And this was no ordinary, neighborhood plot. People from around the world came to see the marvelous blend of nature and planning that Traute had achieved. A landscape architect used slides of Traute's garden to illustrate his talks on innovative landscaping. A University of Manitoba landscape architecture professor brought his graduate students to see the gardens and discuss them with Traute. Her city councilman repeatedly commended her for her environmentally friendly gardening methods.
In her own words, in an article she wrote for her Suite 101 Natural Health
column, Traute describes this garden:
That garden was a haven for the songbirds and butterflies of the
neighborhood who found refuge in the many hiding places while feasting on
native plants. All the cats of the neighborhood congregated in the yard
without ever fighting with each other, without trying to harass the birds,
without digging up plants. The garden provided a true illustration of the "lion
dwelling with the lamb." Mind you, as soon as these cats left the property,
they were up to their old tricks, chasing birds and scratching up neighboring
flowerbeds, but as soon as they entered "paradise," they again behaved as
Adam and Eve would have expected them to behave in the Garden of Eden.
The plants in that paradise were healthy and were never attacked by the pests and diseases which abounded in neighboring gardens. An invisible wall seemed to separate my paradise from the rest of the neighborhood.
Apparently someone resented that wall; certainly cruel neighbors resented the fact that Traute's yard was unlike any other in the neighborhood. Instead of tidy lawns hers had abundant gardens spilling forth with environmentally friendly plants. She indulged in such suspect practices as composting. While most of the neighbors openly admired the effect, a few saw this as unacceptable.
They complained to the authorities. This was in 1991, when Traute was ordered by the city planning department to make her garden conform to those in the rest of the neighborhood.
She appealed, and, in a unanimous decision, the city planning commission voted not to enforce the department's order. But that was eight years ago. Politics change, and what is politically popular changes along with it.
The ordinance under which Traute was cited forbids gardens that are "untidy and unsightly." A vague ordinance, at best. Some might call it unconstitutionally vague and over-broad, because it is worded in such a way as to give absolute discretion to the individual inspectors to interpret "untidy and unsightly" according to their personal whims - or their best political interests. Such ordinances have been successfully fought in other cities. In Toronto, Sandy Bell won a case that sets an important precedent that may give hope to others. It came too late to save Traute's garden.
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