Published prices
How Much Does Landscaping Cost in Southampton, NY? (2026 Guide)
What does landscaping cost in Southampton, NY? No published survey says. The cost guides from Angi, HomeGuide, LawnStarter, Fixr, HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila and This Old House publish national averages, a few Northeast and New York State rows and some New York City rows; none that we have found publishes a Long Island, Suffolk County or Hamptons price, and none gives a New York multiplier. The table lists one published range for each service, with the survey and the date on its page; no survey we found prices a meadow or native planting, so the deer fence row is the nearest published figure for that work. Read each as a benchmark, not a quote from us. A Southampton job is priced from its own measurements, plant list, stone and schedule, and from the tax New York applies to it. The factors and sections below explain what moves a price here.
| Service | Typical Southampton Range |
|---|---|
| Landscape design plan (HomeGuide, December 2025, national) | $700 to $3,000 per plan; designers $50 to $150 an hour; landscape architects $100 to $250 an hour |
| Landscape installation (Angi, September 2026, national) | $4.50 to $12 per square foot; up to $40 per square foot for a tear-out and major remodel |
| Landscape maintenance (HomeGuide, February 2026, national) | $100 to $200 a month; $800 to $1,600 a month for full service on 1 acre |
| Weekly mowing (LawnStarter, September 2026, Northeast row) | $48 to $75 a week over a season of about 24 weeks; $1,152 to $1,800 a year |
| Privet hedge planting (Angi, July 2026, national) | $10 to $20 per linear foot; typical hedge installation $900 to $1,300 |
| Hedge trimming (HomeGuide, February 2026, national) | $185 to $450 for a 50- to 100-foot hedge |
| Bluestone patio (Angi, September 2026, national) | $16 to $25 per square foot, materials and labor; $6,400 to $10,000 for a 20 x 20 foot patio |
| Sprinkler system installation (Angi, July 2026, national) | $1,636 to $3,595; an average of $1,000 for each added zone |
| Winterization, start-up and backflow test (HomeGuide, February 2026, national) | $50 to $150 to winterize up to 12 zones; $60 to $125 to start up; $60 to $150 for an annual backflow test |
| Landscape lighting (Angi, April 2026, national) | $100 to $500 per fixture; most systems $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Spring and fall cleanup (HomeGuide, February 2026, national) | $125 to $300 in spring; $150 to $400 in fall |
| Leaf removal (HomeGuide, November 2025, national) | $150 to $700 for most lawns; $450 to $1,000 per acre |
| Mulch, delivered and installed (HomeGuide, April 2025, national) | $50 to $150 per cubic yard |
| Deer fence (Angi, May 2026, national) | $6 to $15 per linear foot; $4,200 average job |
What Changes the Price?
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Lot size and lawn area
Survey rows climb with acreage. HomeGuide's February 2026 table runs from $100 to $200 a month for full-service care of a 1/8-acre yard to $800 to $1,600 for 1 acre, and Angi's September 2026 lawn care table reaches $1,600 to $3,200 a month for 2 acres. On a lot in the Town's Aquifer Protection Overlay District, fertilized and irrigated planting may cover no more than 15% of the lot (Town Code section 330-68), so the rest stays natural or unfertilized.
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Plant species and size
Angi's July 2026 hedge survey prices privet at $10 to $20 a linear foot, arborvitae at $15 to $35, boxwood at $20 to $40 and holly at $20 to $45. HomeGuide's July 2024 tree survey gives $125 to $300 to plant a tree under 6 feet and $400 to $1,300 for one of 10 to 20 feet. Rutgers rates privet B and American arborvitae D for deer damage, and it advises planting C and D plants only with fencing or repellents, a cost of its own.
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Hardscape scope and stone
Patios are priced by area and walls by area and height. Angi's September 2026 survey gives a bluestone patio at $16 to $25 a square foot, materials and labor; HomeGuide's January 2026 survey gives retaining walls at $35 to $65 a square foot and says walls 4 feet or higher usually need an engineer's design, at $500 to $2,000 or more. No survey prices thermal bluestone (flamed to an even face) against natural cleft (split along its bedding planes). Our [bluestone patio and hardscape page](/bluestone-patios-hardscape) covers those choices.
