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\nLouise McCarthy was not happy when the council stopped mowing her berm but decided to turn it into a flowering meadow instead.
\nPhoto: Louise McCarthy\n<\/p>\n
A Horowhenua District Council cost-cutting decision has resulted in a local attraction.<\/p>\n
When the council stopped mowing residential berms to save money, it made Levin resident Louise McCarthy very grumpy.<\/p>\n
She refused to cut the grass herself and declined neighbours’ offers to trim it too, until she decided to transform the berm into an urban meadow full of wildflowers.<\/p>\n
Louise McCarthy told Checkpoint said her berm was now outstanding and thick with flowers.<\/p>\n
Her anger at the council’s refusal to mow the area was a good motivation, she said.<\/p>\n
“I must’ve been muttering away to myself as I was doing it and it’s made all the little flowers pop their heads out to have their say.”<\/p>\n
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\nPhoto: Louise McCarthy\n<\/p>\n
McCarthy told Checkpoint there were a couple of reasons why she refused to mow the berm herself.<\/p>\n
She said she only owned an electric lawn mower and to mow the berm she would have had to run the cord over a public footpath which she did not feel was very safe and would be a trip hazard.<\/p>\n
“I live right next door to a park so it would have taken them [the council] two minutes to do my berm which they had always done previously.”<\/p>\n
Despite her floral berm McCarthy does not describe herself as a gardener.<\/p>\n
“Most things I can murder within oh a week, but no way am I a gardener I wouldn’t know a weed from a flower if it jumped up and bit me.”<\/p>\n
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\nMcCarthy says some of the weeds also have pretty flowers so she just leaves them be.
\nPhoto: Louise McCarthy\n<\/p>\n
McCarthy agreed that she had a “tough love” approach to plants and said the only thing she did was water the berm in the evening.<\/p>\n
She said to get the garden to its current state she first killed all the unmowed council grass, then invited her grandchildren around for what she called a dig-it party.<\/p>\n
“I wanted them to turn the dirt over for me cause it was like concrete and I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage it on my own.”<\/p>\n
Her youngest son turned up with a trailer of soil which they dumped on top, she said.<\/p>\n
“Sprinkled all the seeds in and just watered it and just left it and this all came up and it’s like wow!”<\/p>\n
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\nPhoto: Louise McCarthy\n<\/p>\n
McCarthy said she also had a lovely neighbour who helped her by doing a whole day’s weeding when the flowers first started coming up.<\/p>\n
“But since then I’ve just left it and some of the weeds, I think they’re weeds, have actually got very pretty flowers on them so I’ve just left them.”<\/p>\n
McCarthy said she now wanted to see if she could find some plants that would flower during winter and is hoping that the garden would be able to regenerate itself.<\/p>\n