yards stay wild for the wildlife and deer
My neighbor put Round-Up on his lawn weekly..He died of bladder cancer at 44. Just maybe...???
Exactly. People want to save the bees? Get rid of your lawn and follow the leader of this lady 🏆 ❤
@@rridderbusch518 means nothing, my grandfather did the same for over 30 years and he didn't die till he was 85
I agree, if it's her property and it isn't spilling over into others and causing damage to others let her do what she wants, but I'll admit if she's attracting an abnormal amount of bee's and wasps and a neighbor is allergic it can cause issues but I'm sure they could find a way to make it work.
This is how American "conformity" works.😄 Look like me. It's HER property and it's HER garden. LEAVE her alone.
Exactly
@@costidisaif your neighbor does that, mind your business. It's not your yard. Period. It's not your business. Period.
@@costidisa Good, then Asset firms won't be interested in homes in that nieghborhood and they won't end up pushing "locals" out of town.
@@costidisaBe quiet and step back in line inmate. The government didn't give you permission to speak.
Yup! If it was a nem they'd be doing a whole documentary about bro 😂
She's feeding the bees and butterflies!❤AND it's beautiful
Can't have that...
The judge : "I hereby condemn you to plant more flowers 🧑⚖"
Jenae : "Oh. Okay!🙋♀"
And the songbirds! 🎶
Hold tyrannical government accountable.
ACCOUNTABILITY! ACCOUNTABILITY! ACCOUNTABILITY!
and in turn they feed us!
If Catskill NY doesn't like her flower and herb garden for fear of crime, they could always arrest, prosecute and lock up criminals. Instead of trampling on her right to persue happiness.
It's New York, as a former New Yorker and current Tennessean they won't do that. We only go back to visit now.
@@eibrahim22 serious question: what's the appeal of New York? With the stuffs people be talking it's like a GTA Online public lobby. Why would anyone want to live there? Coming from a Florida man
@DanDaFreakinMan as a southerner (im from GA) who currently lives and works in Upstate NY, i have to say, as lomg as you dont go to NYC, or the outlying counties that have that... culture. Its amazing up here.
@@DanDaFreakinMan How's that home insurance working for you in hurricane season in FL? At least you get to silence a company's free speech down there, I guess.
They might as well tell everyone they have to have their lights on 24 hours a day Because a house with the lights on is less likely to be burglarized than a house with all the lights off.
I hate this obsession with manicured lawns, it's artificial and boring. We should all be planting native plants. My mother is a master gardener and for the last 5 years she has been doing exactly what this woman is doing and it has paid off in so many ways.
And these “perfect lawns” also reveals the stupidity of the people who likes them. Look at all those water guzzling lawns being grown in the middle of deserts where water is already extremely scarce.
Why can’t some people just let others be happy! She right, this is better than most traditional gardens!!!!
Fr
Petty little karens get a little power.
@@GothWolfRants ok goth
Because we like to take Tylenol for another man’s headache as a society .
So much for land of the free. The local government should be encouraging her and her garden style, not imposing any burdens on her.
If you want to pick on someone, aim your gripes at Monsanto for wiping out much of the pollinator population. When I think of the Catskills, I think of wilderness & natural beauty! We need a .ot more wildflowers, not manicured lawns. Our food supply needs to support pollinators.
Exactly! I lived in the Catskills when i was a kid
Yeah I was rather surprised someplace like that doesn't know better. It's all the city folks wanting their 1950's esthetic.
They're too narrow minded and myopic to even know what you're talking about.
Anything that kills Mosquitoes.
Thank you
I don’t understand the suburbanite obsession with mowed lawns. Why is that considered more aesthetically pleasing than a healthy ecosystem?
Or the entire summer of ugly brown lawn
This is hardly a suburb of anything. Its a little American town in the middle of other small towns
It's all about making jobs. Rather than respecting homes. That's one of our biggest problems
Totally agree!, I have sheep they do most of the mowing for me!, most properties have a city easement, I never understood why home owners had to mowing that city should!
Reminds me of my neighbor who constantly complained about the squirrels but had a plastic squirrel among the "decorations" in the gravel coated patch of "garden" in her yard.
I totally agree with this woman. People need to get over their 1950s “My lawn is better than yours” competition. This is so shallow. Pollinators need us. Let’s be decent and live in harmony with nature.
