Lawn Care
Weekly and bi-weekly mowing, trimming, edging and blow-off on a schedule you can set your watch by.
Landscaping is the part of a property you see every time you pull in the driveway. New beds along the front of the house, a spade edge you can actually see, shrubs shaped instead of hacked, stone where mulch keeps washing out. That is what this service covers, on residential and light commercial properties.
What works here is not what works in a catalogue photo. Amherst sits on the flat Erie-Ontario lake plain, where the soil is clay left behind by a glacial lake and rated poorly to somewhat poorly drained. East Amherst falls in USDA hardiness zone 6b, and the Buffalo area averages roughly 180 frost-free days. Every plant choice and drainage decision below comes out of those conditions. Older lots in Williamsville and newer subdivisions out in Clarence need different things, and we plan for that.
Included
What a landscaping job can include
- Bed layout marked and approved before we dig
- Sod stripped and roots pulled out of new beds
- Clean spade edge cut around every bed
- Shrubs, perennials and small trees planted and watered in
- Hardwood mulch at two to three inches, kept off trunks
- Overgrown shrubs trimmed, thinned or taken out
- Decorative stone, river rock and boulder placement
- Old mulch, brush and dig-out debris hauled away
Landscaping on heavy Western New York clay
The ground north of the city is old glacial lake bottom. The clay soils mapped across this lake plain are nearly level and rated poorly to somewhat poorly drained, which is the polite way of putting it. Dig a hole in April and it fills with water. Dig the same hole in August and you need a mattock.
Planting straight into that is how you get a shrub that sulks for two years and then quietly dies. So beds get built up, not just dug out. We rough up the sidewalls of the hole instead of glazing them smooth, work compost through the backfill, and set the root flare a little high so the crown is not sitting in a bathtub. Where water genuinely stands, the answer is a raised bed or a regrade, not a plant that promises to tolerate wet feet.
It also decides what goes in the ground. We lean on material that is actually listed as tolerant of heavy clay: ninebark, switchgrass, spicebush, Japanese tree lilac and American linden. Anything that wants sharp drainage gets a purpose-built raised bed or gets left off the plan. We would rather talk you out of a plant now than replace it next June.
Plant choices for zone 6b, salt and snow load
Zone 6b means average winter lows between minus five and zero Fahrenheit. Plenty of good material handles that. What actually kills landscape plants around Buffalo is everything else winter does.
Road salt is the first thing. Amherst alone runs fifteen salting routes and puts down around 14,000 tons of salt in an average winter, and passing traffic throws it onto the stems, buds, leaves and needles of whatever is growing along the pavement. The injury often is not visible until late winter or spring, when you get browning needle tips, dead buds and dieback on the street side only. Along the road and the driveway apron we use plants rated for salt tolerance, such as juniper, mugo pine, white spruce and Colorado spruce. Serviceberry, viburnum, boxwood, red twig dogwood and hemlock are on the sensitive list and are much happier set back from the curb.
Snow load is the second. Lake-effect off Lake Erie plus a winter of plow piles will flatten an upright evergreen and split a multi-stem shrub wide open. Beds that sit where the snow gets pushed get low, tough plants or stone instead. When we also handle your snow plowing, we already know where those piles land, because it is the same crew in January that built the bed in June.
Winter burn is the third. Sun and wind pull water out of evergreen foliage on bright, windy February days while the roots sit in frozen soil and cannot replace it, and it shows on the south, southwest and windward sides first. Yew, arborvitae and hemlock take it worst, which is why they belong on the north or northeast side of a building or somewhere sheltered from wind. Anti-desiccant sprays are not the fix. Siting the plant correctly is.
Edges, mulch and beds that still look sharp in July
A bed lives or dies on its edge. We cut a spade edge four to five inches deep, with the soil face angled back into the bed. That gives the mulch somewhere to sit and gives creeping grass a gap it has to jump. Plastic and metal edging tends to frost-heave out of clay, so it goes in only where there is a reason for it.
Mulch goes down at two to three inches. Deeper is not better. Piled up against a trunk it holds moisture on the bark, invites rot and gives voles somewhere to chew all winter. Laid on too thick over clay it can shed a light rain before the water ever reaches the root zone. Double-ground hardwood knits together and stays on a slope better than the big chunky bark.
After that a bed wants refreshing, not rebuilding. Most properties get the edge recut and a mulch top-up as part of a spring cleanup once the frost is out of the ground. Amherst opens curbside yard waste collection on April 1, which is a fair marker for when last year's leaf litter and matted grass can come off the beds and go out on your regular collection day.
Decorative stone and small hardscape touches
Stone earns its keep in specific spots. Along a driveway apron where plow blades and salt spray tear mulch apart every winter. Under a downspout that blasts a channel through bark with every storm. In the narrow strip between a walk and the foundation where nothing wants to grow anyway.
It is not maintenance-free, and anyone who says otherwise has never weeded one in year three. Stone collects blown-in leaf litter and soil, and that becomes a seedbed. Fabric underneath slows it down and keeps the stone from sinking into clay, but the surface still needs cleaning out.
