Turf on a barrier island
Cocoa Beach sits on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Banana River. Yards here deal with three things grass hates: sandy soil, salt air and full sun. About 37 residential canals, roughly 9 miles in all, run through the city, so many backyards end at a seawall.
Turf doesn’t mind any of that. Our blades are UV-stabilized for year-round sun, and Flow-series backing drains over 400 inches per hour, so a summer storm passes through instead of pooling on the sand.
Sand and shell under the yard
Brevard is the official home of the Canaveral soil series: marine sand and shell fragments on low coastal ridges. It drains very quickly, but the water table can sit 10 to 40 inches down for months at a time. For turf, that means a firm base matters more than drainage. We compact a washed crushed-rock subgrade so the surface stays even through wet seasons.
Seawalls, dunes and setbacks
Florida’s turf standard (DEP Rule 62-308.100) has two rules that matter most in Cocoa Beach:
- Seawall lots. Turf normally has to be 10 feet from a waterbody, but that setback doesn’t apply where a seawall or bulkhead separates the turf from the water. Many canal-front backyards can be turfed close to the wall.
- Dunes. On the ocean side, turf must stay landward of the dune system and can’t replace dune vegetation.
Edges and seams also have to be anchored to resist wind and flooding. That’s standard on our installs, and it matters more on an island.
Fertilizer and the Banana River
Turf protects the river by taking fertilizer out of the picture. Cocoa Beach bans nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer from June 1 to September 30, keeps a fertilizer-free zone next to the water, and adds a voluntary 25-foot zone along the Banana River Lagoon. A turf lawn needs no fertilizer, so it fits those buffers without any extra effort.
Water
Cocoa Beach is served by City of Cocoa Utilities, and its watering days apply to beds and plants. Turf areas don’t get watered. The state rule bars in-ground irrigation on synthetic turf, so we cap those heads during the install.
