Weston, FL Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

Weston's Mandatory Year-Round Landscape Irrigation Conservation Measures ordinance, § 123.21, generally limits landscape irrigation to two assigned days per week based on address and bars irrigation between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. under § 123.21(C)(1)-(2). Subsection 123.21(C)(6) creates a standing exception for low-impact and harvested-water methods: 'Any plant material may be watered using Low Volume Irrigation, Micro-Irrigation, Low Volume Hand Watering methods, rain barrels, cisterns, or other similar rain-harvesting devices without regard to the listed watering days or times.' That means a homeowner who collects rainwater in a barrel or cistern can water lawns, shrubs, or trees with it on any day and at any hour, sidestepping the schedule that otherwise governs sprinkler-based irrigation citywide.

The exemption sits inside the same ordinance that separately excludes 'above ground rain barrels' and 'above ground cisterns' from the City's adoption of the state's Florida Friendly Landscape Program under § 123.10(A)(18); together the two sections mean Weston has not written detailed design, size, or installation standards for rain barrels or cisterns, but it has affirmatively kept their use unrestricted for irrigation timing purposes. The broader conservation ordinance still applies to any water use beyond harvested rainwater, and § 123.21(C)(7) separately bars all wasteful and unnecessary water use regardless of the source.