lwfern's Journal - Three photos of my yard

All of these photos are from today, the first two standing in the same spot, but turning 180 degrees. Before I post these, I'm going to quote part of undergroundpanther's thread:

Core Principles Of The Democratic Party:
5. Natural resources of our country and the world are held by individuals and institutions, public or private, in stewardship. As a democratic society, we must conserve and maintain the natural environment as a sacred trust owed to those now living and those to follow.

conservatisms CORE principles:
#4 Property and freedom are inseparably connected.

Basically this says, If you own it, you can do whatever you want with it. Other people who don't own it have no say in what you do with your property, lest their objections interfere with owners' or plunderers' property owners "freedom."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

When we bought our house, the entire lawn looked like this:

Piece by piece, we are converting it to this:

That doesn't show the vegetable garden or the fruit trees. This is how the pawpaws I planted look at the moment:

I'm puzzling over which values each of these photos represent. My gut tells me the second and third photos should represent core democratic values - stewardship of the land, restoring it to something that supports the natural ecosystem and grows food locally without chemicals, thereby reducing fuel consumption and destruction of the land. My gut tells me that first photo of the lawn that destroys rather than supports the ecosystem is NOT representative of the core democratic principles.

Local government policies tell me I'm wrong. I think I may be technically violating an ordnance with the meadow. Some cities (not mine) have ordnances against growing your own food - which means my pawpaws (also a native plant) are illegal, although a nonnative species like Japanese Maples which are harm the ecosystem by replacing native plants is legal.

Something has gone wrong, politically, when communities don't even just rule by benign neglect, allowing everyone their own freedom in maintaining their yards, but actually mandate destruction of the ecosystem, and punish those who are acting as responsible stewards of the natural environment. Something is wrong, politically, when people are outraged at the idea of a meadow on a suburban lot, but don't show an equivalent amount of outrage when a community mandates lawn that are 6 inches tall or less.