Coontie is the low native we put in foundation beds because it is tough, it handles this sand, and it does not sprawl into gutters or across the walk. The service that specifies it is landscaping. It fits under windows where a viburnum would be too tall in two years. It is not a privacy hedge and it is not a palm. A bed that is mostly coontie is often the smaller landscape number, around $400–$1,200 for one wall. A range, not a bid.
We use it where the light is limited and a lawn should not be forced. Under an oak, coontie in mulch is the planting that matches the shade. Floratam in that dark is a second dead lawn. The noon photo decides which side of the yard is grass and which side is this plant.
What it looks like here
It stays low and stiff, a dark green clump rather than a vine or a rank shrub. People who want a flower hedge are looking at hibiscus or croton. People who want a screen are looking at viburnum or podocarpus. People who want the window to remain a window are looking at coontie. Mulch around it holds moisture. Do not bury the crown in a mulch volcano. Rock is for the slab, not for piling on the plant.
It is native and it is already on the coastal list with sabal palm, where the exposure allows the other shrubs. It does not make a salted seawall into a garden by itself. Salt-burned turf at the waterline still becomes a bed, and coontie is one of the plants that bed can hold. Invasive trees behind it, pepper and melaleuca, still have to come out. Coontie does not hide that job.
What we do with it
We plant it with room for the width it keeps, off the wall, and we do not promise a monthly shear. It causes fewer trim calls than croton used as a fake hedge and far fewer than viburnum. If the design is a whole front yard, coontie is the low layer and the screen is the taller layer behind it, off the house. Sod where the noon light is bright can share the ticket. Sod is $0.85–$1.75 per square foot. The bed is its own range.
If the dark side of the yard is the question, ask for coontie instead of another roll of grass. The landscape walk is landscaping.