Landscaping in South Portland, Maine.

South Portland's Landcare Management Ordinance (City Code Chapter 32) restricts synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on both public and private property. No pesticide of any kind, organic or synthetic, may be used within 75 feet of a water body or wetland. Exemptions cover things like ticks, mosquitoes, poison ivy, structural pests and invasive insects.

The fertilizer rules are just as specific. Fertilizer must be organic, a soil test is required every two years, and phosphorus is out unless that test shows a need. There can be no more than two applications a year, each capped at one pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, and none on frozen or saturated ground, before heavy rain, or during summer dormancy. A good South Portland lawn comes from mowing high, aerating compacted soil, overseeding thin spots and correcting pH, not from a bag.

South Portland is a Tree City USA, and the Maine Forest Service lists it in its quarantines for emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid, spongy moth and white pine blister rust. The city's overnight parking ban runs from December 1 to April 1, midnight to 6 a.m., on all accepted streets, so driveways need to be clear for cars coming off the road.