Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com

A microbrewery in South Lyon is fighting city hall over the issue of whether it should be allowed to let its grass grow unmowed.

For the last four years, Ryan and Erin Cottingim, the owners of Witch’s Hat Brewing Co. in South Lyon, have been letting their yard grow wild in line with the increasingly popular practice of “No Mow May”. Several suburban Detroit communities and the city of Ann Arbor allow businesses to skip mowing their yards during May to promote the growth of plants which nourish pollinators like honeybees.

The Witch’s Hat is located on Pontiac Trail, between 9-and-10-Mile Road. The microbrewery experienced no problems the first couple of years, but last year got a warning and this year have been told they are in violation of a city ordinance.

The city’s position is that letting yards grow wild attracts rodents, which the owners dispute, saying there is no food in the yard to allow the rodents to propagate.

The Cottingims are trying to get the ordinance repealed, but that’s been an uphill battle. Opinions are mixed among the populace, some saying the Cottingims have every right to refrain from mowing for part of the season, while others feel it looks unkempt and promotes weed growth.

South Lyon City Manager Paul Zelenak says although council as a whole is opposed to No Mow May, the budget includes provision for “pollinator gardens" in city parks.

Dave Smitley of the MSU Extension Service says pollinator parks and No Mow May are just a couple of ways to promote food for bees and other pollinators. Other ways involve planting a diversity of flowers in shape, size and color that bloom all season; not spraying insecticides but using horticultural oil or an insecticidal soap instead; planting local plants, and arranging flowers in clumps. Smitley reminds that bees have excellent color vision and see brightly colored flowers best.

Scientists say that without pollinators such as bees, the human race and all of earth's ecosystems would not survive. Of the 1,400 crop plants that produce all of our food and plant-based industrial products, almost 80% require pollination.