Landscaping services
Spring and Fall Cleanups in Southampton, NY
Free quotes for spring and fall cleanups in Southampton, NY.
Spring and fall cleanups in Southampton, NY are the visits that open a property before the season and close it after. In spring we clear winter debris, recut bed edges, cut back perennials and freshen mulch. The fall closing readies the property for winter: leaf removal, cutting back what should come down, and the irrigation blowout before hard freezes. Each visit is scheduled against local law. The Town of Southampton bans gas leaf blowers in its unincorporated hamlets from May 20 through September 20 (Town Code section 235-2B); the Village of Southampton bans them all year (Village Code section 78-4B(3)(a)) and limits landscaping to set weekday and Saturday hours. Suffolk County prohibits fertilizing turf from November 1 to April 1 (Chapter 459). We book your opening and closing by those dates and by the days you arrive and leave.
Typical published range
$125 to $300 per spring cleanup, $150 to $400 per fall cleanup (HomeGuide, national, February 2026)
No survey prices Long Island, so these figures are national. HomeGuide's yard cleanup guide (February 2026) gives $125 to $300 for an average spring cleanup, $150 to $400 for a fall cleanup and $850 to $2,000 for an acre, with landscaper labor at $50 to $100 an hour and debris disposal at $4 to $8 a bag. HomeAdvisor (June 2026) gives $190 to $1,000 per spring or fall cleanup visit, and HomeGuide (November 2025) gives leaf removal at $150 to $700 for most residential lawns. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the national mean wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers at $20.33 an hour in May 2025. Acreage, leaf volume, bed footage, mulch and haul-away set the price. A cleanup is maintenance, which New York's Tax Bulletin TB-ST-505 treats as a taxable service, here at Suffolk County's 8.75 percent (Publication 718). Our cost guide lists every range we cite.
A spring opening runs in this order: clear winter debris and the last leaves from lawn and beds; cut back perennials and grasses left standing over winter, which means removing last year's dead stems at the base; recut the bed edging, the spade-cut line between lawn and bed; and finish with mulch. Mulch depth, the thickness of the layer on a bed, is set by what is already there: we top off a sound layer and strip and replace one that has matted, two jobs Angi prices at $30 to $60 and $50 to $110 per cubic yard (March 2026). The fall closing runs the other way: leaf removal from lawns and beds, cutting back perennials that have collapsed, a last mow, and the irrigation blowout, which clears water from the lines before hard freezes.
Where the lot sits decides the blower rules. In the Town's hamlets, section 235-2B bans gas-powered leaf blowers from May 20 through September 20. From September 21 to May 19 they may run 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays, never on Sundays or federal holidays; a walk-behind gas blower is allowed only on a property larger than 1/2 acre, and no more than two gas handheld or backpack blowers may run at once unless the property is larger than 1/2 acre. In the Village of Southampton, gas-powered blowers are banned all year (section 78-4B(3)(a)), and landscaping of any kind may run only 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays, never on Sundays or federal and state holidays (section 78-4B(2)(b)). Neither ban covers battery-electric blowers, cordless units that run on rechargeable batteries. Landscapers must register with the Village every year (Chapter 73).
The South Fork calendar sets the dates. NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for Bridgehampton give a 50 percent chance that the last spring freeze has come by April 23 and that the first fall freeze arrives by October 24. Suffolk County's fertilizer window closes on November 1, so any fall feeding goes into a September or October visit, and Suffolk's Healthy Lawns guidance says a dense lawn's spring feeding can wait until around Memorial Day. Seasonal homes set the rest: the ACS 2020-2024 estimates that 54.8 percent of the Village of Southampton's housing units are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, so we open before you arrive and close after you leave. Leaf litter is a health question too. The CDC advises removing it, noting fewer blacklegged ticks on well-maintained lawns away from brushy or grassy areas, and Suffolk County's health department lists 3,152 confirmed and probable Lyme disease cases for 2024.
To book, tell us whether the lot is in the Village or a Town hamlet, the dates you open and close the house, and when the irrigation should start and stop. We walk the property, list the beds, edges and lawn areas, and quote both visits in writing with dates and the cost of labor and materials. The two cleanups can stand alone or open and close a season of weekly landscape maintenance, and the fall closing pairs with an irrigation winterization and spring start-up. Our guide to the blower and fertilizer rules has the full text.
