Savannah Lawn Care & Landscape Services

If you own a yard in the Historic District, on Tybee Island, or out toward Pooler, you already know the deal: about 49 inches of annual rainfall, a hot humid coastal climate that runs St. Augustine grass year-round, chinch bug pressure that takes out poorly-managed Floratam by August, and a salt-air corridor that limits what survives within a mile of the marsh. This page covers Savannah lawn care the way a working contractor would brief you: real per-cut pricing tied to BLS wage data, the actual warm-season cultivars the University of Georgia Extension recommends, the City of Savannah Water Resources outdoor watering schedule, and the Georgia Department of Agriculture pesticide certification every legitimate contractor must hold to apply turf chemistries. HMNDP is building a vetted contractor directory for Savannah and the surrounding metro, launching Q3 2026.

Savannah lawn care pricing in 2026

The honest baseline for Savannah pricing starts with what crews actually cost. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2024 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for the Savannah, GA MSA (area code 42340) shows landscaping and groundskeeping workers (SOC 37-3011) earning a mean hourly wage in the $16 to $18 range, with first-line supervisors of landscaping crews (SOC 37-1012) running closer to $24 to $27 an hour. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS Savannah GA, accessible at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_42340.htm. Add payroll tax, workers’ compensation, fuel, trailer and equipment depreciation, and general liability insurance, and the loaded crew cost for a two-person team lands between $90 and $125 an hour.

That floor drives the per-cut math. Chatham County residential lots run a wide range: historic Downtown and Victorian District lots cluster around 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, Ardsley Park and Habersham Woods around 8,000 to 12,000, and outlying Pooler and Wilmington Island lots from 9,000 to 15,000. Turf area in the historic core is small because shade, hardscape, and mature live oaks dominate; in Ardsley Park and the islands, St. Augustine turf areas of 4,000 to 8,000 square feet are typical. A standard Ardsley Park property with 5,000 to 7,000 square feet of active St. Augustine turf runs $55 to $75 per visit on a weekly cycle April through October, dropping to every other week or every three weeks in winter once Florida-friendly dormancy sets in.

Service tier	Per-visit	Annual program	What’s included
Basic mow and trim (under 5,000 sqft turf)	$45 to $60	$1,800 to $2,400	Weekly summer mow, blow, edge; bi-weekly winter
Standard residential (5,000 to 10,000 sqft turf)	$60 to $85	$2,400 to $3,200	Mow, edge, blow, light shrub trim, seasonal fertilization, chinch bug monitoring
Premium full-service (over 10,000 sqft, irrigation tune)	$85 to $140	$3,200 to $4,800	Above plus quarterly irrigation audit, palm fertilization, sod patch repair
Drip irrigation install (bed retrofit, palms, ornamental)	n/a	$1,800 to $6,500 project	Controller, valves, emitters, mainline, rain sensor

Chinch bug control is the Savannah-specific line item that surprises out-of-state buyers. St. Augustine grass, the dominant turf in coastal Georgia, is the preferred host of the southern chinch bug (Blissus insularis), and unmanaged populations can take out 1,000 square feet of Floratam in less than two weeks during the hot dry stretches of late summer. UGA Extension publication B 1212, Chinch Bug Management in Home Lawns, walks through the scouting and threshold thresholds at https://extension.uga.edu. Preventive insecticide or active scouting plus targeted treatment adds $150 to $400 to the annual contract.

Why climate shapes everything in Savannah

The Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport station (KSAV), the National Weather Service climate reference point for Chatham County, records a 30-year mean annual precipitation of roughly 49 inches and an average of around 70 days at or above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information publishes the full normals at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/us-climate-normals/. The metro sits in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8b through most of the inland county and 9a along the immediate coast under the 2023 revised map; verify at https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov.

That climate profile means three things for any landscape program. First, Savannah is a hot-humid coastal subtropical climate, not a transition zone, so warm-season grasses dominate and cool-season turf is not viable for residential lawns. Second, hurricane and tropical storm wind plus storm-surge salt intrusion are real risks: contractors operating along the marsh edge and on the barrier islands need wind tie-down protocols for any new tree install and need to spec salt-tolerant cultivars within roughly a mile of open water. Third, the heat and humidity that drive the chinch bug, sod webworm, and large patch disease cycles also drive lawn growth: weekly mowing is the norm from April through October, and skipping a cut almost guarantees crown damage on a re-mow.

Grass types that work in Savannah

The dominant warm-season turf in residential Savannah is St. Augustinegrass, almost always the Floratam cultivar in older installs and increasingly CitraBlue or Palmetto in newer renovations. The University of Georgia Extension’s turfgrass program at https://extension.uga.edu/lawn-garden.html and UGA publication B 1314, Lawns in Georgia, recommend St. Augustine for shaded coastal properties, bermudagrass (TifTuf, TifWay, Latitude 36) for full-sun residential and commercial, centipedegrass (TifBlair) for low-maintenance acreage on acidic soils, and zoysia (Empire, Zeon, Meyer) for mid-range residential where fine texture and shade tolerance matter.