The smaller hardscape work goes in on the same visit: stepping stones set on a compacted base, boulder accents, a low stacked border to hold a bed back from the lawn. A dry riverbed to carry roof water away from the house belongs in that list too. Base prep is the whole job. Anything set straight on wet clay will heave, because water in the soil freezes, expands and lifts it.
The real landscaping calendar in Buffalo NY and Erie County
Frozen ground sets the calendar at both ends. Buffalo's normal last spring freeze falls around April 24 and the first fall freeze around October 22, which works out to roughly 180 frost-free days. Amherst opens curbside yard waste collection April 1 and runs loose leaf pickup from October 15 to December 1, and that is about the honest working window for anything involving soil.
Spring is the busiest stretch and a strong time for bed construction, since anything planted then gets a full season to root before winter. Summer installs work but need watering discipline from you, especially during a July dry spell when clay shrinks back off the roots. Early fall is the quiet favorite. With the first freeze normally holding off until the back half of October, you get warm soil, cool air, steadier rain, and roots that keep growing for weeks after the top of the plant has shut down.
Anything involving moved soil stops when the ground freezes, and late-season calls normally get booked for the following spring rather than forced into frozen clay. If you have a project in mind, the useful move is to get on the schedule a season before you want to be looking at it.
How It Works
How a landscaping project actually runs
Walkthrough and estimate
We walk the property with you, check sun, slope and where water sits after a rain, measure the bed areas, then put a written estimate in your hands.
Layout and plant list
Bed lines get marked in paint on the ground so you can judge the shape from the street. Plants are picked for that exact exposure and confirmed with you first.
Demo, dig and grade
Old material and sod come out, roots and all. We cut the edge, break up the clay, amend the backfill and grade so water runs away from the foundation.
Plant, mulch and clean up
Plants go in at the right depth and get watered in, then mulch or stone goes down, then every hard surface is blown clean and the debris leaves with us.
Our Work
Recent landscaping work
Service Areas
Towns we cover for landscaping
Pick your town to see how we work there, or call and we will tell you straight away whether you are on the route.
Questions & Answers
Questions about landscaping
When is the best time to plant shrubs and trees around Buffalo?
Early fall and mid-spring are both strong. Buffalo's normal first fall freeze lands around October 22, so a shrub that goes in during September still gets warm soil, cool air and weeks of root growth before the ground shuts down. Spring is the next best and gives a plant the whole season to settle in. Midsummer planting works, but only if somebody commits to watering it.
How do you price a landscaping job, and are estimates free?
Estimates are free and they always come after we have stood on the property. What moves the number is square footage, how much old material has to come out before anything new goes in, plant sizes and quantities, and whether a wheelbarrow or a machine can reach the work. A bed on an open front lawn and the same bed behind a fenced back yard are not the same job. You get the figure in writing before we start.
How far ahead should I book a spring landscaping project?
Sooner than most people expect. The stretch from first thaw through June is the busiest part of our year, and install work stacks up behind cleanups. If you want beds finished in May, a call during the winter is not early. Fall projects are usually easier to fit in on shorter notice.
Will plants near my driveway survive road salt and plow piles?
Some will. Along a street or a driveway apron we stick to material rated for salt tolerance, such as juniper, mugo pine, white spruce, Colorado spruce, rugosa rose and sumac. Serviceberry, viburnum, boxwood, red twig dogwood and hemlock all sit on the sensitive list and belong farther back from the pavement. Where snow has to be piled every winter, stone or a low, tough groundcover beats a shrub that gets crushed each January.
Our yard is solid clay and stays wet. Can you still put beds in?
Yes, but drainage comes before plants. That might mean raising the bed above grade, regrading so water has somewhere to leave, moving a downspout, or amending a wide area instead of one planting hole. Digging a single nice hole in clay just builds a bucket that fills every time it rains. Once the water has an exit, plant selection gets much easier.
Do you haul away the old shrubs, mulch and dirt when you finish?
Yes. Dig-out spoil, old mulch, brush and torn-out shrubs leave with us the day we wrap up, and the driveway and walks get blown off before we go. That matters in Amherst, where curbside yard waste will not take soil, sod, stumps or root balls, branches have to be cut to four feet, and plastic bags are not collected. If the project turns up something bigger than the landscaping itself, like a rotted shed, an old swing set or a deck teardown, that piece runs through our junk removal service.
More From Illos
Other services we handle
Most customers bundle a couple of these. The same crew handles all of them, so nothing falls between the cracks.
Snow Plowing
Seasonal and per-push plowing, shoveling and salting for Western New York winters.
Fall Cleanups
Leaf removal, bed cutbacks and gutter-line clearing so your lawn goes into winter healthy.
Spring Cleanups
Dethatching, bed re-edging, fresh mulch and debris haul-off to reset the yard after winter.
Sodding
Grading, prep and fresh-cut sod that turns bare or damaged ground into instant lawn.
Junk Removal
Yard waste, brush piles, old furniture and construction debris loaded and hauled away.