How much land should you mow before Florida’s dry season?
The Florida Forest Service maps the ground around a home in zones, from the walls out past 100 feet. Here’s what mowing and brush hogging can do in each zone, how often to repeat it, and what it costs.
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Short grass near the house, a mowed break beyond it.
The Florida Forest Service calls the ground around a home its defensible space. It runs at least 30 feet out, and 100 to 200 feet where a home borders heavy wildland fuels.
From 30 to 60 feet out, the Forest Service’s advice is to cut or mow grass to 4 inches at most. Where homes sit beside wildland, it describes mowing as a way to make a safety zone or firebreak between the two. That strip, it says, needs treating again every one to three years.
Be clear about what mowing does. In the Forest Service’s words, it “does not eliminate the fuel” but reduces its volume and leaves it on the ground. On its own, it won’t make a home safe from fire, and this guide isn’t a checklist for any rule or requirement.
Cut ahead of the dry months.
Florida’s wildfire season lasts all year. On average, the Forest Service says, the busiest part of the year lines up with the dry season, December to June. Activity often peaks in March, April and May.
That makes the fall the time to plan the cut. By the time the rains stop, a field has had the whole wet season to grow. Our guide to how often to mow pasture gives the rainy-season dates for this part of Florida.
If you’d like the work done before a particular month, say so when you ask for a price. The date is agreed with you.
Which parts are mowing work.
These are the Forest Service’s four yard zones, measured out from the house. Each one asks for a few things, and only some of them are a job for a mower or a brush hog.
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The house to 30 feet
Clear out dead plants, leaves, grass and weeds, and keep branches off the roof. The Forest Service also says to remove large groupings of saw palmetto, wax myrtle, yaupon and gallberry, especially close to the home. Where this zone is lawn, it’s mowed per visit rather than by the acre.
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30 to 60 feet
Keep grass at 4 inches or less, give shrubs and trees room between them, and pick up fallen leaves, needles and small branches. The grass is mowing work. Spacing out shrubs and trees isn’t.
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60 to 100 feet
Keep space between shrubs and trees, and remove or trim low growth under pines. Open ground in this band is field mowing or brush hogging, depending on what’s growing.
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Past 100 feet
The Forest Service asks for fuel management here, and for an eye on neighboring land that could carry a fire. On acreage, this is where a mowed strip along the woods or an overgrown field can sit.
One cut doesn’t last.
Near the house, the Forest Service’s advice is simply to mow the lawn regularly. For the strip between a home and the wildland, it gives a range: treat it again every one to three years to keep it working.
Brushy ground is why that range matters. UF/IFAS calls saw palmetto highly flammable, and it grows back quickly after it’s cut. A brush hog knocks it down, but it doesn’t take it out.
So treat a firebreak as upkeep, not a one-off job. By the Forest Service’s range, it’ll want cutting again within three years at most, and sooner where palmetto is coming back.
Land that’s kept short is also cheaper to keep that way. Once a field has been brought down, regular cuts keep it in the kept-up tier, with field mowing from $75 an acre.
Limbs, trees and burning are separate jobs.
The Forest Service’s list goes well past mowing. It suggests pruning limbs so the lowest are 6 to 10 feet up, and thinning trees until their crowns are 10 to 15 feet apart. Flammable shrubs near the house should come out, too.
Those are tree work and landscaping, and we don’t do them. Our cutter handles palmetto and saplings up to 3 inches thick. Anything bigger is tree work, and it stays standing.
Prescribed burning, the Forest Service says, is the most economical and effective way to reduce vegetation buildup. That’s forestry work, and it isn’t ours either.
For advice on your own land, the Forest Service asks you to contact the Wildfire Mitigation Specialist for your county. Burn authorizations go through its local field offices. On a map, the SouthWRAP public viewer shows fire intensity potential around a home.
Local burn bans come from county governments. The Forest Service’s current wildfire page links a map of county bans as they’re reported to it.
What a firebreak costs by the acre.
A mowed strip is priced like any acreage, from the same table as our pricing page. Kept-up ground is field mowing. Anything taller or brushier is brush hogging, and the rate rises with the growth.
| What’s growing | Per acre | Job minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Kept upField mowing, grass under about a foot | $75 | $200 |
| Tall grass and weedsOver a foot, but no brush | $100 | $300 |
| Thick weeds, light brushSome small saplings | $150 | $300 |
| Dense brushPalmetto, saplings up to 3″ | $250 | $300 |
Examples
- 5 acres of kept-up pasture: from $375
- 2 acres of tall grass and weeds: from $300
- 4 acres of thick weeds and light brush: from $600
- 3 acres of dense brush: from $750
All prices are starting prices, confirmed once we’ve seen the land. To see where yours starts, get your acreage price.
How much ground is a 100-foot band?
More than it sounds. An acre is 43,560 square feet, so a strip 100 feet wide and about 436 feet long covers roughly one acre. Pace out the band you want cut, and the acreage follows.
Say you want a 100-foot band kept short along one 436-foot side of the yard. At the kept-up rate of $75 an acre, that’s $75, so the $200 field mowing minimum applies. If the band has gone to tall grass and weeds, it’s brush hogging at $100 an acre, and the $300 job minimum applies instead.
Most land mixes the two. Your scope lists each area and whether it gets field mowing or brush hogging. Mention the band you want kept short, so it’s written in.
The quote tool checks Hillsborough and Pasco County parcel records for an acreage you can change. With a gate code or an unlocked gate, you don’t need to be home for the work.
Work outward from the house.
The Forest Service’s zones start at the house and run outward. Keep the lawn nearest the house mowed regularly, as it advises.
Then look toward the woods, or an overgrown field next door. Decide how far out you’d like the grass kept short, and note what’s growing in that band.
Photos of the thickest areas help us confirm a price. Our brush hogging page covers what we cut and how the work runs, and our brush hogging cost guide explains each rate.
Get a price before the dry season.
See your starting price online, or call or text us a photo or two. You’ll hear back within one business day, and the price is confirmed once we’ve seen the property, in person or from your photos.
More answers on mowing, brush hogging and overgrown lots are in our other guides.
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