Janesville, WI Invasive Plant Rules: Front Yard Gardens (2026)

Sec. 22-206 governs "Requirements for gardening" citywide. Every garden must sit outside the yard perimeter clearance, defined in Sec. 22-205 as the front, side, and rear setback measured from the property line, with a minimum two-foot clearance from those lines; no clearance is required where a garden abuts a fence or similar barrier separating it from an adjoining residential yard. Subsection (b) requires gardens to "remain managed and free of noxious weeds," tying gardening directly back to the Sec. 22-204 weed rules. Subsection (c) adds three specific restrictions aimed at front yards: maize, defined by Sec.

22-205 as not a "garden plant" for residential lots in the City, cannot be planted in the front setback or the corner side building setback as those setbacks are defined in Chapter 42's zoning rules; any garden located in a front or corner-side setback on a corner lot must still meet the traffic-vision rules in Sec. 42-357; and any plantings with a screening effect in those front or corner-side setbacks cannot exceed 30 inches in height. Together the rules let a homeowner garden right up near the sidewalk, but only with low plantings that will not hide oncoming traffic from drivers at a corner lot or block sightlines the way a tall corn stand or hedge would.