Davie Lawn Care & Landscape Services

If you own a property in the Town of Davie, you already know this is not typical suburban South Florida. Davie kept its agricultural and equestrian zoning when the rest of Broward County paved over, which means half-acre and full-acre lots, horse trails along the canals, and St. Augustine turf fighting chinch bugs in a flat coastal landscape that sits barely above the Everglades. This page covers Davie lawn care the way a working contractor would brief you: real per-cut pricing tied to BLS wage data, the St. Augustine and Bahia cultivars the University of Florida recommends, the South Florida Water Management District two-day watering rule that governs every irrigation clock in town, and the FDACS licensing that any legitimate lawn operator applying fertilizer or pesticide must hold. HMNDP is building a vetted contractor directory for Davie and the surrounding metro, launching Q3 2026.

Davie lawn care pricing in 2026

Honest pricing in Davie starts with what crews actually cost. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey covers Davie inside the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan statistical area (area code 33100). The May 2024 data, surfaced through the O*NET wage tool because the BLS public pages have been returning 403 errors, shows landscaping and groundskeeping workers (SOC 37-3011) at a median hourly wage near $17.99, with first-line supervisors of landscaping crews (SOC 37-1012) at roughly $24.68 an hour. See the metro file at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33100.htm and the Florida wage tables at https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/37-3011.00?st=FL. Add payroll tax, Florida workers’ compensation (landscape classes carry a materially higher rate than office work), trailer and mower depreciation, fuel, and liability insurance, and the loaded cost of a two-person crew lands between $95 and $130 an hour.

That floor drives the per-cut math, and Davie complicates it. Standard quarter-acre lots in subdivisions like Shenandoah price like the rest of Broward, but the town’s signature agricultural and equestrian parcels (half-acre to multi-acre with pasture, fence lines, and tree wells) need bigger equipment and more time. A typical Forest Ridge or Pine Island Ridge property with 4,000 to 7,000 square feet of St. Augustine turf runs about $55 to $80 per visit on a weekly summer cycle, while a Long Lake Ranches estate lot can run well past $120.

Service tier	Per-visit	Annual program	What’s included
Basic mow and edge (under 5,000 sqft turf)	$40 to $65	$1,900 to $2,500	Weekly mow, blow, edge; light trim
Standard residential (5,000 to 10,000 sqft turf)	$65 to $95	$2,500 to $3,600	Mow, edge, blow, shrub trim, fertilization program
Estate and equestrian (over 10,000 sqft, pasture edges)	$95 to $180	$3,600 to $6,800	Above plus large-lot mowing, tree wells, chinch bug program
Drip or micro irrigation install (bed retrofit)	n/a	$1,800 to $6,000 project	Controller, valves, emitters, rain sensor per SFWMD

The Davie-specific line item is chinch bug control. St. Augustine in South Florida is the preferred host of the southern chinch bug, and an untreated infestation can kill a lawn in a single hot month. Most full-program contracts here bundle a preventive insecticide schedule, which adds $200 to $500 a year depending on turf area. For a sense of how these costs compare nationally, see our 2026 lawn care cost benchmarks.

Why climate shapes everything in Davie

Davie sits in the Fort Lauderdale climate zone, with the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) station as the local NOAA reference point. Annual rainfall averages around 64 inches, the bulk of it falling in the wet season from June through October in heavy convective storms. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information publishes the full normals at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/us-climate-normals/. The town sits in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 10b to 11a under the 2023 revised map; verify at https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov.

That climate profile drives three realities for any lawn program. First, this is a wet-and-dry rhythm, not a four-season one. The summer wet season delivers more water than turf can use, so the real fungal and irrigation challenges happen then, while the November-through-April dry season is when irrigation actually matters. Second, frost is functionally absent, so St. Augustine stays semi-active all year and the mowing season never truly stops. Third, Davie’s low, flat elevation over a high water table means drainage is the design problem: standing water after summer storms invites fungus and root rot, so grading and bed elevation matter more here than in most metros. Hurricane season adds debris cleanup and tree work to the calendar every June through November.

Grass types that work in Davie

The dominant residential turf in Davie is St. Augustinegrass. The University of Florida IFAS Extension recommends ‘Floratam’ as the long-standing South Florida standard, with ‘CitraBlue’ and ‘ProVista’ as newer cultivars bred for better shade tolerance, disease resistance, and slower vertical growth. UF/IFAS publishes cultivar guidance and the full Florida Lawn Handbook at https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu. ‘Floratam’ remains the default for full-sun Broward lawns, but ‘CitraBlue’ has gained ground on properties with mature oak and mahogany canopy where ‘Floratam’ thins out.