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Rules, permits and working hours
Rules add steps and fix the hours. In the Town, work within 200 feet of a wetland needs a wetlands permit (Chapter 325), a fence taller than four feet needs a building permit, and Belgian block (cut granite blocks) or bluestone on a driveway apron needs the Highway Superintendent's permit. In the Village of Southampton, landscaping runs only from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays, never on Sundays or holidays.
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Irrigation zones and water credits
Sprinkler prices scale by zone: Fixr's January 2025 survey gives $650 to $1,000 installed for one zone, $2,600 to $5,000 for four and $4,550 to $7,000 for seven. Some money comes back. SCWA credits $150 for a smart controller and $75 for a rain sensor, up to $250 per account every three years, and the Peconic Estuary Partnership pays eligible homeowners up to $500 toward rain gardens and native plant gardens. Our [irrigation systems page](/irrigation-systems) explains drip and rotor zones.
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Lighting fixtures and the Town's limits
Lighting is priced per fixture. Angi's April 2026 survey gives $100 to $500 a fixture and $800 to $2,000 for a small system of 4 to 8 fixtures; HomeGuide's December 2023 survey gives low-voltage fixtures at $100 to $150 installed and the 12-volt transformer at $200 to $500. In the Town, lamps above 3000 K are prohibited and decorative lighting may not stay on from 10:00 p.m. until dawn (Town Code section 330-345E), so we choose fixtures and timers to those rules.
These ranges show what national and Northeast markets charge; they do not show what your property needs. For that we walk the site, measure it and send a free written estimate that lists each item, its tax treatment and the start and completion dates. To set our numbers beside the published ones, the Southampton landscape data page collects the survey rows, wages and rules in one place, and our landscape design service explains how a planting plan sets the budget before anything is built.
What the surveys publish, and why none prices Long Island
The cost guides most owners find are national. Angi, HomeGuide, LawnStarter, Fixr, HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila and This Old House each publish a national average and a typical range, and the date on the page matters: the pages behind our table run from HomeGuide's April 2025 mulch survey to Angi's September 2026 updates. None that we have found publishes a Long Island, Suffolk County, Southampton or Hamptons price, and none gives a numeric New York or Long Island multiplier. A few rows are regional. LawnStarter's Northeast row gives a mowing season of about 24 weeks at $48 to $75 a week, and its June 2026 study puts the 2025 Northeast average cost per mow at $58.17, the highest region, against a national $53.59.
New York rows need care. Angi's by-state table lists a New York landscape architect at $2,610 against a national average of $2,122, and LawnStarter says designers charge more in expensive states, New York among them, and in metropolitan areas. Rows labeled New York, NY are New York City figures: HomeGuide and Angi list New York, NY lawn care at $130 to $525 a month, and LawnStarter lists New York, NY landscaping at $1,779 to $2,102 against a national $1,400 to $1,660. Long Island is not New York City, so we never present a city row as a Southampton price. Read the national range as the published benchmark, the Northeast row as the nearest regional signal and the city row as context only.
Where the money goes on an East End property
Labor is the line we can benchmark least locally. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 national figures give landscaping and groundskeeping workers a mean wage of $20.33 an hour ($42,290 a year), their first-line supervisors $29.31, tree trimmers and pruners $26.91, pesticide applicators $22.63 and landscape architects $42.68. The same survey's figures for the Nassau County-Suffolk County metropolitan division could not be verified, so we publish none. Billing rates sit above wages: HomeGuide's February 2026 survey gives $50 to $100 an hour for a 2-person crew, and Angi's July 2026 tree survey puts labor at around 30% of a tree planting project. LawnStarter notes that labor costs vary from market to market.
