7 Fall Cleanup Services We Recommend For Retail Center & Office Parks

Fall is beautiful — and really messy.

It brings damp, slippery leaves that invite pests, disease and slipping pedestrians.

Slimy, wilted perennials dot your property. 

Dead tree branches could suddenly crash to the ground. 

You need fall cleanup. 

Good thing Jim Kline’s got you covered.

While fall clean-up makes your property clean and tidy now, “it also gets it ready for spring,” says Kline, a client relations manager at Greenscape, Inc.

How? He’s happy you asked.

1. Leaf Removal

leaf pile in lawn in fallPiles of lingering leaves make your property look messy and neglected, but they’re also bad for your lawn — and your customers.

Heavy, wet leaves can suffocate your turf. Pedestrians can slip on wet leaves and fall, causing a big liability concern.

“Damp leaves encourage disease, insects and little critters that like to hide in them and scare you when you walk by,” Kline says. “Snakes like to hide in them, too. If you’re walking to your office door and a snake pops out, that’s not a happy sight.”

When you stop shuddering, give us a call. 

2. Aerating and Seeding

“Over time, your soil gets compacted, from people walking on it, mowers running over it,” Kline says.  “Areas of dead thatch build up.”

Aeration uses a machine to pull out tiny cores of soil from your lawn. These new holes allow water and oxygen to get to the roots, so they can grow nice and deep.

Aeration is followed by overseeding. All those fresh new holes provide the perfect spots for grass seed to settle and germinate.

A quick note: Aeration is especially important here in North Carolina, where most of the soil is clay. Clay compacts like crazy. 

Your newly planted grass will slumber all winter, then emerge green and vibrant in the spring. 

3. Fertilize 

commercial landscape with fertilized grassIn the fall? You bet. 

While everybody understands fertilizing in the spring, fall is actually the most important time of year to feed your hungry turf.

As the weather cools down, grass grows more slowly, but the roots are still growing — and quickly. They’re hungry.

 “Once it’s dormant, grass stores all the nutrients in its root system,” Kline says. “Then, as soon as the soil starts to warm up, everything just explodes.”

4. The Final Mowing

“We like to cut the grass as low as possible, to about an inch and a half,” Kline says. “It helps prevent diseases, and it helps with leaf removal. When the grass is short, the leaves blow right over the surface. When your grass is long, leaves grab onto it and get stuck.”

5. Prune, Prune, Prune

Trees that have been pruned“Fall is a great time for pruning,” Kline says. There are no leaves on the trees, so it’s easy to see what you’re doing.

“We remove dead or dying branches that could fall on you or your customers, and keep your property’s sight lines clear,” he says.

Rejuvenation pruning tidies up plants or shrubs that are overgrown and blocking entrances, signage or parking lot sight lines. 

And it makes for healthier plants, Kline says.

“Pruning encourages growth from the inside, where it’s supposed to be,” he says. 

“And when your plants are properly pruned, nobody can hide behind them, so your property is safer.”

6. Cut Back Perennials

All those pretty perennials that dressed up your property all summer have done their job — now they need to rest.

Their flowers are faded, their leaves wilted, and they’re getting sort of slimy.

Those soggy remains invite disease, Kline says. 

Time to cut them all back, right to the ground.

7. Winterize Irrigation  

Irrigation on commercial propertyWinter can do expensive damage to your irrigation system if you don’t properly tuck it in for the season. 

One of the most important parts of the irrigation system to protect from winter’s icy blast is the backflow preventer. It’s the device that protects water supplies from contamination or pollution. And it’s vulnerable to freezing temperatures.

While most landscaping companies in this area just remove the backflow preventer and cover the pipes with plastic bags, Greenscape irrigation techs take an extra precaution.

We blow all the water out of the entire irrigation system to prevent any water inside from freezing. It’s a practice northern states use that we’ve adopted here, to save you from potentially costly spring repairs.

Trust Your Fall Cleanup To Greenscape

That’s quite a list of chores.

But you can rest easy. Leave them all to us.

Our skilled crews will swoop in to blow leaves, prune branches, snip back perennials, tuck in your irrigation system and prep your turf for spring. 

You just enjoy that apple cider and wait for everything to look great.

We’ve been meeting the full-service landscaping needs of commercial customers in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary areas for more than 35 years.

We offer landscape management and lawn care, design and build services, irrigation, landscape lighting and more. 

Call us at 919-552-7742 or fill out our online form to request a free consultation about any of our comprehensive services.

We can't wait to hear from you.

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