For Davie’s equestrian and large-lot parcels, bahiagrass (‘Pensacola’ and ‘Argentine’) is the practical choice. It tolerates low input, handles drought on the sandy ridge soils, and stands up to traffic, though it produces tall seed heads that demand frequent mowing in summer. Zoysiagrass is the premium option for homeowners who want a dense, fine-bladed lawn and will pay for it, performing well in the transition between sun and partial shade.

For homeowners who want to cut water and chemical input, a Florida-friendly conversion (mixed native groundcovers, sunshine mimosa, perennial peanut, and drip-irrigated ornamental beds) reduces both the irrigation budget and the chinch bug exposure that comes with monoculture St. Augustine. Our guide to drought-tolerant lawn alternatives covers the conversion math, and UF/IFAS Florida-Friendly Landscaping principles are documented at https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu.

Soil and irrigation design in Davie

Soil in Davie is the silent driver of most lawn problems. The Natural Resources Conservation Service Web Soil Survey at https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov maps the dominant series for the area as Margate, Pompano, and Hallandale fine sands, all sitting on the Everglades fringe over a shallow limestone bedrock. These are sandy, poorly drained soils with very low organic matter and a high water table, and the underlying limestone keeps soil pH alkaline, often 7.5 to 8.2. That alkalinity ties up iron and manganese, which is why iron chlorosis (a yellowing between the leaf veins) is a common St. Augustine complaint here.

The agronomic answer is chelated iron applied as a foliar supplement during the growing season, plus a fertilization program that respects Broward County’s fertilizer ordinance restricting nitrogen and phosphorus application in the summer rainy season to protect the canals and the Everglades. Total annual nitrogen for St. Augustine in South Florida generally runs 2 to 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet, split across the year. For the nutrient framework, see our NPK fertilizer guide alongside the UF/IFAS fertilization tables.

Irrigation design has to work with the sandy soil and the SFWMD rules at the same time. Sand drains fast, so short, frequent runs waste water below the root zone, while the two-day-per-week cap means each watering day has to deliver the full weekly need without runoff. Smart controllers that adjust to local rainfall solve this. The EPA WaterSense Weather-Based Irrigation Controller specification at https://www.epa.gov/watersense/weather-based-irrigation-controllers identifies models that handle the math automatically, and Florida law already requires a functioning rain sensor or soil moisture sensor on every automatic system.

Davie water rules and rebates

The Town of Davie provides water through its Utilities Division, with portions of the town served by Broward County water and other municipal systems depending on location. Town utility information is at https://www.davie-fl.gov. Every irrigation system in Davie operates under the South Florida Water Management District year-round landscape irrigation rule, which limits most of Broward County to two watering days per week and prohibits irrigation between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Under the two-day schedule, even-numbered addresses water Thursday and Sunday, odd-numbered addresses water Wednesday and Saturday. The full rule is published at https://www.sfwmd.gov/community-residents/landscape-irrigation.

The SFWMD and Broward County have at various points funded turf-conversion and high-efficiency irrigation rebates through their conservation programs, with amounts and eligibility changing by fiscal cycle. Confirm current availability through the SFWMD conservation pages and the Town of Davie Utilities Division before quoting a conversion. The district’s guidance is that a healthy South Florida landscape needs only about 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week in the summer growing season, and less in the dry season, so any contractor proposing daily watering is out of step with both the rule and the agronomy.

Licensing for Davie landscape contractors

Florida has no statewide occupational license for general landscape maintenance, so a crew that only mows, edges, and trims does not need a state contractor card. The licensing line is crossed the moment chemicals enter the picture. Any business applying fertilizer commercially in Florida must hold Green Industries Best Management Practices (GI-BMP) certification, mandated under Florida Statute 482.1562 and administered through UF/IFAS and FDACS. Details are at https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/ffl-and-you/gi-bmp-program/fertilizer-certification/.

For pesticide application (pre-emergent herbicides, broadleaf control, and the chinch bug insecticides that South Florida lawns demand), the operator must hold a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services license. The entry-level credential is the Limited Commercial Landscape Maintenance (LCLM) license, with a $150 exam fee and $75 annual renewal; larger operations carry the broader Commercial Lawn and Ornamental certification. FDACS licensing details and the application portal are at https://www.fdacs.gov/Business-Services/Pesticide-Licensing. Irrigation and well work fall under separate Broward County and state plumbing rules.

