Hurricane Prep for Your Brevard County Landscape: A Season Checklist

Living on the Space Coast means accepting that some June through November we'll be watching a cone. What you do in late spring determines how much damage the storm can actually cause — and the single highest-value item on that list is structural tree pruning.

Healthy trees flex. Trees with dense, unthinned canopies act like sails and either shed major limbs or fail at the root plate. Selective thinning to reduce wind load, removing deadwood, and correcting co-dominant leaders lets a tree move with the wind instead of fighting it. This is not the same as topping, which weakens a tree and creates weak regrowth.

Palms need attention on their own schedule. Old fronds and heavy seed pods become projectiles. Clean palms properly — never over-prune into a 'hurricane cut,' which strips the tree of the reserves it needs to recover.

Drainage is second. Walk your property during a heavy summer rain and note where water sits. Those low points become standing water for days after a tropical system. Regrading, a french drain, or a dry creek bed installed in May is far cheaper than remediating a saturated foundation in September.

Then secure the loose items: unanchored planters, freestanding trellises, decorative stone, patio furniture, and anything on a shelf in an open lanai. Confirm screen enclosure fasteners are tight and that your enclosure was permitted and engineered for current wind-load code — many older cages were not.

Finally, photograph everything. Date-stamped images of your landscape, hardscape, and enclosures before the season make insurance claims dramatically simpler. We build storm-prep pruning and drainage assessments into our spring maintenance calendar for exactly this reason.