Tuscaloosa, AL Invasive Plant Rules: Front Yard Gardens (2026)

Table V-5, Accessory Uses and Structures Table, marks "Home garden" as a "P" permitted accessory use in the CN, SFR-E, LR, LMF, SFR-1 through SFR-5, MR-1, MR-2, MRU, MFRU, MFR, MHR, R, LC, GPD and RPD columns, so a home vegetable or flower garden is broadly allowed by right across the city's residential and light-commercial districts. It is blank, meaning prohibited, in D, DP, DHE, GC, UC, NC, HC and the industrial districts. Sec. " That single sentence is the entire operative rule, it does not regulate what may be grown, require fencing, or set a size limit; it only fixes where on the lot a garden may sit.

A garden bed placed in the strip of yard between the house and the street violates the standard even if it would otherwise comply with every other accessory-use rule, while the identical garden moved to a side yard or backyard is fully compliant. Because home gardens are classified as accessory uses rather than accessory structures, they still have to remain incidental and subordinate to the residential use of the lot under Sec. 25-106(b)(2), but they are not subject to the separate rear-yard-only, 30-percent-coverage limit that applies to accessory structures. This location standard was adopted with the citywide Unified Development Ordinance rewrite, Ord. No. 9572, Sec. 2, effective December 17, 2024.