Stone, plants, access and the season come next. HomeGuide's December 2025 survey prices bluestone at $6 to $14 a square foot as material and $15 to $31 installed. Town Code section 123-48A requires imported fill over 20 cubic yards on a permitted job to be clean fill, and in the Village of Southampton no one working on a construction job may park on the street shoulder within 30 feet of a Village tree (section 116-36.1), so we stage trucks, pallets and plants on site. No survey prices travel or access on the South Fork. The season sets the rest: LawnStarter's Northeast mowing season runs about 24 weeks, HomeGuide notes cheaper rates in late fall and early winter, and the second-home calendar puts the opening in spring and the closing in fall, as our estate landscape maintenance page lays out.
How to read a landscaping quote in Suffolk County
Start with the tax lines. New York's Tax Bulletin TB-ST-505, updated February 23, 2026, taxes maintaining, servicing and repairing real property, such as mowing, trimming hedges and trees, reseeding bare spots, and repairing or opening and closing sprinkler systems; it also taxes planting annuals. Work that becomes part of the property is a capital improvement: a new lawn, shrubs, trees and perennials, and retaining walls; Publication 862 adds the original installation of an underground lawn sprinkler system and of gravel or crushed stone paths. For a capital improvement you sign Form ST-124, and the contractor collects no tax from you but pays tax on its materials. Taxable lines carry Suffolk County's combined rate of 8.75 percent (Publication 718, effective March 1, 2025). Neither document addresses landscape lighting, design fees or mulching.
Then read the contract. Suffolk County's Chapter 563 makes it a prohibited act to work without a written contract that specifies starting and completion dates and a description of the costs of labor and materials (section 563-21C), and it requires the license number on all home improvement advertising. The Town of Southampton licenses home improvement contractors, landscaping included, under Chapter 143, and Suffolk County licenses them under Chapter 563: ask for both numbers, and check the County one in Suffolk's online license search. In the Village of Southampton a landscaper must also register every year (Chapter 73). If the job includes commercial lawn pesticide applications, New York's ECL section 33-1001 requires a written contract with the approximate dates, the number of applications and the total cost. Our rules and permits guide covers each license.
Landscaping Pricing Questions
What is a realistic budget for landscaping my home?
The published national figures give the frame. Angi's September 2026 survey puts professional landscaping at a national average of $3,517, with most owners paying $1,248 to $6,069; front-yard landscaping averages $1,500 to $5,000, and a full backyard renovation runs $15,000 to $50,000. Fixr's January 2025 survey describes its $10,000 national average as a 1/4-acre job with a design, new soil, grading, seed, plants, a patio and a walkway. No survey prices Long Island, so a realistic Southampton budget comes from a measured plan: the area, the plant list, the stone and the maintenance that follows.
How much does it cost to landscape a 20 x 20 yard?
A 20 x 20 area is 400 square feet, and the surveys price it by what goes in. Angi's September 2026 survey gives general landscaping at $4.50 to $12 a square foot, with published rows of $900 to $2,400 for a 200-square-foot area and $2,250 to $6,000 for 500 square feet. For a bluestone patio that size, Angi gives $6,400 to $10,000; HomeGuide's December 2025 surveys give $6,400 to $14,000 for a 400-square-foot stone patio and $2,000 to $14,000 for a 20 x 20 patio in any material. All are national figures.
Is bluestone cheaper than pavers?
In the published national ranges, usually not. HomeGuide's December 2025 patio survey prices concrete or brick pavers at $10 to $17 a square foot and natural stone at $16 to $35; Angi's August 2026 paver survey gives concrete pavers at $8 to $15 and natural stone at $15 to $50. Bluestone patios run $16 to $25 a square foot in Angi's September 2026 survey and $17 to $25 in HomeGuide's April 2023 survey. None of the bluestone surveys separates thermal from natural cleft stone, or prices dry-laid against mortared work.
Is spending money on landscaping worth it?
We can only answer with what the sources measure, and none of the surveys we cite measures resale value. New York's tax rules treat a new lawn, shrubs, trees, perennials and retaining walls as capital improvements, work that becomes part of the real property. Some spending comes back as water and fertilizer saved: SCWA says a smart controller can save the average home up to 15,000 gallons a year and a rain sensor up to 2,500 gallons a season, and the Peconic Estuary Partnership says leaving clippings on the lawn can cut fertilizer use by 25 to 50 percent.