Signs a property is due for its cleanup
A cleanup is due when the beds stop reading as beds. On a second home the signs build between visits, so we look for them on the walk before we quote. Some are cosmetic, some are plant health, and two bear on ticks and disease, which is why we treat leaf litter as more than a matter of tidiness.
- Leaves lie matted across the lawn and packed against the base of shrubs after the last of them drop in late fall.
- Perennials and ornamental grasses stand brown and flattened after winter storms, hiding the new shoots at their base in spring.
- Turf has crept across the bed line, so there is no longer a clean edge between lawn and bed.
- Mulch has thinned to bare soil in places and matted into a crust in others, with weeds rooting through it.
- Boxwood shows round black or dark brown leaf spots, then browning and leaf drop, the course of boxwood blight in Cornell's fact sheet.
- Leaf litter and brush build up along a wooded edge beside a path or play area, the kind of border the CDC links to ticks.
Each sign has a date attached. In the Town's hamlets, gas blowers may run again from September 21; in the Village, leaves are cleared with battery-electric blowers or by hand all year. Fall fertilizer goes down by October 31, and blighted boxwood leaves leave the property in bags, not in the compost.
Town section 235-2B and Village section 78-4B(3)(a): two blower laws
The two leaf blower laws differ in where, when and what they cover. The Town of Southampton's rule, Town Code section 235-2B as amended in 2022, applies only in the unincorporated Town, the hamlets such as Water Mill, Bridgehampton and Hampton Bays. It bans gas-powered leaf blowers from May 20 through and including September 20. For the rest of the year it sets hours, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays, with no use on Sundays or federal holidays, and two rules tied to 1/2 acre: walk-behind gas blowers only on larger properties, and no more than two gas handheld or backpack blowers at a time on smaller ones. The Village of Southampton's rule, section 78-4B(3)(a), prohibits operating gas-powered leaf blowers in the Village with no seasonal window; the only exception is cleanup after a major storm during a state of emergency declared by the Mayor. Separately, the Village's Chapter 77 applies its noise rules in section 77-3 to all engine- or motor-powered leaf blowers from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and the Village's landscaping hours name leaf blowers, mowers, weed trimmers and hedge trimmers among the equipment covered. Because both bans name gas-powered blowers, our crews work the Town's summer window, and the Village all year, with battery-electric blowers, rakes and leaf vacuums. The other villages and the Town of East Hampton set their own rules.
The fall closing: leaf removal, cutting back, the blowout and November 1
Our fall closing runs from late October into November, in an order set by the South Fork's dates. Leaf removal comes first, from lawns and beds, and again after the last leaves drop. Boxwood beds get their own handling: Cornell's fact sheet on boxwood blight, which struck Long Island landscapes in 2012, says fallen dead leaves should be collected with a vacuum and bagged, and that composting is not a good option because the pathogen can last in dead leaves for at least 5 years. Cutting back perennials follows, plant by plant.
Bigleaf hydrangeas keep their stems, since Cornell Cooperative Extension calls fall pruning of that species harmful, and little bluestem stays standing because, the USDA plant guide notes, dusky skipper caterpillars overwinter in tube tents above the base of its clumps. Any fall fertilizing is done by October 31, ahead of Suffolk County's November 1 to April 1 blackout in section 459-9, and never within 20 feet of regulated surface water unless a natural vegetative buffer at least 10 feet wide separates the turf from it. The irrigation blowout is timed to NOAA's Bridgehampton normals, which give a 50 percent chance of a first hard freeze by November 5. In the Town's hamlets, gas blowers return on September 21; in the Village they do not return at all.
The spring opening: edging, cutting back perennials and mulch depth
The spring opening starts once the ground can be worked and finishes before the house opens. NOAA's normals give Bridgehampton a 50 percent chance that the last hard freeze has passed by April 8 and the last freeze by April 23, so tender planting waits for late April. We clear what winter left, then cut back the grasses and perennials that stood over winter; panicle and smooth hydrangeas are cut in late winter or early spring, as Cornell Cooperative Extension advises, while early-spring cuts on bigleaf hydrangeas cost that season's flowers. Bed edging comes next, recut with a spade so turf stays out of the beds and mulch has a line to stop at. Mulch goes on last, at a mulch depth set by what is already there.
