--- title: "Artificial Turf in Switzerland, FL | TIMELESS Grass & Greens" description: "Room for putting and chipping on your Switzerland property. Plan a practice green, lawn or pet area along the SR 13 corridor." url: https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/switzerland-fl/ --- Switzerland, FL # Artificial turf in Switzerland, FL, planned around live oaks and septic drainfields. On many older Switzerland acreage parcels, there's no board between you and a new green or lawn. We measure and check the ground at a free visit. - Use acreage for purposeful practice shots - Keep oaks and septic access in the plan - Consider the river-side grade before sizing [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) [Call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) - Layout approved before installation - American-made turf - Free estimates, no pressure The short answer ## What should I check before placing a green on Switzerland acreage? Start with the septic drainfield, the first thing to map on a parcel like this. Then mark the live-oak canopy, and on a lot over an acre, check whether the green sits beyond 100 feet of the house, where clearing needs a permit. Planning a turf installation? Get a layout, turf options and a written quote for your space. [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) [Call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) We’ll call to arrange a free site visit. Before you install in Switzerland ## What to know in Switzerland. The rules in short. We measure and check the ground at a free visit, then draw a layout that fits. [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) [Call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) - ### A larger practice area A green can add real putting and chipping room without covering the whole property. Keep a pet area's cleaning access and water supply in the plan too. See the rule on a larger practice area Leave most of the property as it is. A green can offer longer putting lines or a separate chipping position without turning the entire acreage into turf. Choose how you will reach it from the house and leave ordinary service and vehicle access outside the playing area. A pet area near the door can be a different project with its own care needs. Include cleaning access and the available water supply rather than promising that turf will use no water. - ### Along the river corridor Mark the live-oak canopy and the septic drainfield before any digging starts. On a slope toward the river, bring your runoff routes and shoreline conditions too. See the rule on along the river corridor Keep roots and property systems clear. Mark the live-oak canopy and obtain any required tree advice before proposing preparation beneath it. Locate the septic tank and drainfield and get appropriate guidance before excavation or compaction nearby. On a lot sloping toward the St. Johns, show runoff routes and any existing retaining or shoreline conditions. Keep unresolved drainage or structural work separate from the turf quote, and confirm county and private property requirements before finalizing the layout. - ### The rules On a lot of record over an acre, permit-free clearing reaches only 100 feet from the house, and never a specimen tree or buffer. A green out in the woods needs the permit first. See the rule on the rules No board to ask. Past 100 feet, ask the county. Switzerland is unincorporated St. Johns County, so no city code sits on top of the county's, and St. Johns County's development code says nothing about turf ([St. Johns County](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/article-vi.pdf)). Many older acreage parcels along SR 13 sit outside any HOA, so there's no architectural review between you and a new lawn or green. Newer estate streets in the corridor do carry covenants, so read yours before you plan. The trees are the other matter, and there the acre works against you. The county lets an existing home clear ground and take protected trees without a permit only on a lot of record of an acre or less; on a bigger lot of record that same exemption reaches just the land within 100 feet of the perimeter of the house ([LDC Sec. 4.01.05.C.11](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Article-IV.pdf)). Wherever it reaches, it stops short of a specimen tree, a conservation area or a buffer ([St. Johns County](https://www.sjcfl.us/code-compliance/)). An acre is the county's own floor in its large-lot districts: the minimum lot is one acre in RS-E and one acre for a single-family home in Open Rural ([LDC Table 6.01, 12 January 2026 edition](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/article-vi.pdf)). So find your district and pull the recorded acreage of your lot of record before anything is drawn. An acre and a bit puts the woods past the ring on the permit side. So the ring around the house is yours to clear and the woods past it are not. A green out in the part of the parcel that was never opened up needs the permit first, and the permit covers only the land clearing, grubbing, protected tree removal and understory work shown on the site plan filed with it ([LDC Sec. 4.01.05.A](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Article-IV.pdf)). Vegetation removal, root raking and under brushing all count as land disturbance, and lot clearing for a home site runs through the county's clearance sheet process ([St. Johns County](https://www.sjcfl.us/code-compliance/)). Where the green sits decides whether you need the permit, so we settle the layout and that question together. - ### Wells The Phase III order covers private wells too, so a well gets one watering day, Saturday or Sunday, and no new sod for now. Turf asks nothing of the well. See the rule on wells A well can't keep an acre green on one day a week. Much of the corridor is on JEA's Major Grid, but plenty of the rural acreage along SR 13 runs on a private well and septic ([JEA](https://www.jea.com/about/water_supply/water_facilities/)). The drought order doesn't care which. The Phase III declaration of 11 May 2026, still standing when we checked on 7 September, reaches a private well and pump exactly as it reaches the utility's water ([St. Johns County](https://www.sjcfl.us/phase-iii-extreme-water-shortage-declaration-may-2026/)). In practice that's a single watering day, Saturday or Sunday depending on your address, and no new sod or plantings for now. An acre of lawn on a private well was already a pump and power bill; on a single day a week it's a lawn you can't keep green. Turf asks nothing of the well. - ### The ground Under a big live oak, St. Augustine grass won't hold, and a job on uncleared ground often starts with grubbing and root work. On a