Crystal Beach is a very small community on the Gulf, immediately north of Ozona, with the Pinellas Trail running through it. Every property here is close enough to the water to be taking salt air, and that one fact decides more about the lawn than anything else does.
Mowing, edging, trimming and blowing off happen on every scheduled visit, weekly through the growing season and every other week once the lawn slows down. The other four are booked as the yard needs them.
Cut at a height that suits the grass and the season, so the lawn holds its color and shades out weeds.
DetailsA clean vertical cut along driveways, sidewalks, curbs and bed lines on every visit.
DetailsString trimming around fences, posts, mailboxes, A/C units and everything a mower deck cannot reach.
DetailsDriveway, walkways, entry and lanai blown clean at the end of the visit, with the clippings kept out of the street.
DetailsThree things follow from sitting this close to the water, and together they are the reason a lawn here is not cut the way an inland lawn is cut.
Salt spray and salty wind pull moisture back out of a leaf, so the tips brown off on anything that is not tolerant of it. The damage usually shows on the side of the plant facing the water before it shows anywhere else, which is a useful way to tell salt from a disease.
The soil near the water is sandy, so it drains fast and holds very little moisture or nutrition. Water and feed move down past the root zone sooner than they would inland, which is why a light and frequent approach to both works better here than a heavy one.
A taller blade of grass holds a deeper root, and a deeper root is the only real defense against salt and fast draining sand together. Florida guidance for standard St. Augustine is a cut between three and a half and four inches, and on these streets we stay at the top of that.
We cut high, we take off no more than a third of the blade in one visit, and we cut cleanly rather than tearing the leaf. A torn tip on a lawn that is already losing moisture to salt browns off faster than a clean cut one.
Watering matters as much as the cut on these streets, because fresh water is what rinses salt off the leaf and moves it down through the sand. If part of the lawn is not getting to the water it needs, we will tell you where, since that is usually the first place the browning appears.
We cover the 34681 ZIP code, which is the whole community, and the routes here run together with Ozona, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs.
The community sits directly between two other areas we cover, so a crew that is on this side of the county is only a few minutes from any street in it. That is what makes a steady weekly day possible somewhere this small, and the day is worth asking about when you call.
Call us with the address and we will come out, look at the grass, the beds and the hedges, and tell you what we would do and how often. There is no obligation once you have it.
Seven days a week, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Email cjackc.inc@gmail.com.