I wasn't at all surprised to hear that it's in Catskill, NY. I grew up about 25 minutes away from there. Over the past 20-or-so years we've had a lot of folks from NYC move into Catskill and the surrounding areas (including my town). This in of itself isn't a problem, except a large amount of them arrived, threw fits over the local farmers (especially dairy farmers), people with chickens in their yards, and people with bigger wilder gardens, who'd already been established there for generations. They'd hound the local town governments and harass to try to shut down the farms, gardens, home coops, etc. and I wouldn't be shocked if that's the situation this lady is dealing with here, too.
We’re experiencing this in SC with Ohio transplants right now. One actually got booed and laughed out of a small local gas station this weekend - with power outages and wifi down, they could only take cash and this fella was not happy. Thought he could just skip the line and yell at the attendant with a whole crowd of locals watching him.
That’s the worst thing… to have a bunch of newcomers flood your area and only makes things worse for the people who have been living there forever.
Thank you for confirming my transient yuppie theory.
$1000.00 a day penalty?? So typical of overbearing government officials. That sort of fine is excessive, way out of control
I bet the people in this small town complain about “big government taking away their freedoms” too
@@innocentnemesis3519 right before they report their neighbor for (Checks Subpeana) Having a natural garden.
It's generally Home Owners Associations that do this
@@Virjunior01 Yup, The Karen Brigade is LOCAL!
City officials. Nice try.
For all the people complaining about climate and eco harm. They want to destroy a fantastic way to keep the eco thriving. Some people have no common sense!
Yep. Some people can apparently breed tigers on their property, some can't grow a meadow. I'm confused.
The people complaining about climate change and eco harm would be supportive of this woman. She is doing exactly what everyone should be doing to combat some of our environmental problems.
they're from upstate new york, they're not bright
I'd sue the community for cutting the grass and destroying nature.
those aren't the same people
I hate people bruh, just let this poor lady grow her garden
That's America for you.
@@johnnycage3881 That’s *part* of America for you.
She will succeed. She’s got focus and skills-she’s the Caitlin Clark of gardening.
@@johnnycage3881 And America is trying to turn into North Korea.
I am a man, and my yard looks like yours. Listening to your story, reminds me of what my mother says to me, about my yard. Keep doing it. You're making the world a more beautiful place.
The state should be paying her and anyone else to create native gardens, supporting the local biosphere that gives/supports life for EVERYONE. We need nature education in every school. Seriously.
Let the girl build her garden. Most people don’t have the ability to see something’s potential. She clearly does. Trust nature man
We have a butterfly garden in our yard, plus I grow sunflower in our yard
@@melissagrant4178amazing! nature is the best:)
This is 100% about control.
Grass is the most inefficient, labor intensive, high polluting way to maintain a property. Lawn fertilizers, weed control, soil conditioners for lawn have such a negative consequence to soil and ground water.
Mono-cultural deserts, which support very little in terms of beneficial life.
i hear that...after spending hundreds of dollars on fertilizer to still get weeds it was a waste of money
Yes! I'm working to get rid of much of my grass. I can hardly afford the water bills anyway.
We have a lawn. We don't water it or fertilize it. If it grows, it grows, and we mow it. My husband loves to mow. I spent decades trying to figure out how to make my gardens pretty, beneficial, and easy to care for. And how to keep him from mowing everything. I gave up. Let him mow.
It is very unfair of him to not allow you space in the garden too
Can't wait to work my whole life and buy a home, work to pay it off, while getting harassed by neighbors over a few plants 💀
All while your other neighbor’s house is a crack house.
Unfortunately that is the way of life! I have one neighbor who constantly calls code on me because I have livestock on my property. I am zoned residential agricultural and I have the right to have livestock on my property and grow the plants I choose to grow. I will continue to fight for my rights because when you don't you lose those rights! Besides I lived on this property for many more years than them. They knew what was here BEFORE THEM!
It’s not just neighbors, local government as well.
Plants, that, by the way, not only don't hurt anyone, but improve the ecosystem.
And pay property tax the rest of your life to keep it.
I’m in the Lawncare business, I see this bureaucracy almost weekly.
Thats the problem. Everybody up in someones kool-aid. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS PEOPLE! She finds happiness and peace in gardening. Whats wrong with that? I identify as a human being.
