Landscaping in Tonawanda
Design, planting, mulch, edging and hardscape touches that give your property a finished look.
Tonawanda is two places with one name. The City of Tonawanda covers about 3.7 square miles, and three of its four boundaries are water: the Niagara River, Tonawanda Creek where the Erie Canal runs, Ellicott Creek and Two Mile Creek. The Town of Tonawanda picks up on the land side and runs south toward Buffalo, ground that filled in mostly after the Second World War, with the Village of Kenmore sitting inside it. Illos Property Care works all of it.
You get the same crew in July that you get in January. We mow, edge, mulch, lay sod, haul junk, run spring and fall cleanups, and plow driveways all winter. If you own something across the canal in North Tonawanda as well, we can pick up both stops on the same run.
What actually changes the work in Tonawanda
The city and the town run different yard waste rules, and mixing them up costs you a pickup. In the City of Tonawanda leaves go loose into the street, but only between Columbus Day and the first heavy snowfall, and they are collected the day after your normal garbage day. Outside that window the city wants them in the tote instead. Grass clippings are their own case there: a clear or translucent bag set outside the tote, carrying a city grass sticker from the Clerk's office, and no more than fifty pounds. In the Town of Tonawanda leaves are raked unbagged into the strip between the sidewalk and the curb, never into the street, from roughly October through November. The rest of the year town yard waste goes in the tote or in clear bags that do not top sixty pounds.
Town Code 181-10 is the one that matters if you hire anybody. Brush and tree parts cut by a contractor have to leave with the contractor. They can sit in the public right of way only while the job is running, and no longer than 24 hours after it is finished. Ours leaves with us.
The bones of the place shape the rest. The town estimates that 70% of its public streets have sidewalks on both sides, roughly 1.69 million lineal feet, typically four-foot poured concrete laid by subdivision developers after the war and into the 1960s. Town Code 183-5 puts the upkeep, the snow clearing and the liability on the abutting owner rather than the town. Lots are narrow, drives are single width, and tree root damage is one of the standard ways a slab fails here.
The two halves also age differently. The city's comprehensive plan traces its oldest structures to the years before the First World War, near Main Street and along the long streets that run parallel to Niagara Street. The town's walks and subdivisions went in after the war. That gap is why a quote for the same service can look nothing alike two streets apart.
Services
What we do in Tonawanda
Seven services, one crew, the same trucks all year. Most Tonawanda work starts with weekly lawn care and a clean edge along the walk, because on a lot this narrow the sidewalk line is most of what people see. Winter is driveway and lot snow plowing on the same properties, so nobody new is learning your layout in the dark. When the plow-scarred strip by the curb never comes back, fresh sod fixes it faster than seed does.
Lawn Care in Tonawanda
Weekly and bi-weekly mowing, trimming, edging and blow-off on a schedule you can set your watch by.
Snow Plowing in Tonawanda
Seasonal and per-push plowing, shoveling and salting for Western New York winters.
Fall Cleanups in Tonawanda
Leaf removal, bed cutbacks and gutter-line clearing so your lawn goes into winter healthy.
Spring Cleanups in Tonawanda
Dethatching, bed re-edging, fresh mulch and debris haul-off to reset the yard after winter.
Sodding in Tonawanda
Grading, prep and fresh-cut sod that turns bare or damaged ground into instant lawn.
Junk Removal in Tonawanda
Yard waste, brush piles, old furniture and construction debris loaded and hauled away.
Mowing and beds on a narrow Tonawanda lot
City blocks here were platted long before two-car garages, so the drive is often single width and the garage sits at the back of the lot. Gate width decides the mower, and we check it before we quote rather than after. The same goes for the town's postwar streets, where the back yard is deep but the side yard is a few feet of grass between two houses.
Two things fight your turf in Tonawanda. The first is shade and surface roots from the street trees. The town's Forestry Department looks after about 31,000 trees in the public rights of way, and the ones in front of your house thin the grass along the tree lawn and invite moss on the north side. The second is salt. Sheridan Drive, Delaware Avenue and Colvin Boulevard are the main roads through this side of town, and the winter spray lands on the strip between the walk and the curb. We cut high through summer heat, keep the sidewalk edge crisp, and blow clippings back onto the lawn instead of into the street, which Town Code 183-6 covers the same way it covers dumped snow.
Beds get the same attention. Ground that holds water after a thaw wants shallow planting and honest drainage, not another six inches of mulch piled against the foundation.