St. Augustine grass is the default choice in Ardsley Park, the Victorian District, and most of the live-oak-shaded historic core because no other warm-season grass tolerates that shade load. Floratam loses to chinch bugs and has lower cold tolerance than CitraBlue; CitraBlue (released by University of Florida in 2018) has gained ground because of improved disease resistance and a darker color. Centipede grass is common in northern Chatham County and the outlying rural lots on acidic, low-fertility soils.

For homeowners on Wilmington Island, Skidaway Island, and Tybee, salt tolerance becomes a real cultivar selection criterion. Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum), cultivars including SeaIsle 1 and SeaIsle 2000, is the answer for golf and high-end coastal residential where irrigation water salinity is elevated. UGA Extension Bulletin 1325, Seashore Paspalum for Florida Lawns and Landscape (cross-referenced from UF/IFAS), covers the install and maintenance protocols. For homeowners exploring genuinely lower-input landscapes, native grass meadows and pollinator gardens using bluestem, lovegrass, and switchgrass blends are an emerging option; our guide to drought-tolerant lawn alternatives covers the conversion math.

Soil and irrigation design in Savannah

Soil chemistry across Chatham County is dominated by the Atlantic Coastal Plain parent material. The Natural Resources Conservation Service Web Soil Survey at https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov maps the dominant series in the urban core as Bohicket and Capers (tidal marsh) along the river edge and Lakeland, Mascotte, and Pelham sands across the upland residential areas. Soil pH runs acidic (4.8 to 6.0) on most upland lots and approaches saline on tidal-adjacent properties. Drainage is highly variable: deep sandy uplands drain rapidly while low-lying Tybee and Wilmington Island sites can saturate during storm surge.

The agronomic answer is a soil test before any major fertility program (UGA Extension Soil Testing through the Chatham County Extension office at https://extension.uga.edu) followed by a lime application where the test indicates. St. Augustine prefers pH 6.0 to 7.0, while centipede tolerates pH down to 5.0. Total annual nitrogen for St. Augustine in coastal Georgia runs 3 to 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet, applied in three or four split applications between April and September. UGA Extension publication B 1311, Lawn Fertilization for Georgia Homeowners, walks through the rate schedule.

Irrigation design has to account for the same soils. Sandy uplands drain so fast that surface watering rarely reaches deep roots, which is why cycle-and-soak programming on smart controllers (running multiple shorter cycles separated by 30 to 60 minutes) lets each cycle’s water move into the root zone before the next runs. The EPA WaterSense Weather-Based Irrigation Controller specification at https://www.epa.gov/watersense/weather-based-irrigation-controllers identifies controllers that handle the math automatically using local ET data. Our explainer at EPA WaterSense smart irrigation covers controller selection.

Savannah water rules and rebates

The City of Savannah Water Resources Department enforces a year-round outdoor watering schedule: no watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., even-numbered addresses water Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and odd-numbered addresses water Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. The current rate schedule and conservation guidance live at https://www.savannahga.gov/249/Water-Resources. The 2026 budget cycle includes a stormwater fee that begins billing in July and an increase to water and sewer charges.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division within the Georgia Department of Natural Resources at https://epd.georgia.gov publishes statewide drought response triggers and the Water Stewardship Act guidance. During declared Level 1, Level 2, and Drought Response levels, additional watering restrictions can come into effect across the Lower Savannah River basin. The City of Savannah does not currently run a turf-conversion rebate comparable to the Florida district programs; conservation tools available through the Water Connects Us All program include free rain barrels, water saving toilet rebates, and home conservation kits.

Watering schedule guidance for established St. Augustine in summer: water deeply two times per week (totaling 0.75 to 1.0 inches) within the allowed window, between roughly 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. to minimize evaporative loss and disease pressure. UGA Extension publication B 894, Irrigation for Lawns and Gardens, covers calibration. Smart controllers that use local weather data, eligible under the EPA WaterSense Specification, cut residential irrigation 20 to 30 percent versus fixed timers and are the easiest single upgrade for any irrigated property.

Licensing for Savannah landscape contractors

Georgia has no statewide contractor license for landscape construction work, which is a key difference from Florida or California. Landscape installation, irrigation, hardscape, and routine maintenance are governed by local business licensing (City of Savannah business tax certificate) rather than a state trade license. The Georgia State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors at https://sos.ga.gov/georgia-state-licensing-board-residential-and-general-contractors regulates general residential and commercial contracting but does not require landscape contractors to hold its license except where the project crosses into building construction.