I ❤❤❤ Natural Gardens. And she is right, it invites birds and dragonflies and more positive bugs that control bad bugs like mosquitoes. Arent there bigger issues her neighbors could work on than a yard that doesnt look fake?🙄😇
Yes, issues like the town’s population being severely uneducated. They need to work on that.
It’s funny they use mosquitoes as an excuse that it’s bad but 99% of mosquitoes lay the eggs into a discarded coke can or a bit of rubbish that has accumulated a bit of water. In other words 99% of mosquitoes breed in human waste. If they’re that worried about mosquitoes being a problem they would clean up the cities and towns from all rubbish.
And she is not dumping chemicals into the soil which would contaminate the wells and water supply......
somehow that doesn't factor in to their planning - poisoning the land and the people.
@@noellerilleau6529 But she’s introducing invasive species into the backyards and in the process destroying the ecosystem by eliminating native species.
The people causing a fuss for no reason have such a deep hatred and disdain for their own life that they have to try and ruin someone else's. So sad.
I agree like filming in public, some people don't understand the 1st amendment.
Correct
Wish I would have read the comments so I didn't echo this exact sentiment. This is as accurate as it gets.
No, they own property and won't to preserve its value.
THEY GET A SICK-KICK OUTTA RUINING OTHERS LIVES!!!!!
👿👿👿☠️🤡🤡🤡
Catskill NY apparently is like being in a HOA without being in a HOA.
What a bunch of deplorables.. I bet their Nextdoor is toxic as hell.
I MUCH prefer natural gardens like this to a trimmed lawn. It's much better to have garden that supports a variety of species, and keeps eco-systems going, rather than something that may be "neat and tidy", but is practically a desert compared to a garden like hers.
98% of prairies and almost as many of the wetlands (fens, marshes, mangroves, floodplains, etc) in the US have been destroyed. We fix the environmental crisis by replacing the unnecessary parts of privately owned lawns with the original (before European colonization) plant selections. Areas that do this effectively see massive jumps in property value because of the added value of wildlife and environmental stability. Also, as ticks do not form in maintained or managed landscapes, so an influential person must be very annoyed with the beauty and honor Jenae is cultivating.
Well said
This!
Exactly. Whoever used the "mice and ticks" excuse is just plain ignorant.
yes yes!!! i want to see a world of wild lawns with native flora and lots of birds and insects :-)
@isarose3136 yeah like, oh there's mice and tics? Yeah, welcome to being outside.
Natural gardens use only a tiny fraction of the water a manicured lawn uses.
Manicured lawns use more water than any food crop.
Think about the amount of gasoline it takes to maintain a lawn in a single year.
Humanity needs to lighten up. We now know that her cultivated garden is way better than mowed lawn and supports the ecosystem that KEEP US ALIVE
My aunt is still fighting the good battle on everything from this (she actually neatly cultivates weeds along with a number of other tea, herb, medicinal, fruit and vegetable plants and trees), compost toilets, different housing structures (including yurts and earthships, and houses made of clay), water collection, and grey/black water recycling systems. She's proof that no matter water what, first your neighbors, then your local government, will try to be all up in your business and make you conform to the only system they understand.
Yet they allow people to have yards overcome with animal feces, and garbage in towns. Let her have her garden. She’s helping the ecosystem.
This shows the complete ignorance of every code enforcer and neighbor. They clearly haven't a clue what they're looking at and they need to spend more time actually being outside and less time looking out their windows.
She's right; plainting native plants will attract more polinators, which will allow nature to thrive. This is one of the ways we can take to begin healing the climate, but for some reason these people want a boring flat yard. Ya'll leave her alone and let her fairy self heal nature!
Decades of commercial propaganda.
Yall let this woman keep her garden ❤
2A Guard your Garden all day!
Glad to hear that everyday people support her "style" of gardening beyond what the city thinks!
I'm in Sweden. Same with my evil neighbors. Telling me it is the law too keep the grass short. They can go to hell.
Imagine being told you're not doing enough to contribute to global warming
😂😂😂
Exactly!
lol
It’s her property! She has good intentions, it’s beautiful, it’s bringing beauty and good things. 🤷♀️
Doing gardening work without privileges is against the law.
Let’s harass a woman about a garden! How pathetic.
If it violates the code, it violates the code. You don't call it harassment when cops arrest criminals and protect you, do you? Laws and codes exist for a reason, to keep order and for everyone safety.
