The Alhambra, California, city council enacted a rule that 50 percent of each front yard in the city must consist of live vegetation. Many homeowners were thus caught in a strange position: water authorities prohibited them from watering their front yards, and zoning authorities fined them if their grass died.

The city of Pasadena, California, proposed banning residents from having weeds in their yards.

The city of Herndon, Virginia, requires developers to post a bond with a government planning agency to be forfeited if the shrubs or trees a developer plants die within two years.

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