river bluff, grading and edge restraint matter more. See the rule on the ground A river bluff, old roots and water from uphill. Switzerland shares the flatwoods sand of northwest St. Johns County, sand over a slow, organic-stained hardpan, but two things set its ground apart. Parcels running down to the St. Johns have a bluff slope, brackish water at the toe and stormwater arriving from the neighbours above, so grading and edge restraint matter more here than on a flat subdivision lot. The other is the canopy. This is old plantation country and the live oaks are the real thing, not builder plantings. Under a big oak, dense shade, a mat of surface roots and a steady fall of leaves and acorns mean St. Augustine won't hold, and parts of many wooded parcels have never been cleared, so a job here often starts with grubbing and root work rather than sod removal. Find the septic drainfield before anything is dug; on a parcel like this it's the first thing to map. The free visit is when we walk the lot, measure around it and check the ground. [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) [Call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) What we install in Switzerland ## Choose your turf project. Compare a practice green, lawn or pet area as a defined part of the acreage. - [### Putting greens Practice your putting right outside your back door. See putting greens](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/putting-greens/) - [### Artificial lawns Spend less time mowing, with an artificial lawn planned around your yard and its use. See artificial lawns](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/residential-turf/) - [### Pet turf A dog run or pet lawn planned around drainage, secure edges and regular cleaning. See pet turf](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/pet-turf/) FAQ ## Turf questions in Switzerland. ### Who installs artificial turf in Switzerland, FL? We install backyard putting greens, turf lawns and pet turf in Switzerland, FL, the SR 13 corridor on the east bank of the St. Johns River. Many older parcels here sit outside any HOA, so there's often no review board to satisfy, and a one-acre lot has room for a real practice green. Private wells are on the drought order's one-day schedule too. Call 303-349-2368 for a free estimate. ### Does the drought order cover my private well in Switzerland? Yes. St. Johns County's Phase III notice applies to wells and pumps, and to ground and surface water, just as it does to JEA customers ([St. Johns County](https://www.sjcfl.us/phase-iii-extreme-water-shortage-declaration-may-2026/)). Your well gets one irrigation day a week like everyone else. ### Does Florida's turf rule apply to a lot bigger than an acre? No. The state standard, and the bar on local turf bans that rests on it, applies to single-family property of one acre or less ([DEP](https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/SyntheticTurfFAQ%20final.pdf)). On a bigger parcel the county's own code governs, and it doesn't mention turf. This is not the county's tree-clearing acre above: same number, two unrelated rules. One decides whether a local ban can reach you, the other whether clearing needs a permit. ### What should I check before turf goes in on an acre lot? Three things: where the septic drainfield runs, how the lot drains toward the river, and which trees have roots in the way. The county sets larger minimum lots where a septic tank is used ([St. Johns County LDC](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/article-vi.pdf)), and on a wooded parcel the job may start with clearing roots and brush. We check all of it on the free visit. ### How close to the St. Johns can a lawn or green go? Keep the lawn or green outside the required upland buffer. That buffer extends inland from the jurisdictional wetland line and must retain its existing vegetation; the turf edge belongs on the upland side of the buffer, away from the wetland. Widths vary with the project, the wetland and the location: generally 50 feet landward of the state jurisdictional wetland line on tidally influenced water, or 25 feet plus a further 25-foot building setback on other contiguous wetlands. An isolated wetland surrounded by uplands gets no county upland buffer at all ([St. Johns County](https://www.sjcfl.us/code-compliance/)). Which of those your frontage falls under is not a thing to guess from a map, so ask the county's [Development Review Division](https://www.sjcfl.us/development-review-contacts/) on 904-209-0675 whether your parcel carries a mapped wetland line and which buffer runs off it. Ask before the layout is drawn. ### Is the live oak in my yard a specimen tree? At 50 inches across the trunk, yes. The county's table sets 49 inches for sand live oak, 48 for laurel oak and 61 for southern magnolia ([LDC Sec. 4.01.05.D](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Article-IV.pdf)). No exemption reaches a specimen. Where the exemption does reach, the code lets one go only if it is diseased or a substantial threat to the house, and otherwise only with the county administrator's approval. Outside it, that carve-out is gone: the code asks for good cause plus an alternative prepared by a certified arborist before a specimen is impacted at all. It changes the groundwork too. Where grade has to be cut under a specimen or historic tree, excavation inside its drip line is by hand, with roots of two inches and larger evenly cut, and a preserved tree counts as removed if machinery compacts or regrades its root zone. We plan the base and the access route around that. Nearby areas we cover - [Fruit Cove, FL](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/fruit-cove-fl/) - [Julington Creek Plantation, FL](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/julington-creek-plantation-fl/) - [St. Johns, FL](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/st-johns-fl/) - [Hibernia, FL](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/hibernia-fl/) - [Everywhere we work in Northeast Florida](https://www.timelessgrass.com/northeast-florida/) Useful links - [St. Johns County Land Development Code, Article IV (Sec. 4.01.05, trees and land clearing)](https://www.sjcfl.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Article-IV.pdf) Free estimate ## Your free estimate in Switzerland. Tell us about your project and we’ll call to arrange a free visit. [Or call 303-349-2368](tel:3033492368) Your free estimate includes - A visit to measure your space - A custom layout, drawn for your space - Turf options, side by side - A written price, with no pressure to sign [Request a free estimate](https://www.timelessgrass.com/estimate/) Five short steps. We’ll call to arrange your visit.