The Top 4 Types of Grass You Need to Consider ASAP For Your Florida Lawn

That might seem like an overly urgent title but stick with us for a minute—we promise we’re not just being dramatic.

When it comes to grass in Florida, well, your options can be a little bit limited. We don’t have the lushest of environments. We’re either dealing with too much rain, scorching heat, unbearable humidity, super-salty-seaside factors, or, worst of all, hurricane season.

All of that combined makes for less than ideal conditions—especially for that good, green, delicious grass we all know and love. But what if we told you that you can have the gorgeous lawn you’ve been dying for—yes, no matter where you live in Florida.

That’s exactly what we’re here to talk about today.

Of course, each lawn is unique, and each decision for the perfect type of Florida grass will be based on certain factors (like irrigation style, proximity, weather patterns, etc.). So, we’ve listed out some of our very favorite Florida grasses that are guaranteed to thrive in the wild environment Florida has to offer.

Ready to change your lawn game for good? We thought so. Read on to figure out which type of these four Florida grasses are perfect for your Florida lawn!

St. Augustine Grass

Otherwise known as: Stenotaphrum Secundatum

Why We Love This Grass:

You can’t step one foot into Florida without hearing the words St. Augustine Grass. Seriously - it’s that popular. This Florida favorite is all over the dang place. Why? Because it’s able to grow super quickly, it’s very drought tolerant, and it doesn’t bat an eyelash at high salt levels as part of its environment. The only downsides to this grass? Like we said, it grows fast, so you’ll need to keep up with maintenance. It’s also not the best for those brief cold snaps Florida’s winters tend to throw at us. There are several varietals of St. Augustine Grass that could be a good choice for you, including options like:

• Floratam St. Augustine Grass - cost-effective, blue-green, and turf like.
• Seville St. Augustine Grass - fine leaved, dark-green, and perfect for sun or shade.
• Palmetto St. Augustine Grass - hardy, emerald-green, and very appealing.
• Bitter Blue St. Augustine Grass - cinch-bug resistent, blue-green, and cold-tolerant.

Zoysia Grass

Otherwise known as: Zoysia

Why We Love This Grass:

If you’ve never seen Zoysia Grass, we truly believe that you’re missing out—it has a deep, dark-green richness that’s not just beautiful, but also downright turf-like. Zoysia Grass is a great choice for Florida lawns that see lots of traffic (we’re talkin’ golf course level traffic), is near coastal areas, and gets lots of quality time in the sun. Zoysia Grass is incredibly drought tolerant, laughs in the face of disease, and isn’t too picky about its partial-shade-partial-sun MO.

It’s one of the lowest maintenance grasses out there, which makes it perfect for homeowners who don’t have all the time in the world to worry about their lawn’s maintenance (spoiler alert, if this is you, we should talk—we run a pretty dang great lawn maintenance program). The best part? It’s super dense, which means weeds usually aren’t a problem.

This type of grass will absolutely go dormant if a random Florida frost hits (you know this has happened before), but once you get your soil’s temp back up the low-to-mid 70s, growth resumes as usual.

Bermuda Grass

Otherwise known as: Cynodon Dactylon

Why We Love This Grass:

This gorgeous grass has a unique color (we’d describe it as sort of a deep green-grey) and super deep roots which makes it incredibly resistant to problems we often deal with in Florida—weeds, high-traffic, drought, etc. That’s why it’s a uniquely perfect choice for Florida lawns—it can put up with the tough stuff while looking beautiful. It grows really rapidly and doesn’t take much maintenance, which, unfortunately, means it can be a little bit hard to curb—in other words, if you don’t take proper care of it, it can be relatively invasive. But, with regular maintenance and a solid watering routine, you should keep your Bermuda Grass lookin’ good all year round.

Bahiagrass

Otherwise known as: Paspalum Notatum

Why We Love This Grass:

We’re not ashamed to tell you—we’re Bahiagrass crazy. Why? Because it feels like it was tailor-made for the Florida weather. This type of grass (well, the Pensacola Bahiagrass) is the most common type of grass in Florida because it’s naturally resistant to stress, cooler temps, sun, drought, and more. The best part about this grass? It’s beautiful, it’s easy to care for, it requires very little irrigation, and it thrives in the hot, dry climate Florida has to offer. The only thing we don’t love about this type of grass? It’s a little needy when it comes to maintenance. You’ll definitely need to mow it weekly and you certainly need to keep an eye out for weeds—they tend to pop up pretty frequently in this type of grass.

Working With a Pro to Choose Your Florida Grass Type

Are you picking up what we’re putting down? Your Florida lawn’s beauty can know no bounds—as long as you’re planting the right grass to set it up for success. And you know what? Working with professional commercial landscaping management might just be the right first step to get that good-lookin’ grass installed and taken care of the right way.

Whether you’re a commercial business or have a sweet residential setup, Landcrafters is more than ready to help you tackle your lawn problems ASAP (we’ve been in the biz for over 25 years — we definitely have a feel for what your lawn is missing out on). If you have questions or want to talk to us directly about what your property might need in the grass department, give us a call at (727) 493-7123 or simply request a consultation.

Images sources: st. augustine, zoysia, bermudagrass, bahiagrass