Written and checked by the USA Sod team · Published November 12, 2026
Salt spray or salty irrigation water: pick Icon zoysia. Full sun and foot traffic: pick Celebration Bermuda. Partial shade: pick Palmetto St. Augustine. All three are commonly offered by USA Sod in Southwest Florida, along with Floratam and ProVista St. Augustine and Bimini Bermuda: check your ZIP code for today's list.
Look at salt, sun and soil
Near the coast, salt can stress a lawn. It arrives in irrigation water, through saltwater moving into the ground, and as spray off the ocean. Zoysia, Bermuda and St. Augustine all handle moderate to high salt.
St. Augustine and zoysia take shade better than other warm-season grasses, yet most of their varieties still need sun every day.
Sandy ground does not hold water long, so a lawn on sand usually needs watering more often than one on heavier soil. Get a soil test before you plant.
When to lay sod in Fort Myers and Cape Coral
Both cities sit in south Florida: everything south of a line from Vero Beach to Tampa. Here, St. Augustine goes in best in late fall, winter or spring. Steer clear of temperature extremes when you can, above all when a freeze is forecast. Bermuda can be planted in any month across much of the state.
Icon zoysia for salt
Zoysia does well on many soil types and copes with shade, salt and traffic. Icon's salt tolerance is very high. It also makes strong sod and builds little thatch next to other zoysias, and no large patch has been seen on it. One trade-off: in a drought, zoysia browns and goes dormant fast, usually within a week, and greens up again once rain or watering comes back.
Celebration and Bimini Bermuda for sun and play
Bermuda handles wear, drought and salt very well, but it does poorly in shade. Celebration has a fine blade, needs less upkeep than some other fine Bermudas, takes traffic well and accepts slightly more shade than other Bermudas. Mow it at 1 to 2 inches; a rotary mower works. Bimini is very new on the Florida market, and its growth falls between Celebration and the hybrid types.
St. Augustine for partial shade
St. Augustine forms a dense, green to blue-green lawn and handles salt fairly well. It wears poorly under repeated foot or car traffic.
- Palmetto grows well in full sun or part shade, though not in dense shade. Mow at 3 to 4 inches.
- Floratam is coarse, with poor shade tolerance next to other St. Augustine varieties, and it does not persist well with under 6 hours of sun a day. It now struggles with chinch bugs, a major pest for this variety.
- ProVista is built on Floratam genetics, with a darker green color and better shade tolerance, and it grows more slowly, and it needs mowing less often.
The first two months
Water the new sod in short cycles several times a day at first, then once a day, then two or three times a week. Hold off on mowing until the roots grab the soil, usually 14 to 21 days after laying. Wait 30 to 60 days before you fertilize: sod is usually fed before harvest, and fertilizer put on before the roots develop can leach or run off.
Ordering sod in Fort Myers and Cape Coral
USA Sod commonly offers Bimini Bermuda, Celebration Bermuda, Floratam St. Augustine, Icon Zoysia, Palmetto St. Augustine and ProVista St. Augustine in Southwest Florida. Availability changes week to week, so enter your ZIP code for today's list, or see the Southwest Florida page.
Quotes here use 400 square feet per pallet. Sod comes in full pallets because it is cut to order, so plan your yard in whole pallets. Delivery is a flat $200 no matter how many pallets you order. In this market an on-site measurement is $199, credited toward your sod order.
Late fall through spring is the best window for St. Augustine in south Florida: start your Fort Myers or Cape Coral lawn in the lawn designer or call 1-866-886-2763.
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