Fall cleanup in Omaha: what we do before the first hard freeze

Leaves are coming down across West Omaha, Elkhorn, Gretna and Papillion, and the ground is still open. Eastern Nebraska clay holds water and moves when it freezes and thaws, so a cleanup is our last clear look at a property before winter puts weight on it.

Hunter walks every property himself before we quote it. Here is the order we work in, what we check on the way through, and the parts of the list we will tell you to leave until spring.

The order we work in

Leaves come off first, beds and turf both, while they are still loose. Wet leaves mat down on clay, hold water against crowns and walk edges, and get heavier every week they sit.

Beds come next. We pull leaves and loose debris out of the planting areas, clear spent growth where the plant calls for it, leave standing what should stay standing, and cut the bed edge back so the line between bed and turf shows again.

Hardscape follows. We clear the joints, edges and low spots around paver patios, walkways, steps, seating walls and retaining walls. Mulch and the tree bases come at the end. Hauling the debris off is the last step, and whether it is on your quote is worth asking before we start.

What we check around your trees

Nebraska Extension says tree root growth continues late in fall, until soil temperatures drop below 40 degrees. Roots are still working after the leaves are down, which is why we care what is piled against a trunk when we leave.

So we pull leaves, soil and mulch back off the trunk flare and leave it visible. We note dead or broken limbs and anything hanging over a walk or a roof.

If the answer is pruning, it is usually not today. Nebraska Extension says to wait at least until all the leaves have fallen, and puts the ideal time at late winter just before spring growth starts, in late March. Flowering trees are the exception Extension names, pruned right after they finish blooming. So pruning goes on the spring list.

Clay, freeze thaw and the hardscape

Water sits in a clay low spot and in an open joint, then freezes. The freeze thaw cycle here lifts poorly built pavers and walls, and under a layer of leaves you cannot see any of it starting.

Once the hardscape is clear we go over it for joint sand that has washed out, edge restraint along a patio or walk, pavers sitting higher or lower than their neighbors, and steps that have started to rock. On a retaining or seating wall we sight down the top course and check whether water has a way out behind it.

Grade is the last piece, where beds meet hardscape and where water goes once it leaves the house. If anyone else is quoting your fall work, that walk is a fair one to ask them to take with you.

What still goes in the ground this month

Trees and shrubs can still go in. Nebraska Extension puts the fall planting window at early September through late October, because cooler temperatures and more rain let trees establish roots quickly. If something died out on you over the summer, there is still time to put the replacement in the ground.

Grass seed is a different answer. Nebraska Extension says August 15th to September 15th is the best time to seed cool season grass, that tall fescue should be seeded no later than mid-September, and that each week of delay translates into 2 to 4 additional weeks required for the grass to mature. That window has closed for this year. When someone asks us to throw seed at a thin patch during a cleanup, that is what we tell them.

What moves the price of a cleanup

What a cleanup costs comes down to the property. The number moves with how many mature trees drop on you and how many passes that takes, how much bed edge there is and whether it runs along a slope or a wall, whether the debris hauls off, and how much hardscape or planting gets added once we are standing there.

Distance moves it too. We are a small crew and we pick our jobs, so we avoid long trailer hauls for small ones. Our work sits in West Omaha, Elkhorn, Gretna and Papillion, with Bennington, Millard and La Vista around them, and if you are farther out we say so up front.

Hunter sees all of that when he walks it, and that walk is when to ask him what is driving your number and what can wait until spring.

Before the leaves finish falling

Walk your own property while the leaves are still moving. Look for soil or mulch riding up a trunk, a paver or a step sitting high or low, and a low spot that holds water after a rain. Photograph whatever looks off, because once it is under leaves and then snow, the next look anybody gets at it is in spring.

The other thing fall settles is snow. A driveway contract signed in the fall is a driveway cleared in the winter, so if that is on your mind, ask us while we are standing in your driveway anyway.