Make the most of your outdoor space in the sunshine state with these top Florida landscaping tips
Preserve water with rain shutoffs, irrigation systems, mulching, and more.
Rewild the waterfront.
Choose native plants.
Replenish soil with your own compost.
Attract wildlife for natural pest control.
Maintaining a beautiful and functional outdoor space is challenging in Florida's hot, diverse, and often sandy conditions. But it's not impossible. If you're careful and know what you're doing, you can have a stunning landscape in the Sunshine State, whether you're going for a vegetable garden, an ultra-modern outdoor living space, or a traditional cottage garden. Apply these top tips and you'll have a lush and verdant landscape in no time.
Because Florida soil tends to be sandy and there's lots of intense heat, lawns can quickly parch. Water evaporates rapidly and also drains away in the loose, sandy soil. So the key is to encourage your lawn to develop deep, hardy root systems that help to make them less reliant on you and more drought-tolerant.
So, instead of watering just a little bit every other day, give your lawn a deep, thorough soaking once or twice a week. That way, the grass builds long, deep roots to reach moisture deeper in the soil instead of shallow, weak roots that sit in the top inch or two creating a dense, nutrient-starved mat.
In the hot season, give your lawn around an inch of water once per week (or twice per week for a newly established lawn). Once the cool season arrives, switch to the same amount of water once every two weeks.
Water early in the day, before the heat sets in. Early in the morning, evaporation rates are at their lowest, so watering then conserves water and ensures your plants absorb all they need before the heat evaporates it.
Don't make the mistake of watering in the evening as, even though evaporation rates drop, you'll encourage pests like mosquitoes to feast on you and your pets, and slugs and snails that will thoroughly enjoy the cool and damp as they feast on your plants.
Plus, leaving plants wet all night creates the perfect breeding ground for fungal diseases, such as Rhizoctonia solani, Phakospora pachyrhizi, and Ganoderma zonatum, all of which are common in Florida.
Because Florida has a lot of loose, sandy soil, erosion, and nutrient and water runoff are significant problems, so it makes sense to use drip irrigation. With a drip irrigation setup, the water goes straight to plants’ roots instead of around their bases or over their leaves.
Instead of losing a large percentage of the water you apply to evaporation or runoff, with drip irrigation, all of the water you deliver penetrates deep into the soil where your plants can take what they need.
While drip irrigation costs around $500 for an average yard, it is a great water-saving system that reduces your water costs and carbon footprint. And it's effective, too, as it doesn't drench the soil or the leaves, so it significantly reduces the likelihood of fungal diseases. Plus, it encourages your plants to develop deep roots and minimizes evaporation and erosion.
If you have an automatic sprinkler system, then, in Florida, the law requires you to have a rain sensor that cuts off your sprinkler system should it start to rain. This helps to conserve water and minimize your usage and costs.
Mulch is a great water saver. While there are many types of mulch, a natural wood mulch offers the best coverage for Florida landscapes. It helps to preserve water by acting as ground cover to limit evaporation, inhibits runoff and erosion, and reduces how often you need to water. Mulching also suppresses weeds, replenishes soil nutrients as the mulch breaks down, deters some pests, and protects tender plant roots from intense heat.
Unless you like constant labor tending to plants designed for cooler and loamier environments, choose native Floridian plants, or at least those that thrive in hot, sandy climates. Go for plants you know will do well with limited water and full sun. A few excellent choices are:
Beach sunflower
Black-eyed Susan
Coontie
Columbine
Firebush
Coreopsis
Echinacea
Violets
Orchids
Passionflower
Salvias
Swamp mallow
Marsh hibiscus
Storms are a big problem for Floridian landscapes. Heavy, intense rain washes away topsoil and nutrients in vast quantities. The key is to create a landscape primed to minimize runoff by allowing percolation. So, instead of concrete and asphalt driveways and walkways, consider something porous, like gravel, that allows water to percolate through and down into the soil beneath.
Use mulch and plant plenty of ground cover to minimize exposed soil and therefore limit how much can wash away. Good ground cover plants for Florida include:
If you live near the water or even have a stormwater pond or canal, protect it. Make sure you've got a suitable bulkhead in place to protect your yard from erosion. And consider rewilding the shoreline. Plant native wildflowers and plants and just leave them alone.
Give your landscape the gift of real, chaotic nature and reconnect with the natural world. Rewilding protects the shoreline and creates a habitat for local wildlife, including birds and beneficial insects.
This creates a safe, no-chemical, low-maintenance zone that helps to preserve water, doesn't pollute the groundwater with pesticides or weed killers, limits erosion and runoff, and provides a safe haven for local critters.
Compost as much as you can because generating your own compost lets you replenish the soil in your yard. Florida is notorious for runoff and erosion depleting the soil in terms of both volume and nutrients. Regular applications of compost replenish both with rich, organic matter. And the act of composting also reduces your home's carbon footprint, as you're creating less waste and diverting that waste from landfills.
Bring beneficial birds, bugs, and animals to your yard, and companion plants to deter the pests. Many Floridians rely on pesticides and herbicides to control weeds and pests, but this damages the environment, kills off useful wildlife, and pollutes the water.
A better option is to create a hospitable outdoor space with sheltered spots for wildlife, plants that are attractive to pollinators, and predatory insects like predatory wasps, ladybugs, and lacewings, as these will help to control populations of unwanted pests like aphids.
As the Sunshine State is notorious for its mosquito problem, add aromatic plants to your Florida landscaping. There are many plants that repel mosquitoes. Some of our favorites are:
Citronella
Lemon verbena
Lemon balm
Lavender
Catnip
Basil
Rosemary
Peppermint
Sage