Insurance minimums to ask any Davie contractor for: general liability of at least $1 million per occurrence, plus workers’ compensation if they carry employees. Verify both with a current Certificate of Insurance before the first invoice, and confirm GI-BMP and FDACS credentials directly. Our vetting checklist walks through exactly what to demand on paper.

HOAs and Davie landscape design standards

Davie spans a wide range, from deed-restricted communities like Forest Ridge and Long Lake Ranches to unrestricted agricultural parcels with no association at all. Where an HOA exists, Florida Statute 720.3075 sets the ground rules. The statute prohibits an association from enforcing covenants that would stop a homeowner from installing Florida-friendly landscaping, as strengthened by 2023 legislation, though the HOA may still apply reasonable aesthetic review and approval processes. The statute text is at https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2023/720.3075.

In practice this means a Davie homeowner can convert turf to a water-conserving Florida-friendly design even over HOA objection to the concept, but the specific plant palette and layout may still need Architectural Review Committee sign-off. The front-yard norm across most Davie subdivisions remains a St. Augustine lawn with foundation shrub beds, but the equestrian and agricultural zones run to pasture, native trees, and far less formal turf. Contractors who understand both the statute and the local CC&R conventions save homeowners money on rejected designs.

Neighborhoods covered

HMNDP’s Davie directory covers contractors serving the established residential communities of Forest Ridge, Shenandoah, Pine Island Ridge, and Rolling Hills, plus the gated estate enclave of Long Lake Ranches in the town’s western reaches. Coverage extends across the equestrian and agricultural parcels along Orange Drive, Griffin Road, and the canal corridors that give Davie its rural character, as well as the denser neighborhoods near Nova Southeastern University and the Davie campus cluster. Cooper City and Southwest Ranches are separate municipalities to the south and west but share the same Broward contractor pool and the same SFWMD watering rules.

Find a vetted Davie contractor

HMNDP applies a five-layer vetting filter to every contractor listed: FDACS pesticide license and GI-BMP certification verified directly, current Certificate of Insurance on file, BBB and Google review minimums, sample-project documentation, and reference calls with two recent residential customers. The Davie directory launches in Q3 2026.

If you are a homeowner looking for guidance before launch, our pillar guides on how to find a reputable landscaper and hardscape contractor vetting are the right starting points.

For Davie contractors

If you operate a licensed lawn or landscape business serving Davie and want to appear in the HMNDP directory at launch, email partners@hmndp.org with your FDACS license number, GI-BMP certification, service area, insurance certificate, and three customer references. We verify each item before listing, and the listing puts you in front of homeowners actively searching for vetted local crews.

Related coverage

For homeowners planning a project in Davie, start with our 2026 lawn care cost guide and the NPK fertilizer guide for warm-season turf. If you are converting beds or going low-water, our walkthrough on how to install drip irrigation and the drought-tolerant lawn alternatives guide cover the South Florida specifics. To stay current on watering rules, see the 2026 US turf water-use restriction tracker.

Methodology

This page synthesizes wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2024 release, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach MSA, accessed via O*NET), climate normals from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information for the Fort Lauderdale station, USDA Plant Hardiness Zone designations from the 2023 revised map, turfgrass cultivar guidance from University of Florida IFAS Extension, soil series from the NRCS Web Soil Survey, licensing data from FDACS and UF/IFAS, and water-rule guidance from the South Florida Water Management District and the Town of Davie. Data verified as of June 17, 2026. Rebate amounts and program eligibility change by fiscal cycle; confirm with the relevant authority before quoting a project.

Sources and References

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach (MSA 33100): https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33100.htm
• O*NET Florida wages, Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers (37-3011): https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/37-3011.00?st=FL
• O*NET Florida wages, First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping (37-1012): https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/37-1012.00?st=FL
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/us-climate-normals/
• USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023): https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov
• University of Florida IFAS Gardening Solutions: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu
• UF/IFAS Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program: https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu
• NRCS Web Soil Survey: https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov
• FDACS Pesticide Applicator Licensing: https://www.fdacs.gov/Business-Services/Pesticide-Licensing
• UF/IFAS GI-BMP fertilizer certification: https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/ffl-and-you/gi-bmp-program/fertilizer-certification/
• South Florida Water Management District, landscape irrigation: https://www.sfwmd.gov/community-residents/landscape-irrigation
• Town of Davie Utilities: https://www.davie-fl.gov
• Florida Statute 720.3075 (HOA Florida-friendly landscaping): https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2023/720.3075
• EPA WaterSense Weather-Based Irrigation Controllers: https://www.epa.gov/watersense/weather-based-irrigation-controllers