Lake Mary, FL

Designed for Florida Yards That Actually Work

Landscaping Services in Lake Mary, FL — Design, Install, and Maintain

ISA Certified Arborist on the design team, HOA-friendly installs, licensed and insured, serving Seminole County since 2018.

Landscaping Lake Mary FL properties is not the same as landscaping a yard in Atlanta, Charlotte, or even Tampa. We sit in USDA Zone 9b, our soil flips from white sand to compacted clay within a few feet, and mature live oaks shade half the lots in Heathrow, Timacuan, and Magnolia Plantation. Add in summer thunderstorms that drop two inches in an hour, St. Johns River Water Management District watering restrictions that limit irrigation to one or two days a week, and HOA design committees that send certified letters over brown edges, and you have a landscape problem that generic crews simply do not understand.

That is the gap we fill. Deangelos Land Services is family-owned, based right here at 267 Via Tuscany Loop in Lake Mary, and led by Mark DeAngelo, an ISA Certified Arborist. That credential matters when your front yard sits under a 60-year-old oak — most landscapers will trench a sprinkler line through the critical root zone and kill the tree two summers later. We design around the canopy you already paid a premium to live under.

We build new landscapes from bare dirt, refresh dated 1990s installs, and maintain finished properties through the year. Every quote includes a walk-through with Mark, real product names, and a written scope you can hand to your HOA. Call (386) 675-2303 for a free Lake Mary landscape design consultation.

Common Lake Mary Landscape Problems We Solve

Bare patches under oak trees that won’t grow grass

Almost every Lake Mary home with a mature oak has the same dead halo of dirt under the canopy. St. Augustine needs six hours of direct sun, and an established laurel or live oak blocks most of it. Trying to push turf back into that zone is a yearly battle you will lose. We replace the turf with an oak-friendly bed: a hardwood mulch ring at the correct depth (not piled against the trunk), a shade-loving ground cover like Asiatic jasmine or perennial peanut, and stepping stones if it is a traffic path. Because we have an ISA Certified Arborist on the design team, we know how to expand the bed without cutting structural roots — a mistake that quietly kills oaks five to seven years later.

Pooling water and flooding after summer rains

Lake Mary’s soil profile is deceptive. The top eight inches are sandy and drain instantly, but most yards hit a compacted clay or hardpan layer where water stops and slides sideways — usually toward your foundation. After a 2-inch August storm, you find puddles along the back patio, sod rotting at the low end, and mulch washed onto the driveway. Our landscape drainage installs combine French drains, catch basins, swale grading, and pop-up emitters tuned to your specific lot. We pull a SJRWMD-compliant plan, tie into existing downspouts, and slope the finish grade away from the slab the way the original builder should have.

Dated 1990s landscapes that hurt curb appeal

If your home was built between 1988 and 2002 — common in Greenwood Lakes, Lake Forest, and parts of Heathrow — the original landscape is probably overgrown viburnum hedges, junipers swallowing the foundation, and a tired ring of red lava rock. It dates the property and costs you real money at resale. Our refresh package strips the old material, regrades the beds, installs Florida-friendly plantings (loropetalum, dwarf yaupon, muhly grass, podocarpus), tops with fresh pine bark or cypress, and resets clean steel or concrete edging. Most refreshes take two to four days and change how the house photographs.

St. Augustine that dies every August

If your sod browns out every late summer despite running the sprinklers, the problem is rarely water. It is chinch bug damage, dull mower blades scalping the crown, irrigation heads spraying the sidewalk instead of the lawn, or compacted soil that will not let roots breathe. We diagnose before we replace. When sod replacement is actually the answer, we strip the old turf, amend with compost or sand based on the soil reading, lay Floratam, Bitter Blue, or Palmetto from a Central Florida sod farm, and tune your irrigation zones to match the new install. Done correctly, a new sod job lasts a decade.

HOA letters about overgrown beds and hedges

Heathrow, Magnolia Plantation, Timacuan, and most of the gated Lake Mary communities have active landscape committees, and a single overgrown hedge or weedy bed can cost you a fine. We handle the hedge trimming, bed edging, mulch refresh, and weed pull on a quarterly or monthly schedule and document each visit with photos. If you have already received a violation letter, we read the specific cure requirements, fix exactly what the HOA flagged, and provide written confirmation you can email back to the property manager.

Our Landscape Services for Lake Mary Properties

Every project below is performed by our own W-2 crew — no day labor, no rotating subs. Pricing is honest and itemized. Cross-link: if you also need tree removal, trimming, or storm cleanup, see our Lake Mary tree service page. For the full landscape menu, visit our landscaping services hub.

