Eagan, MN Invasive Plant Rules: Front Yard Gardens (2026)

Eagan City Code § 10.21 defines permitted vegetation as turf grasses, low maintenance ground cover, ornamental plants, rain gardens, managed natural landscape, or edible vegetation, but edible vegetation only qualifies as permitted vegetation when it is combined with other permitted plantings, not grown alone across an entire yard. Every yard area not covered by driveway, sidewalk, structures, landscape beds or recreational features must be established with turf grass, permitted vegetation or woodland compatible with the site's soil, slope and shade, completed within eight months of a certificate of occupancy or 12 months of a building permit, whichever comes first.

Property owners must supplementally water new plantings until established and follow the city's land disturbance and erosion control rules during that period. A vegetable or edible garden bed counts toward this coverage requirement as a landscape bed, an area bordered by landscape material or turf and maintained with ornamental plants, native grasses and forbs, or edible vegetation. Once established, permitted vegetation other than turf grass is exempt from the section's general eight-inch height cap only to the extent the plant's own cultivar naturally grows taller, meaning a tomato or squash bed is not penalized for exceeding eight inches the way an unmown lawn would be.

The code prohibits unmanaged vegetation, defined to include invasive species plants, overgrown shrubs, and any area overgrown by turf grass or noxious weeds, so a neglected or weed-choked front garden can still be cited as a public nuisance regardless of its edible purpose.