• A healthy Florida lawn requires constant observation and maintenance.grass image by green308 from Fotolia.com
  
  Florida's warm subtropical environment is ideal for a wide variety of warm season grasses. Warm season grasses have a poor tolerance for cold temperatures and become dormant during the winter months. Growing warm season grasses in Florida can be challenging and requires a high level of maintenance and upkeep. Successfully growing lawn grass is dependent on correctly mowing and watering your Florida lawn.
  
  

Mowing Height

• Each lawn grass species has its own preferred cut height. Cutting the grass too short may weaken the underlying root system; cutting the grass too high may provide unwanted weeds the ability to spread by seed. Common grasses of Florida include bahia, St. Augustine, centipede and Bermuda. These grasses have ideal cut heights ranging from one to four inches.
  
  

Mowing Frequency

• How often you need to mow your lawn is directly related to how quickly your grass is growing. Growth rates vary from species to species and from season to season. Mow faster-growing varieties such as Bermuda and St. Augustine more frequently than slower-growing varieties such as bahia, centipede and zoysia. In addition, all warm-season grasses grow faster during the summer months and will require more frequent mowing than the spring and fall. Never cut your grass blades more than 1/3 their total height at any one time, as this can cause excessive stress to the grass.
  
  

Watering

• Never water the lawn between 10am and 4pm. During this time period the heat and wind will cause considerable amounts of evaporation to the water before it even touches the soil. When watering the lawn, avoid light, regular watering cycles that irrigate only shallow depths of top soil. Instead, try less frequent, heavy watering cycles that allow the water to reach deeper into the top soil, promoting grass root growth.