Spring and fall cleanup in the Hamptons: what it costs, and the fertilizer calendar that actually governs the work

What's included

Spring cleanup is typically one visit: winter debris removal, a first cut, bed cleanup, and an assessment of anything that didn't make it through the winter. Fall cleanup runs longer, commonly billed biweekly through leaf drop, since one pass rarely keeps up with a Hamptons tree canopy shedding over several weeks.

What it costs (2026, national — no Long Island figure exists)

Job	Cost
Yard cleanup, overall average	$180 (range $28–486)
Spring cleanup	$125–300
Fall cleanup	$150–400 (consistently pricier — more debris and disposal fees, higher seasonal demand)

The calendar that matters more than the price

New York State bans lawn fertilizer application from December 1 through April 1 statewide (Nassau County tightens that to November 15; Suffolk County tightens it further, to November 1). Suffolk's own Local Law No. 41-2007 carries a penalty of up to $1,000 per violation, on top of the state's own $100–1,000 civil penalty scale under Environmental Conservation Law Article 17, Title 21. Phosphorus is separately banned on lawns and turf outright, except when establishing a brand-new lawn in its first season or when a soil test shows a genuine deficiency, and no fertilizer may be applied within 20 feet of surface water unless a 10-foot vegetated buffer separates the turf from the water or a deflector-shield spreader is used down to a 3-foot minimum.

None of this is arbitrary. Long Island soil typically reaches the 55°F threshold turfgrass needs to actively absorb nutrients right around April 1 in spring, and doesn't drop back below it until sometime in November — the legal blackout window is calibrated to plant biology, not a calendar guess. Absent a soil thermometer, mid-April is a practically safe spring start date, and Suffolk's own guidance points to early September as the recommended fall application date, well ahead of the November 1 blackout, so a slow-release product has time to be absorbed before it lapses.

Suffolk's blackout, at five months (November through March), covers roughly 41% of the calendar year; the statewide version, at four months, covers about a third. A fall cleanup scheduled around leaf drop and a fertilizer application timed to early September, not later, are two different calendars that a maintenance program has to run at once.

Winter protection: a caveat, not a claim

Boxwood, yew and some arborvitae commonly get burlap wrapping against winter burn and desiccation. We could not find a clean, sourced date window for when that wrapping should go on or come off — only "before a hard freeze." One East End company advertises its own wrapping season as running November through February, but that is one company's own marketing claim, not an industry standard, and we present it as such rather than as a rule.