@@Aluzky.Irezumii tought america was the land of the free
@@Aluzky.Irezuminot necessarily, alot of times. Code just means to keep things uniformed. Not all the time for safety. Sometimes being an outlier can be a bad thing. Even in a free nation. They just want you to conform and be like everyone else.
Maybe her town filled with Karens
@@Aluzky.Irezumicops can still harass criminals, you silly.
Instead of showing the actual garden, we get B-roll clips...
I wonder why🤔🤔🤔
Would think that is to protect her privacy.
Yes, I'm all for her natural garden but them not showing me makes me suspicious that it does look unkempt.
keep it secret, keep it safe!
That was my fear also and agrees with the post I left about whether we were being shown stock photos because that plot of dahlias with the bees on them was surely beautiful, huh?
She’s very smart this is a psychological war and she’s under attack. … ………
Keep on growing your garden. 💐🌸🌹🌺🌻
All the people sweating, mowing twice a week, spraying Monsanto be jealous
YES!!!!!! thats what i was thinking when theyre trying to tell her she is in danger in her home cuz of this, i immediately felt that they were jealous lol why cant they do their therapy and inner work already!?!?
@@Waterharmony3 she makes them question their happiness by not keeping up with the joneses
So small towns and HOA's seem more and more like totalitarian states than a thriving democratic society.
We're a constitutional republic so that could explain that
Or the mafia. The code enforcer at (1:45) sounds like he's running a protection racket.
@@memesbyme710 A Republic is a form of democracy. I don't understand why people think this is such a "gotcha" retort.
@@lucindabreeding The fox told them. It must be true.
how else is monsanto going to make $$$$$?
This is why I’m a libertarian. Leave people tf alone and let them live their lives how they want. Telling land owners how they can and cannot manage their land is the epitome of governmental overreach. Such a waste of time and money for everyone. Jesus 🙄
Doesn't apply
@@ewe392 what doesn’t apply to what?
We need natural gardens. They look so much prettier anyways than the boring plain mowed lawns
Astounding that people wouldn’t love this. Why is something like this in court at all? Such a waste of money.
It's disgusting that she is facing trouble over this, for wanting to have a yard that isn't actively environmentally destructive.
taking someone to court for a garden is insane. Meanwhile the deep root system of her plants probably contributes to cleaner water
And less air and soil pollution!❤
Deeper roots mean more drought tolerance too
@@Emiliapocalypse and more carbon sequestering
And she’s helping the ecosystem to keep pollinators alive that contribute to sustaining 75% of all flowering plants on Earth and 35% of our crops for food, versus her neighbors killing those pollinators and wildlife with pesticides and useless grass.
Sounds like the 'gated community' types moved into town and brought their home owners association mentality with them, and more importantly, took over control of town hall. I'm in the suburbs and we get field mice all the time, it comes with the territory. She's in a town that looks much more rural than the suburbs. Why would you make it look like the suburbs?
she "owns" her land ... after all the harassments she still seeks government approval, spends extra time and money, worrying if the government is stalking her, taking pictures , taking notes on what she does, and literally has to spend 3 months out of the year working for the government (taxes).
Remember when we were free to what you wanted with the property you pay for.🤔
she's a wise, nurtiring woman, with the rare ability of thinking for herself, and taking action into what she thinks is the right thing to do, regardless of what "the other people think," because she doesn't live in fear like most people. i absolutely adore her and i think she's a role model. the world would be a better place if we were a little bit more like her.
i also love my native plants. they make me, the bugs and the birds very very happy.
Very well said ❤
There was a time when all yards looked this way, and was even encouraged during the Wars to increase self-reliance in the country. It's where the term "Victory Garden" came from. The whole "man exerting its dominance over nature" thing is so passe and overrated.
@@gloriouslumiPart of me wonders if the grass lawns were pushed in order to prevent people from growing their own food, forcing them to buy it instead. Even one or two plants make a world of difference in my grocery budget.
I live in MA and am currently selling my house. In looking for a new house I look at news articles about towns that I may consider moving to. I took an interest in Catskill NY because of it's central location to my needs and the beauty of the mountains nearby. When looking at news stories about Catskill I came across this story and it killed dead any desire I may have had in relocating here.
exactly -
I grew up in the Catskills and I can guarantee we do not accept that community. I love her garden and WHO CARES!