• Landscape Design & Build — Full custom design with a written plan, plant list, and 3D-style layout sketch before we break ground. The starting point for any major Lake Mary landscape contractor project.
• Sod Installation — Floratam, Bitter Blue, Palmetto, Empire Zoysia, and Bahia. Strip-and-replace or new-construction installs with soil prep and an irrigation tune.
• Hardscaping — Paver patios, walkways, fire pits, low retaining walls, and pool deck extensions in Belgard, Tremron, and Pavestone product lines.
• Mulching — Cypress, pine bark, pine straw, and dyed hardwood. Bed prep, hand edging, and proper depth so we are not burying root flares.
• Sprinkler / Irrigation System Installation — New zones, Hunter and Rain Bird controllers with WiFi, smart rain sensors, and rebuilds that pass SJRWMD watering-day rules.
• Landscape Drainage — French drains, catch basins, dry wells, swale regrading, and downspout extensions. The fix for the August flood that ruins your beds every year.
• Garden Bed Installation — New beds cut to clean lines, soil amended for Florida plantings, and proper edging so the bed holds its shape long-term.
• Hedge & Shrub Trimming — Recurring HOA-grade trimming on viburnum, ligustrum, podocarpus, holly, and indian hawthorn. Sharp lines, clean cleanup.
• Yard Cleanup — Seasonal cleanouts, leaf and acorn removal under big oaks, debris hauling, and post-storm property reset.
• Root Barrier Installation — Below-grade barriers that stop oak and ficus roots from lifting sidewalks, driveways, and pool decks — installed without killing the tree.

Lake Mary Neighborhoods We’ve Worked In

We have completed landscape projects across the city: the wide, oak-lined streets of Heathrow and Heathrow Woods, the wooded lots inside Magnolia Plantation, the older established homes in Timacuan and Greenwood Lakes, the Lake Mary Boulevard corridor, the larger acreage properties along Markham Woods Road, and the lakefront homes in Lake Forest. We know which HOAs require a landscape submittal before work begins, which ones inspect after, and which property managers actually answer email versus the ones you need to call.

We also understand the City of Lake Mary Specimen Tree ordinance. Any oak, magnolia, cypress, or other listed species above the threshold diameter triggers a permit-and-arborist requirement before work near the trunk or root zone. Most landscape contractors either ignore the rule or never knew it existed — both routes end with a stop-work order. Because Mark is an ISA Certified Arborist, we sign off in-house, pull the permit when one is needed, and design the install so the specimen tree stays healthy long after the project closes.

What Makes Us Different in Lake Mary

• ISA Certified Arborist on the design team. This is rare in the landscape contractor world. It means your oaks get protected during install instead of slowly killed by trenching, fill dirt, or compaction.
• Tree and landscape under one contract. Most landscapers will not touch the big trees and most tree companies will not install a paver patio. We do both, which means one crew, one schedule, and one invoice for a project that touches your canopy.
• 24/7 storm response. If a tropical system flattens your beds or drops a limb across the patio you just had us build, we are on call. Same number, same crew.
• Family-owned, local since 2018. Our shop address is in Lake Mary. Mark walks every estimate himself. You are not handed off to a salesperson who disappears after signing.
• 10% Veteran and Military Discount. Active duty, retired, and reserve. Applied to the full project total, not just labor.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does landscape installation cost in Lake Mary?

Most full Lake Mary landscape design and install projects we book fall between $4,500 and $25,000, depending on square footage, hardscape, and irrigation scope. A basic bed refresh with new plantings, mulch, and clean edging on a quarter-acre lot typically runs $2,500 to $5,000. A full front-and-back redesign with sod, irrigation, drainage corrections, and a paver patio is usually $15,000 to $40,000. Every quote is itemized so you can phase the work if you want to spread it across a season.

Do I need a permit for landscape work in Lake Mary?

For routine planting, sod, mulch, and minor hardscape, no permit is required. You will need a permit for irrigation system installations that tie into the potable water supply, for retaining walls above a certain height, and for any work that affects a protected Specimen Tree under the City of Lake Mary ordinance. If your home is inside an HOA, you may also need an Architectural Review Committee approval before work begins. We pull whatever paperwork the job requires and submit it for you.

When’s the best time of year to install sod in Central Florida?

Sod can be installed year-round in Lake Mary, but the sweet spot for St. Augustine is March through early June, when the ground is warm but rainfall is still moderate. Late-fall installs in October and November also do well because the cooler temperatures reduce transplant stress. We avoid laying sod during peak August heat unless the irrigation system is already dialed in. A new sod install needs water two to three times a day for the first ten days regardless of season — we set the controller before we leave the site.

Do you work with HOAs in Heathrow, Magnolia Plantation, and Timacuan?

Yes. We have completed landscape projects in all three communities and know the submittal forms, plant approval lists, and inspection timelines for each. For larger projects in Heathrow and Heathrow Woods, we prepare the Architectural Review Committee package with a site plan, plant list, and material spec. For Magnolia Plantation and Timacuan, we coordinate directly with the property manager. If you have already received a violation letter, bring it to the consultation and we will scope the fix exactly to the cure language.

Schedule Your Free Lake Mary Landscape Consultation

Whether you are starting from a builder-grade blank slate, refreshing a tired 1990s install, or fighting an HOA letter, Deangelos Land Services delivers landscape design, install, and maintenance built for Lake Mary’s climate, soil, and canopy. We are licensed, insured, family-owned, and led by an ISA Certified Arborist who actually walks your property before we quote.

Call (386) 675-2303 today to schedule your free Lake Mary landscape design consultation. Active and retired military save 10% on the full project.

Deangelos Land Services — 267 Via Tuscany Loop, Lake Mary, FL 32746 — (386) 675-2303