Where the snow goes on a single-width drive
On your own property. Town Code 183-6 says no person, firm or corporation may plow, shovel, sweep or heap snow, ice or slush onto any street or other public place in the Town of Tonawanda, outside the Village of Kenmore. On a lot this narrow that turns snow storage into a real planning problem, so we pick the stacking spots in the fall, before anybody is doing it by headlight.
We keep piles off the sidewalk, clear of the hydrant and the mailbox, and away from the low corner that will hold meltwater. Since Town Code 183-5 leaves the walk in front of your house to you, and asks for a cleared path at least two feet wide the whole length of it, we can add the walk to the route instead of leaving it as a Saturday chore.
Tonawanda sits north of Buffalo along the Niagara River, and wind moves as much snow around here as the sky drops. The open ground around the town's Sheridan Park and Brighton Park golf courses gives it room to run, so a driveway that looked clear at seven can be drifted in by nine.
Cleanups timed to the local collection rules
Spring here starts with what winter left on the tree lawn: plow gravel, salt-burned grass, matted turf and the gray patches of snow mold that show up after a long-lying snowpack. We rake it out, cut back what the ice broke, clean the bed edges and get the first mow on the calendar before the crabgrass wakes up along the hot sidewalk seams.
Autumn is the fiddly one, because your street decides the method. City addresses get leaves raked out into the street on garbage day inside the Columbus Day window, and the crews come through the day after. Town addresses get them in the strip between the walk and the curb, unbagged, and never in the roadway. Our fall cleanups follow whichever rule your address falls under, and anything a contractor cuts, we load and take with us.
Gutters, a garage full of things that should have gone years ago, a hedge that finally has to come out: same crew, same visit. Tell us what you are looking at through the contact page and we will price it.
Questions & Answers
Tonawanda property care questions
Do you haul the brush away or leave it at the curb for the town?
We haul it. Town Code 181-10 is explicit that brush and tree parts removed by a contractor must be removed from the premises by that contractor. They may sit in the public right of way only if the work itself requires it, and for no longer than 24 hours after the job is finished. On the city side, bulk pickup is capped at four cubic yards per property with a maximum of two pickups a month, so a real pruning job would swamp it anyway.
Can you rake my leaves the way the City of Tonawanda wants them?
Yes, and the way the town wants them too, which is not the same thing. The city takes loose leaves from the street only between Columbus Day and the first heavy snowfall, raked out on your garbage day and collected the day after. The town takes them unbagged from the strip between sidewalk and curb, never the roadway, during its autumn program. Give us your address and we will use the right one and time it to your day.
Where will you put the snow if my driveway is only one car wide?
On your own lot, because that is what the code requires. Town Code 183-6 bans plowing, shoveling, sweeping or heaping snow, ice or slush onto any street or other public place in the town outside the Village of Kenmore. We walk the property in the fall and agree on stacking spots that stay off the sidewalk, clear of the hydrant and mailbox, and out of the low corner that floods during a January thaw.
Whose responsibility is the sidewalk in the Town of Tonawanda?
Yours, as the abutting owner. The town estimates that around 70% of its public streets have sidewalks on both sides, roughly 1.69 million lineal feet, and it says plainly that liability and maintenance are deferred to the abutting property owner under Town Code 183-5, and the code sets a minimum cleared width of two feet in winter. One thing worth asking about: if a town-owned street tree is what broke the slab, the Highway Department can evaluate it for possible inclusion in their sidewalk replacement program for tree root damage. We can put the walk on the same route as the driveway.
Do you also work Kenmore and the rest of the Ken-Ton neighborhoods?
We do. Kenmore is an incorporated village sitting entirely inside the Town of Tonawanda, which is where the Ken-Ton name comes from, and we work it alongside Brighton, Kenilworth, Ellwood and Sheridan Parkside. Worth knowing: the town's snow-dumping section is written to apply outside the village, so Kenmore addresses are not covered by it and we check the village rules before we plow.
How soon can somebody come out and look at the property?
Call (716) 388-7887 and we will book a time. Somebody answers Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and we are closed Sunday. Estimates are free. Because Tonawanda is already a regular part of the route, we can usually fold a look into a day the truck is on that side of the northtowns anyway.
Service Areas
Nearby towns we also serve
We keep a tight radius so we can actually get to everyone, especially when it snows.