Booking now for October and November
Fall cleanup and leaf removal
A fall cleanup is not one visit with a rake. On a property with mature trees it is a sequence, timed against a collection schedule that differs in every city on this corridor, and against a by-law that makes the easy option illegal.
A mature cedar hedge running the length of the yard, with a ragged strip of weeds and leftover perennials at its base. Given a proper curved bed, new planting and a clean edge to the concrete. See how it was done
What you are actually buying
No packages, no tiers. This is the work itself, and anything on your property that does not need doing will be said so at the quote.
Timing
Leaves have to be off the lawn before they mat down and before the first heavy wet snow presses them into the grass. Matted leaves through a Toronto winter kill turf in patches and you pay for that in the spring.
The last cut of the season and the final cleanup want to happen close together, and both want to happen before the ground is frozen and before yard waste collection stops for the year.
Every city here stops yard waste collection in December. Booking in late November means the material has nowhere to go.
Where the leaves actually go
A cleanup is planned around the collection your city actually runs. Toronto is the hardest of the four and most people do not realise it until the bags are on the curb for eleven days.
| Toronto | Vaughan | Markham | Richmond Hill | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall collection | Every other week | Weekly through the fall | Weekly through the fall | Weekly through the fall |
| Season | Roughly mid-March to mid-December | Usually mid-October to early December | Usually November to mid-December | Usually mid-October to mid-December |
| Weight limit | Bundles up to 20 kg | Up to 20.5 kg per item | Up to 18 kg per item | Up to 18 kg per item |
| Loose leaves | Not accepted | Not accepted | Not accepted | Not accepted |
Toronto is the hardest of the four for leaves. Collection is only every other week all season, there is no weekly upgrade in the fall, and the mechanical vacuum leaf programme that used to run in Etobicoke, York and Scarborough has been discontinued. On a property with mature trees the leaves fall faster than the City collects them.
Plastic bags are refused in all four. Collection dates shift year to year, so the current schedule gets checked against your address rather than assumed.
Questions
No. In Toronto it carries a $200 fine under Chapter 743, every municipality on this corridor prohibits it, and Ontario's Highway Traffic Act prohibits depositing material on a roadway anywhere in the province. It also blocks catch basins, which is how a street floods in a thaw.
Both, in different places. Michigan State found a six-inch layer of maple and oak leaves could be mulched into established turf with no adverse effect, and Purdue found no harm to turf quality, colour, thatch, soil pH, weeds or disease, with less dandelion and crabgrass over time. Ontario's own guidance agrees, provided the layer is under 15 cm. Pine needles are the exception because they resist decomposition. Whole leaves raked into the beds do more good than leaves in a bag.
It depends on the trees. A property with two young maples is one visit. A property backing a ravine with mature oaks is three or four across October and November, because the leaves do not all come down at once.
Every city on this corridor ends fall yard waste collection in December, and Toronto runs only every other week the whole season with no weekly upgrade in the fall. The current year's dates are published by each city, and we work backwards from them.
WhereFall cleanup and leaf removal across Toronto, Vaughan, Markham and Richmond Hill. Which city you are in changes the rules, and the quote accounts for it. See every area we serve.
Booking now for October and November
Send your postal code and a few photos. I'll confirm the scope, tell you which city's rules apply to your address, and give you a straight number.