Safety Harbor is a small older city on the west shore of Old Tampa Bay, next to Philippe Park. Much of it was laid out a long time ago, on small lots with brick streets in places, and the live oaks planted along those streets have had decades to close in overhead. The ground is hillier here than in most of the county and it falls away toward the bay.
Regular maintenance is the bulk of it, and mowing, edging, trimming and blowing off happen together on the one visit. On the older lots more of that work is done by hand, because there is less open lawn to run a mower across and more to go around.
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.
DetailsThe mature live oaks are the condition that governs almost everything else on these properties. Three parts of that matter to the lawn, and they are the light, the wear and the drop.
St. Augustine handles shade better than the other grasses grown here, but it still wants a few hours of direct light a day. Under a closed live oak canopy it grows thin and stretched and it never fills back in, because the problem is light rather than cutting. Some St. Augustine selections hold up in shade better than others, which is worth knowing if a bare area is going to be replanted.
Grass in full sun repairs a wheel track or a worn path in a couple of weeks. The same damage under a canopy can sit there for months, because the plant has far less light to rebuild with. That is why the thin patches under a big oak are usually along a path, a gate line or a mower route rather than spread evenly.
Live oaks are evergreen, so they shed a little all year and heavily in late winter and spring when the new growth pushes the old leaves off. Acorns come down in fall. Leaves left lying on thin shaded grass smother what is left of it, which is one reason the blowing off is part of every visit rather than an extra.
Under the canopy we cut at the top of the height range for the grass, keep the blades sharp, and vary where the machine runs so one line does not take all the traffic. Where a patch has already thinned we work around it by hand rather than drive over it every week.
There is a limit to what mowing can do about shade, and it is more honest to say so. Where an oak has closed over completely, grass is not going to hold underneath it. A mulched bed out to the drip line, or a shade tolerant planting, will look better all year than turf that is being asked to do something it cannot.
Because the ground falls toward the bay, anything left on a driveway or in the street here travels downhill to a storm drain and then into the water. Clippings, leaves and acorns go back on the lawn or come away with us, which is what Landscape Best Management Practices asks for.
We cover the 34695 ZIP code, which takes in the old streets near the waterfront and Philippe Park, the neighborhoods on the higher ground behind them, and the newer streets out toward the edge of the city.
Safety Harbor sits between Oldsmar and Clearwater on our routes, so the work here runs in the same week as those two and as Countryside. Access is worth mentioning when you call: on the smaller original lots there is sometimes nowhere to park a truck and trailer directly outside, and it helps to know that before the first visit.
Call us with the address and we will walk the lot, look at what the shade is doing and put a plan together for the yard. There is no obligation once you have it.
Seven days a week, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Email cjackc.inc@gmail.com.