Lawn care in Tampa Bay, cut at the right height

UF/IFAS publishes a mowing height for every Florida turfgrass, and we follow it. Standard St. Augustine such as Floratam stays at 3.5–4 inches; dwarf types like Seville and Captiva sit near 2.5 inches; CitraBlue does well at 2–3 inches. Empire zoysia wants 1.75–2.5 inches, Bahia 3–4 inches, and Bermuda anywhere from half an inch to 1.5 inches.

The second rule is never removing more than a third of the blade in one cut. That's why the rotation tightens to weekly once the summer rains push growth, and relaxes to every 10–14 days in the cooler months. Taller St. Augustine shades its own roots, holds moisture longer between waterings and handles chinch-bug pressure better than a scalped lawn. If your yard has mixed grasses, which is common where Bahia creeps in from next door, we'll point it out and set the height for the turf you want to keep.

Every visit follows the same checklist, so you never have to inspect our work. We alternate mowing directions to keep the turf upright, hard-edge the driveway, sidewalk and curb, string-trim fence lines, posts and tree rings, then blow clippings off every hard surface. Local fertilizer ordinances around the bay require keeping grass clippings out of streets and storm drains, so the blower points back toward the lawn, never the gutter.

Beds get hand-weeded and tidied on the schedule we agree on. While we're there, we watch for the early signs that get expensive later: yellowing along a hot driveway edge, brown rings in spring or fall, a sprinkler head throwing water into the street. You get a photo and a short note, in English or Spanish, whichever you prefer.

As of October 2026, the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Modified Phase III order limits lawn watering to one day a week, set by the last digit of your address, through March 31, 2027, unless the District eases it sooner. Under that order, UF/IFAS advice is simple: mow high, and water ½–¾ inch only when the grass shows wilt, meaning folded blades, a blue-gray cast or footprints that stay. Confirm your utility's day and hours on the SWFWMD restrictions page (opens in a new tab); our watering-rules guide breaks it down by county.

Fertilizer runs on its own calendar. Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa and Pinellas County ban nitrogen and phosphorus on lawns from June 1 to September 30. We don't apply fertilizer, weed killers or insecticides ourselves; when your lawn needs a treatment, we coordinate a licensed partner and time it to the rules.

A family lawn in Brandon and a retail strip on Dale Mabry need different things. Homeowners usually want the same day each week and a crew that latches the gate behind them. HOA boards want common areas, entrances and retention-pond banks mowed on a predictable rotation, with clean edges along every sidewalk. Property managers want rentals presentable between tenants and photos they can forward to an owner.

For commercial and HOA accounts we can send a certificate of insurance before the first visit, work around business hours and keep one point of contact for the whole property. Need the inside of the building covered too? Ask about bundling commercial cleaning with your grounds service. If a neglected lot needs a one-time reset before regular service starts, our clean-out crew handles the heavy cut-down first, so weekly mowing begins from a clean baseline.

Southern chinch bugs are the top pest of St. Augustine here. Damage starts on sunny, drought-stressed edges along driveways and sidewalks and peaks around early July. Large patch shows up as expanding brown rings in spring and fall, made worse by heavy nitrogen, while gray leaf spot rides in with the summer rains. A simple coffee-can flotation test confirms chinch bugs before anyone sprays anything.

We can't legally treat your lawn without the right state licenses, and we won't pretend otherwise. What we can do is notice the problem in week one instead of week six, document it and connect you with a licensed applicator. If the turf is too far gone, we'll talk through re-sodding with a better-fit grass instead of feeding a lawn that won't come back. Our Tampa Bay sod guide compares which grasses handle sun, shade and salt.