Palm Beach Gardens, FL Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

Palm Beach Gardens does not regulate rainwater harvesting as a permitted use the way it regulates irrigation timing; instead, Section 74-75(3) of the landscape irrigation conservation article carves rain-harvesting equipment out of the schedule entirely. Any plant material "may be watered using low-volume irrigation... micro-irrigation... low-volume hand-watering method... rain barrels, cisterns, or other similar rain-harvesting devices without regard to the watering days or times" set for other users under Section 74-74, meaning a homeowner applying water stored from a rain barrel is not bound by the odd/even address schedule or the 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daytime ban that governs potable and well-water irrigation.

The one place the code puts a number on a rain barrel is inside the community garden standards. Section 78-159(71)d.5 lists rain barrel systems among the accessory features, such as benches, compost bins, and raised planting beds, that a community garden may include as part of its conditional use approval, then caps them: "No more than two 55-gallon composting bins shall be located on a community garden site, and rain barrels shall not exceed 55 gallons in size." Outside that specific community-garden context, the code does not otherwise size-limit residential rain barrels or cisterns, and reclaimed and rain-harvested water both sit outside the city's day-and-time watering restrictions, giving property owners two grounded ways to irrigate without tripping the schedule in Section 74-74.