Land clearing, lawn care & pavers in Plant City

At about 128 feet above sea level on Southern Flatwoods sand, Plant City grows two kinds of lawn. Bahia covers pasture and large lots: deep-rooted and low-input, though it yellows on high-pH soil and attracts mole crickets. St. Augustine is the subdivision standard in places like Country Hills, Whispering Woods and Walden Oaks.

Inland lots can see more frost than the coast, so cold tolerance is worth weighing: UF/IFAS notes Bitterblue St. Augustine handles cold well, while Seville is cold-sensitive. Before any new lawn goes in, test the soil (construction fill can run high in pH) and loosen compacted ground. In the cooler months, our lawn care visits typically stretch to every 10–14 days.

Inside city limits, Plant City's watering rules (City Code §74-59) apply to everything: utility water, private irrigation wells, ponds and even hose-end sprinklers. As of October 2026, under the SWFWMD Phase III order that runs through March 31, 2027:

• Your day: the address's last digit (0/1 Monday, 2/3 Tuesday, 4/5 Wednesday, 6/7 Thursday, 8/9 Friday).
• Under an acre: one window, 12:01–4 a.m. or 8–11:59 p.m.
• An acre or more: before 4 a.m. and after 8 p.m.
• Reclaimed water: any day except 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

New plantings can be watered any day for 30 days, then three days a week to day 60 on a written schedule. Rural “Plant City” addresses outside the city follow Hillsborough County rules instead. Confirm with the City what applies once the order lifts and whether the County's summer fertilizer blackout reaches inside city limits; any fertilization is coordinated with licensed partners. Our watering guide explains the County side.

Turning a wooded or overgrown parcel into a buildable, mowable site follows a sequence. First we walk the property and flag the trees you're keeping. Any gopher tortoise burrow gets a 25-foot no-work zone unless an FWC-authorized agent moves the tortoises under permit, and active eagle nests carry a 660-foot buffer from October 1 to May 15. Then comes brush and invasive removal, chipping or hauling (no burning, which needs Florida Forest Service authorization and is often banned locally) and rough grading with silt fence as needed.

Disturbing an acre or more requires state stormwater permit coverage. Outside city limits, Hillsborough County requires a Land Alteration & Landscaping permit before trees larger than 5 inches across come off vacant land. A driveway layout and turnaround can follow once the site is graded; any culvert or right-of-way work needs its own permit. See land clearing and site preparation.

Inside city limits, Plant City's Planning & Zoning department issues the permit needed to cut down, remove or relocate a protected tree. Permits are granted for reasons such as disease, hazard, storm damage or utility conflicts, and some removals require replacement trees. Confirm size thresholds with the City before any cut: the City can fine you for removing a protected tree without a permit, and local reporting has covered a steep penalty for illegally removing a grandfather oak.

City Parks staff put storm pruning simply: “The day before a hurricane is not the day to trim,” and “collar cut, not flush cut.” The best window for pre-season pruning is late winter through May; our hurricane prep checklist has the timeline. After a storm, debris cut by a hired contractor isn't eligible for the City's curb pickup, so we haul away what we cut. Milton dropped more than 13 inches of rain here in 2024; our storm cleanup crew offers rapid response when it counts.