Angi's March 2026 survey prices 10 cubic yards over 1,000 square feet at $700 to $1,200, and HomeGuide (April 2025) gives $50 to $150 per cubic yard delivered and installed. Along a wooded edge, the CDC suggests a 3-foot-wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawn and woods to discourage contact with brushy or grassy borders. Fertilizer waits: Suffolk County bars it until April 1, and the Peconic Estuary Partnership advises fertilizing lawns only from April 2 to October 31. Spring start-up of the irrigation follows the last freeze.
Two booked cleanups, a maintenance agreement, or visits on call
How you buy cleanups depends on how the house is used. A house open for the summer needs firm opening and closing dates; a house used year-round needs leaf visits as the trees drop. The rules do not change with the contract: the blower dates, the Village hours and the fertilizer window apply to every option.
Two cleanups booked by date
We fix the spring opening and the fall closing on the calendar when you sign, each with a written scope: beds, edges, cutbacks, mulch by the cubic yard and leaf removal. This suits a property whose mowing is handled separately or not needed, and it is priced as two fixed visits with the dates in the contract.
Cleanups inside a maintenance agreement
The opening and closing become the first and last visits of a weekly maintenance agreement, so leaves, edges and mulch are handled as they come rather than in two long days. New York's Publication 862 lists maintenance contracts as taxable, so the tax treatment is the same either way; what changes is that the same crew sees the beds every week.
Leaf removal visits on call
For a year-round house or a heavily wooded lot, we add leaf removal visits through October and November, priced per visit; HomeAdvisor lists leaf removal at $300 to $600 per visit nationally, and Angi gives the same range. In the Town's hamlets gas blowers are allowed again from September 21, within the set hours; in the Village every visit is battery-electric.
Questions
Spring and Fall Cleanups FAQs
How much does a spring or fall cleanup cost?
National surveys only; none prices Long Island. HomeGuide (February 2026) gives an average spring cleanup at $125 to $300, a fall cleanup at $150 to $400 and 1 acre at $850 to $2,000. HomeAdvisor (June 2026) gives $190 to $1,000 per cleanup visit. For leaves alone, HomeGuide (November 2025) gives $200 to $400 for 1/4 acre, $300 to $500 for 1/2 acre and $350 to $700 for 3/4 acre. Mulch is extra: $50 to $150 per cubic yard delivered and installed (HomeGuide, April 2025). HomeGuide's cleanup table stops at 1 acre, so a larger lot is priced from its own walk-through.
Can I use a gas leaf blower in August?
Not in the Town of Southampton's hamlets and not in the Village of Southampton. Town Code section 235-2B bans gas-powered leaf blowers in the unincorporated Town from May 20 through September 20, and Village Code section 78-4B(3)(a) bans them in the Village all year, except for storm cleanup under a state of emergency declared by the Mayor. Battery-electric blowers fall outside both bans, but in the Village the landscaping hours still apply, and Chapter 77 applies its noise rules to all motor-powered leaf blowers from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The other villages and the Town of East Hampton have their own codes.
When should fall cleanup be done in Southampton?
In stages from late October into November. NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for Bridgehampton give a 50 percent chance of the first fall freeze by October 24 and of a hard freeze by November 5, which frames the irrigation blowout. Suffolk County bars fertilizing turf from November 1, so any fall feeding goes down in a September or October visit. Leaf removal finishes after the last leaves fall; in the Town's hamlets gas blowers are allowed again from September 21, within the weekday and Saturday hours; in the Village they are never allowed.
Is a spring or fall cleanup subject to sales tax?
Yes, as a rule. New York's Tax Bulletin TB-ST-505 says maintaining, servicing and repairing real property are taxable services, with trimming hedges and opening or closing sprinkler systems among its examples, and Publication 862 lists maintenance contracts and pruning as taxable. In Suffolk County the combined rate is 8.75 percent (Publication 718). Neither document addresses mulching. New perennials, shrubs or trees planted on the same visit are different: Publication 862 lists planting or replacing them as capital improvements, which you document on Form ST-124, so we price that part on its own line.
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