Whether as a casual hobby or a planned decoration for your property, gardening and landscape have always been a choice for homeowners. Gardening not only alleviates the overall look and feel of your home but also brings a sense of personalization to your property. As a homeowner, you would want your property to look impeccable as well as feel comfortable to live in. Landscaping and gardening not only provide that but also makes way for ease of living. Take a look at the gardening and landscaping laws of Massachusetts.
However, when you embark on gardening or landscaping in your property or home, there are certain regulatory standards that you need to meet as a homeowner.
For different states, the requirements are different. In this article, we will focus on the gardening and landscape laws of the state of Massachusetts.
Contents
Reviewing the Plan
Every gardening and landscape plan needs to be reviewed by the city council of the state you reside in and this also applies to the state of Massachusetts. This is one of the prime regulations that you need to comply with as a property owner. Every state has a state of regulation when it comes to building or creating new vegetation. Reviewing the plan helps the city Council to assess whether the plan is breaking any major requirements of the state laws.
However, as a single house owner, you do not need to have your gardening plan reviewed rather only the landscape planning is required to be reviewed by the city council.
Planning Requirements
The plan that you will submit to be reviewed needs to include some key contents. The contents include the size, location, and the existing type of plantation that is already available in the area in question. As part of the conservation requirements, the land in question might have parts that need to be retained, such area must explicitly be outlined in the plan. Any type of utilities that are available to the landscape should also be outlined. A plan of maintenance of the landscape also needs to be included with the review plan.
What Legal and What’s Not
When it comes to choosing what type of plants you can plant, what design elements are permissible or not, there are several things to consider before you get on with your plan of gardening and landscaping.
For the state of Massachusetts, there are certain regulations that you need to adhere to. The state of Massachusetts does not permit the vegetation of noxious weeds. There is also another plantation embargo that you cannot grow as part of a home garden in the state.
The state also outlines a list of vegetation that you can plant as part of your landscape as well as a garden. However, if you want to plant something that is not on the list, the right thing for you to do would be to get it reviewed by the city council.
The state of Massachusetts also doesn’t permit the usage of decorative fake plants. The state bars you in every way from planting fake decoratives.
Landscaping Requirements
We have already mentioned that you need to file a list of existing landscape vegetation within your property for review. The review will check whether the existing landscape has any type of evergreen plantation as the state of Massachusetts conserves evergreen plants.
Another important aspect to consider before planning a landscape design is to make sure the fencing and borders are in line with the state laws. The law explicitly states that you cannot design your landscape in any way that is deemed as invasive for your neighbors.
In addition to that, you can only use a certain percentage of your landscape design for decorative inorganic elements. For the state of Massachusetts, the percentage stands at 30%. Any more than that and you will be breaching the landscaping regulations.
Maintenance
Within the review plan, you need to clearly outline a plan of maintenance for your garden and landscape. The maintenance plan includes making sure the shrubs and deciduous plants of the garden and landscape are conforming to the size regulation as well as making sure they are properly taken care of. You need to be careful that your hedges do not cross over to your neighbor’s boundary as that is not permissible in Massachusetts.
Conclusion
Gardening and landscaping can be a fun and decorative thing to do but it comes with its own sets of drawbacks and limitations. The drawbacks are not so much as drawbacks rather it depends whether you’re complying with the regulations and laws of the state. The state of Massachusetts has certain provisions that help to conserve the existing forestation as well as promote newer ones.
In this article, we tried to focus on the key provisions that you as a homeowner must conform to. As long as you stick by these rules, you’ll be fine.
Also Read: Gardening and Landscape Laws in Idaho – State Gardener
