Landscaping
Design, planting, mulch, edging and hardscape touches that give your property a finished look.
Illos Property Care mows on a set schedule from the first cut in April to the last one in November. You get the same crew, the same weekday, and a property that looks finished when the trailer pulls away: cut, trimmed, edged and blown clean.
We work out of Casey Road in East Amherst, so most of our route days stay close to home in Amherst and Clarence and run down into Buffalo, Cheektowaga and the Tonawandas. Residential lots and light commercial properties both fit. Estimates are free, and we answer the phone.
Included
What every mowing visit includes
- Mowing at a height set for the season
- Sharp blades and a changed cut direction
- String trimming around beds, posts and fence lines
- Edging along driveways, walks and curb strips
- Full blow-off of drives, walks and patios
- Clippings mulched back in, or bagged on request
- Sticks and storm debris cleared before the first pass
- A heads-up on grub, mold or drought damage
- Gates latched and the property left secure
Why a Buffalo lawn needs a real schedule
Grass here is cool-season turf: Kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye and fescue. It does not grow at a steady rate. Through the spring flush, from the first warm stretch in late April into June, it puts on growth faster than at any other point in the season. That is the stretch where one skipped week turns into a hayfield.
The rule that governs everything is the one-third rule. Take off more than a third of the blade at once and you shock the plant, thin the stand and hand the open ground to crabgrass. So we hold a cutting height near three inches through most of the year and come back on a fixed interval instead of waiting until the lawn looks shaggy.
July and August flip the problem. Heat, missing rain and the slow-draining lake-plain soil under most yards around here push an unirrigated lawn into dormancy. Growth stalls, and mowing it hard every seven days does more damage than good. We raise the deck, back the frequency off where it makes sense, then pick the pace up again when September rain arrives. If your turf is coming out of winter matted and full of salt-burned debris along the tree lawn, a spring cleanup clears it before the first cut of the year.
Weekly or bi-weekly, and what changes
Most quarter-acre lots in Amherst, Williamsville or Snyder run weekly from May through June, then settle into something looser once midsummer heat sets in. The bigger properties out in Clarence and Clarence Center usually do better staying weekly the whole season. Two weeks of growth on that much turf stops being a mow and becomes a cleanup.
Bi-weekly works if you are not irrigating, not pushing heavy fertilizer, and you can live with a taller cut. It does not work in May. Two weeks of spring flush leaves windrows of clippings lying on the lawn, and smothered turf in June costs more to fix than the visit you skipped.
Pricing follows the same logic. We quote on the square footage of actual turf, how much trimming and edging the property carries, gate width, slope, and how often we are coming. A flat lawn with a straight driveway is a different job from a corner lot with three beds, a fence line and a grade dropping to a creek. The estimate happens on site, and it is free.
Grubs, snow mold and ground that drains slowly
A mowing route is the only set of eyes on your lawn every week, so the crew flags what it sees. Three things come up constantly on this side of Buffalo NY and Erie County.
- European chafer and Japanese beetle grubs, which chew on roots from September into November and again from April into June. Turf that peels back like loose carpet, or a lawn torn open overnight by skunks and raccoons, is a grub problem and not a watering problem.
- Snow mold, the matted gray and pink patches that turn up as the snow goes in early spring. Gray snow mold takes hold where cover sits on the turf for weeks at a stretch, and opening those matted areas up so they dry and warm is what settles it.
- Ground that drains slowly. Most of this area sits on the old lake plain, and much of the soil mapped under it runs somewhat poorly to poorly drained, which is why the same low corners stay soft into spring every year.
We alternate mowing direction each visit and stay off soft ground after a heavy rain to limit rutting and wear lines. None of that is glamorous. It is the difference between a lawn that holds up and one that thins out along the same three tracks every summer.
Towns we mow, and what comes after fall
Routes are built by town rather than by whoever called first, which is what keeps a schedule honest. The tightest coverage is Amherst, East Amherst, Getzville and Snyder, with route days that also carry Clarence Center, Lancaster, Cheektowaga, Tonawanda, North Tonawanda and the city of Buffalo. A property sitting off a route day may land on a different weekday than a neighbor two streets over.
The season closes out somewhere between the last week of October and the middle of November, depending on when the ground gives up. The final two cuts go shorter on purpose, since long growth mats down under snow and feeds the mold problem waiting in spring. After that the work turns into fall cleanups for leaves and bed cutbacks.
The same crew runs snow plowing all winter. If you are already on the mowing schedule, you are dealing with people who know where your driveway edges are and which side of the lawn not to pile snow on. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Send us your address and we will get you a number.
How It Works
How a mowing visit is sequenced
Walk-through and estimate
We measure the turf, note gates, slopes, sprinkler heads and bed edges, then set a cutting height and quote the visit.
Your route day
You get assigned to a town route and keep the same weekday all season. The first cut usually lands mid to late April, once the ground firms up.
Cut, trim, edge, blow
Sticks come off first, then we mow opposite the direction of the last visit, string trim fence lines and foundations, edge the hard surfaces, and blow everything clean.
Seasonal adjustments
Height goes up for July heat and back down for the last two cuts of the year, and clipping handling shifts with the town yard waste calendar.
Our Work
Recent lawn care work
Service Areas
Towns we cover for lawn care
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 lawn care
When does mowing season start and end around Buffalo?
First cuts usually happen between the middle and end of April, once the ground is firm enough to hold a mower without rutting. Peak growth runs May into June. Mowing tapers off through the dry part of summer, picks back up with September rain, and finishes somewhere between late October and mid November depending on the year.
Do you mow weekly or every other week?
Both, and it can change through the season. Weekly is the right call from May through June when growth is fastest, and on larger lots any time the grass is actively growing. Bi-weekly is workable in July and August on lawns that are not irrigated. We will tell you which one your property actually needs instead of selling you the bigger number.
How do you figure out what mowing my lawn will cost?
On site, and for free. The number comes from the square footage of turf, the amount of trimming and edging around beds, fences and walks, gate access, slope, and how often we are visiting. Two houses on the same street can price differently because one has a hedge line and a hill and the other is an open rectangle.
What happens if it rains on my scheduled mowing day?
You move to the next dry day, usually inside of a day or two, and the rest of the route slides with you. Wet ground ruts easily, and a mower on saturated soil leaves marks that last for months, so we would rather run a day late than tear up your yard. If a whole week washes out, the next cut is a slower one.
Do you bag the clippings or leave them on the lawn?
We mulch them back into the lawn by default. Grass blades are mostly water and nutrients, so leaving them cuts what the turf needs in fertilizer, and the Town of Amherst tells residents the same thing. We bag when growth has outrun the mower, when a lawn is coming off a wet stretch, or when you ask us to. Bagged yard waste goes out on your regular Amherst refuse day from April 1 through November 30, in paper yard waste bags or cans with the covers off, never plastic.
Can you take over a lawn mid-season if I switch companies?
Yes. Mid-season switches are common, and we pick up properties in June, July and August. If the lawn is overgrown when we take it on, the first visit may need a double cut or a bagged cut so the clippings do not smother the turf underneath. We will tell you that before we start rather than after.
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.