Same here. Look whats going on in North Adams, Mass. Clear cutting trees near a reservoir.
Her yard sounds like a normal yard in Portland. That is one of the things I absolutely love about Portland, beautiful thriving yards with no mowed grass.
I LOVE Oregon, I was just in Rockaway Beach with my son on vacation. I’d love to live there!
People should look up historical "Victory Gardens."
We moved into a neighborhood that just had grass lawns, not even flower beds. You couldn't hear a single bird. We immediately started putting in a variety of plants. After a year, we had a family of bluebirds move in and return every year after that to raise their babies. Cardinals too and others that I don't know names for. Our yard had food for them and they came!
Im doing the same. My yard has been filled with pollinator plants and hasn't been cheap.
Lady, continue doing what you're doing. Fight ignorance!!!!
Right? With the price of seeds and plants, and having to sometimes source far and wide to find the right Native species, it's not cheap. I'd be so furious if I were her. So insulted.
I'm also doing the same. I want to be part of the solution not part of the problem! Jenae and others, keep doing what you do and continue to help pollinators with your natural garden. 🙂
We turned 3/4 of our yard into pollinator gardens and yes it cost us quite a bit of money and worth every penny.
Loool this reminds me of when HOA wrote a bunch of complaints to my mom cuz the tree in her front yard had some dead leaves at the top (mid July, in Vegas. 120+ degrees) I wrote them an email on her behalf stating that I spoke to an arborist and if HOA would just give her an extension until mid October, the problem will deal with itself. Something called “Fall” lolol
It worked! Hahaha they gave her the extension 😂 it probably helped that I mentioned no gardener is willing to work on the top of a very tall tree in 120 degree weather. so ridiculous of them. I thought HOA was for egregious amounts of garbage and hoarders or horribly destroyed yard. Now it’s become knit picking and following the HOA boards taste. And all of it is extortion, under the threat of stealing your home.
*nit picking
@@ferretyluv *nitpicking 😂
@@annehedonia156 ur both nitpicking me now!!!
** also just wasting ur time. That was clearly just spell check changing it…
HOA is garbage
WoW people will do anything to cause grief 🙄🙄🙄🙄
People not only would love this garden in Portland, it would be encouraged. I love the culture of this city when it comes to embracing things like natural and native gardens. It’s excellent for the environment and can be aesthetically pleasing. One of my favorite things to do around here is to admire all the fun gardens.
Let that woman bee! 😂
@@themsdwallace But the city let that woman bee stung.
Is beautiful ❤ I love it. Shame on this authorities an neighbors they only show their ignorance
Middle finger to the civil servants
She seems like a lovely, spirited women, a modern day "Snow White". I hope she doesn't let her nasty neighbors crush that spirit. I'm a fan of genuine, good people like her - we need more like her.
Haha the "weed" police. Anything that isnt grass is a weed, even wildflowers. My neighbors be spraying glysophate everywhere, reporting my obscene displayal of mother nature on my own goddamned property. Meanwhile deer love it, birds love it, insects love it and they come here to grab a bite.
To her neighbors!! This is America!! Stop tryin to tell her what to do with her own property.
We have a sign right by our front door from the National Wildlife Federation, showing that our property is a certified natural habitat. Yesterday (it happens once or twice a year) a young solicitor working for an exterminator knocked on the door, oblivious to his surroundings (as happens every time) attempting to convince my Wife to buy the service. As always, she directed him to read the sign and took the opportunity to educate him on the benefits of our balanced organic environment with an abundance healthy caterpillars, spiders and pollinators. I doubt it convinced him to immediately change careers, but hopefully the lesson will affect his future career choices.
But an asphalt parking lot is ok?
Only if you pave paradise before you put up that parking lot 😅 and it seems that what they want
Only if you pave paradise before you put up that parking lot 😅 and it seems like that’s what they want
She's dealing with a bunch of city transplants who wish to keep their idea of cookie cutter suburbia alive. I think what she's doing is very interesting and frankly, I like it. My former neighbors had a semi natural garden, semi being they pruned and weeded somewhat, but otherwise let wildflowers etc grow...
U could b right. Reminds me of prople buying houses in nightlife 😊areas , like near popular bars , and then complaining about noise
Not urban people. Urbanites mind their business. Typical of suburbanites to have HOAs, gated communities, and fear anyone doing something outside the norm.
