Spring and fall yard cleanups in St. Clair Shores and Metro Detroit: Reset the yard, twice a year.

Yes. HD Landscape does spring and fall yard cleanups in St. Clair Shores, its home base, and across Metro Detroit, for homes and commercial properties. One-time jobs are fine, and you do not need a plan. If you want help between cleanups, monthly landscape maintenance covers the beds, shrubs and edges through the season.

A spring cleanup from HD Landscape clears leaves and debris out of the beds, cuts back last year's stems and ornamental grasses, pulls early weeds and tidies the shrubs. We finish by cleaning up the bed lines and leaving the walks and drive clear. Lawn aeration and sprinkler start ups are not part of it, because we do not do either.

A fall cleanup clears the leaves from the beds and corners, cuts back the perennials that benefit from it, pulls weeds and tidies the shrubs so the yard goes into winter clean. Your estimate lists what is planned for your yard.

Plan on the weeks after the snow melts, once the ground is firm. Old perennial stems and ornamental grasses usually get cut back in March or April. If the ground is soaked it is worth waiting a few days, because wet soil compacts easily under foot.

Aim for when most of your leaves are down. Every yard drops on its own schedule, and big trees can push the date later. Get in touch early in the fall and we will time it to your trees.

It can be. Most bee species nest in the ground and others use hollow plant stems, so a yard raked bare early can take some of their shelter with it. If this matters to you, tell us, and we can leave a corner of leaves and old stems for later.

Either can work. Many perennials and ornamental grasses can stay standing until spring, which gives birds some food and beneficial insects some shelter. Hosta and daylily are worth cutting in fall, because slugs go after both and spend the winter as eggs under plant debris. Peony leaves should come down in fall too, to prevent disease. Tell us which you prefer.

We tidy them and take out anything dead or broken. Heavy pruning is a different job and the timing matters. Fall is not the time for most trees and shrubs, and spring bloomers like lilac and forsythia should be cut right after they flower. We plan that as hedge trimming. A big tree that has to come down is past what we take on, and a tree company handles those.

Not always. A scatter of leaves can be shredded into the grass with a mower, and it breaks down on its own. A thick layer left on the lawn through winter can smother the grass. That, and the leaves in your beds and corners, is what a fall cleanup is for.

Generally, no. Michigan banned yard waste, leaves included, from landfills in 1995, so they go to compost or to yard waste collection. In St. Clair Shores that means lawn bags or marked 32 gallon containers at the curb in season. How the debris leaves goes on your estimate.

Many cleanups take a single day. Larger properties, heavy leaf drop or beds that have been left for years can take longer, and Jake can give you a fair idea once he has seen the yard.

A cleanup is priced on what is actually there: how much yard, how many beds and how much has piled up. A small inland lot in St. Clair Shores and a lakeshore lot under big trees are very different days. Jake sees the yard first, and the estimate is on us.