What Georgia does require, with no minimum project threshold, is a Commercial Pesticide Applicator certification from the Georgia Department of Agriculture for any contractor applying pesticides on behalf of a customer. The Category 24, Lawn and Ornamental Pest Control, is the common category for residential turf work. Detail and exam prep are at https://agr.georgia.gov/pesticide-licensing.aspx. Contractors who hold the Georgia Pesticide Contractor License (the company license, distinct from the individual applicator certification) plus the applicator certification can sell and apply turf chemistries; contractors without either credential cannot legally apply pre-emergent, post-emergent, or insecticide on a customer property.

Irrigation contractor licensing is also separate: the Georgia State Construction Industry Licensing Board administers utility-contractor-adjacent licensing where applicable, but most residential drip and rotor work falls below the trigger threshold. Insurance minimums to ask any Savannah contractor: general liability $1 million per occurrence, plus workers’ compensation as required under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act. Verify both with a current Certificate of Insurance before the first invoice. Our vetting checklist walks through what to demand on paper.

HOAs and Savannah landscape design standards

Georgia has no statewide HOA preemption law comparable to Florida’s Florida-Friendly Landscaping statute (Fla. Stat. 720.3075) or Texas SB 198, so HOA landscape rules are governed entirely by individual CC&Rs and Georgia’s Property Owners’ Association Act under OCGA Title 44 Chapter 3. That means the Architectural Review Committee at each association sets the rules for front-yard turf type, allowable plant lists, fencing, and lawn ornament restrictions. Historic district properties in Downtown Savannah and the Victorian District also fall under the Historic Preservation Commission’s design review for any visible-from-public-right-of-way work, which can extend to fencing, hardscape, and front-yard plant lists.

Practical operator note: most Savannah HOAs require ARC submittal for irrigation system installs, hardscape additions, tree removal (especially live oaks, which Chatham County protects under its tree ordinance), and any front-yard turf-to-bed conversion. Tybee Island, Wilmington Island, and Skidaway Island each have additional architectural review for shoreline and dune-edge plantings tied to the Georgia Coastal Marshlands Protection Act administered by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources at https://coastalgadnr.org. Operators who do not document submittals leave clients exposed.

Neighborhoods covered

HMNDP’s Savannah directory covers contractors serving the high-end residential core in Ardsley Park, the Victorian District, the Historic Downtown squares, and Habersham Woods. Coverage extends to the salt-air corridor of Isle of Hope, Wilmington Island, and Skidaway Island, the established neighborhoods of Daffin Park and Gordonston, the growing west-side developments around Pooler and Bloomingdale, and Tybee Island (a separate municipality but the same contractor pool). Richmond Hill and Pembroke, in Bryan County, sit just outside the Chatham line but pull from the same crews on east-bound routes.

Find a vetted Savannah contractor

HMNDP applies a five-layer vetting filter to every contractor listed: Georgia Department of Agriculture Pesticide Contractor License and Applicator Certification verified against the GDA database, current Certificate of Insurance on file, BBB and Google review minimums, sample-project documentation, and reference calls with two recent residential customers. The Savannah 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 starting points. For benchmark pricing across metros, see lawn care cost benchmarks for 2026.

For Savannah contractors

If you operate a licensed landscape business in Chatham County and want to appear in the HMNDP Savannah directory at launch, email partners@hmndp.org with your Georgia Department of Agriculture pesticide credentials, City of Savannah business tax certificate, service area, insurance certificate, and three customer references. We verify each item before listing.

Related coverage

• Lawn care cost benchmarks for 2026
• NPK fertilizer guide for warm-season turf
• How to install drip irrigation
• Measure lawn square footage accurately
• Brown patches in lawn diagnosis and fix
• EPA WaterSense smart irrigation

Methodology

This page synthesizes wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2024 release, Savannah GA MSA 42340), climate normals from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information for the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport station, USDA Plant Hardiness Zone designations from the 2023 revised map, turfgrass cultivar guidance from the University of Georgia Extension, soil series mapping from the NRCS Web Soil Survey, licensing data from the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Georgia State Licensing Board, and rate guidance from the City of Savannah Water Resources. Data verified as of June 17, 2026. Rate schedules, license thresholds, 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 Savannah GA: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_42340.htm
• 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 Georgia Extension Lawn and Garden: https://extension.uga.edu/lawn-garden.html
• NRCS Web Soil Survey: https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov
• City of Savannah Water Resources: https://www.savannahga.gov/249/Water-Resources
• Georgia Environmental Protection Division: https://epd.georgia.gov
• Georgia Department of Agriculture Pesticide Licensing: https://agr.georgia.gov/pesticide-licensing.aspx
• Georgia State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors: https://sos.ga.gov/georgia-state-licensing-board-residential-and-general-contractors
• Georgia Coastal Resources Division: https://coastalgadnr.org
• U.S. EPA WaterSense Weather-Based Irrigation Controllers: https://www.epa.gov/watersense/weather-based-irrigation-controllers