Talk with Nancy Lawson and her sister Janet Crouch. Janet changed the laws in Maryland to support conservation landscapes and Nancy, The Humane Gardener, creates absolutely poetic books and presentations about the beauty of her home's natural landscape and the delicate web of life that we're just beginning to understand and can appreciate in our own back yards if we just allow nature to do what it wants.
Pay attention to what this lady and what others like her do around the world. We should all have gardens like this on our properties, no matter where we live. Also, work together with your neighbors and local community to plant a garden without the government's help.
Love her yard! Leave her alone and let her have her yard how she wants and that it WAY MORE healthy for an ecosystem
Sounds like that whole state is in HOA
Run by a bunch of Karens.
They all voted blue
This is why I would ever move into a HOA. Live and let live.
@@oSamiSrzo NY city votes blue, rural areas not so much.
@@davidgray1515 according to the NY Times' interactive map, Catskill NY voted blue both in 2016 and 2020.
But it's on her property! Damn Karens....
It looks beautiful ❤
The other yards look boring and all the same.
While American goes to hell in a hand basket "the city" is concerned about this woman's grass!!!
Weed killer. dead honey bees lying on their sides spinning in circles around pollen that fell off a tree. Givr me the deconstructed pollenator garden
People can be cruel critics.
Agreed.
People can be nosey busybodies.
Bow down to the system or get sued. The system wants us to be sheep.
What a beautiful person!
She is so beautiful and healthy looking. I wish more people had this mentality instead of spraying everything to death.
"Oh look a healthy piece of land. Let's find out how we can destroy it!"
It's all about control.
Thank you for being you!! Keep doing great things for the world. I support you. Sincerely, Dr Michael Irvin
Freedom is on the ballot for many reasons... here is one more! Let this beautiful, caring woman grow her garden on her property as she pleases!
ever since I stopped using pesticides and started feeding the birds I have no roach or spider problems. This woman is right! We need natural scape!!!
Man glad I don’t live in that area! I have & love my native pollinator garden! Keep up the good fight, lady!
Leave the woman alone. Her garden is on her property and competely healthy, just some plants and bees, no harm to anyone
I have this area of my yard that had failed grass lawn, failed plantings of flowering shrubs, and finally I gave up and put down weedcloth and mulch. The whole area burst into bloom with poppies I had not planted. I said, "ok mother nature, so that is what should be here." I give them some occasional water and they come back every year. I smile.
Lovely!!
I love this 😊
Perfect! Nature knows the right way to go
These old school people wasting taxpayers money for a ridiculous reason
Old school could probably name the plants because they had to use them😂 we don’t know enough to say who it is
Yea I dont think it's old school
The town should be defunded.
@@etherico3041 It could be new people moving into the town. Young money. You never know.
@@BenneWill it totally could be that’s why I said we don’t know enough to say who it is. But there’s certainly generational differences that might make you for or against this which is why I made the joke because that much we do know
We have a peace officer like that where I live. He wants to lend me his weed whacker. It has created a lot of anxiety for me.
Anything and anyone that's different and moves differently gets harassed. It's ridiculous this place did this to this woman. Of course they wouldn't comment.
here in Sweden they encourage us to grow in our gardens. exceptions can be rental apartment and condominium. but if it's a patio that belongs to the apartment, you can grow in pots. I myself grow tomatoes on my balcony. and my brother, who has a house in a residential area in a smal town a mile from the center. grows apples, pears, cherries. plum. small greenhouse with tomatoes and grapes. latest project is flower field 15 x 40 feet for butterflies, bumblebees and bees. with a rich wildlife, deer with babies. badgers, squirrels and small birds.
I support her and her efforts
I have always found things like with the city so contradicting because the city can own fields and be nothing but dry grass which is a fire hazard, but if you have an "not to standard" yard, it's against the rules.
Hypocrites
and other issues local governments can focus on like dog owners not picking up after their dogs, litter and illegal dumping, water conservation, invasive species, etc.
Oh no!! She doesnt have an expanse of manicured lawn to waste water on and mow each week! City officials clearly dont have enough to do
What a wonderful person - passionate about Nature. As a permaculture practicer/enthusiast myself, your passion is great to see. Your neighbors should be thankful to you. May be you can spend a little time organising awareness workshops to gain local support. Shame how some of the 'elitist' thinking members of our society think about what is 'natural'.