She's been growing a garden for endangered monarch butterflies for decades. So why did the city mow it down?

When Susan McKee returned from her summer vacation earlier this month she discovered her naturalized pollinator garden — once filled with endangered monarch butterflies and bees — was gone. 

"It's all chopped down. Everything's just chopped to the ground," said McKee, who's lived in her Briscoe Street West home in London, Ont. for almost 20 years. 

"I was in shock," said McKee. "I've put lots of time and love into this garden — and just to have it chopped down for no reason other than a neighbour complaint is just devastating."

McKee also received a $125 bylaw ticket last week.

Her garden, once filled with more than 20 different varieties of plants including milkweed, periwinkle, chicory and wild rose, was "quite high," she said. It covered her front yard and the boulevard.

More than thirty milkweed stems were cut down — a plant known for hosting monarch caterpillars. 

Just last week, scientists with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, added monarch butterflies to the global endangered species list, due to dwindling numbers. The Monarch butterfly had already been designated endangered in Canada by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in 2016.

"I think it's a small part I can do," McKee said of her long-loved garden. "The butterflies are going extinct and I can maintain these here. I can take care of them. I can keep them healthy."

"If I can do my little part of saving the bees and helping the butterflies, then this is what I'm doing and it looks beautiful. It's a win-win situation."

While McKee was on vacation, some neighbours collected caterpillar eggs on milkweed leaves from the garden and have been taking care of them a few doors down. 

Serenity, an eight-year-old from the neighbourhood, stops by to check on them a few times a week. "Now they are in cocoons and soon they are going to be butterflies," she said. "It's really cool being able to hold them." 

Serenity's mom, Jillian Smith, who's lived in the neighbourhood her whole life, said it broke her heart when the garden was cut down.

"I think her garden has been amazing. There's always different wildflowers; you see all different kinds of butterflies and little bees and flowers," she said. Her three children loved to go and pick wildflowers, but she had heard others neighbours complain it was overgrown.

This wasn't the first time a neighbour had called in a complaint about McKee's garden. Last year, McKee was issued another ticket from city bylaw after a neighbour complained. It was later dropped after she explained it was a pollinator garden, said McKee.