Lawn care and seasonal maintenance

A maintenance contract is the least glamorous thing a landscaper sells and the thing that decides how a Kanata front yard looks for the other fifty weeks of the year. Most of the west end is on a weekly cut from late April to late October, roughly twenty-six visits, with the first and last doing more than mowing.

What a visit actually includes. Cutting is the smallest part of it. A proper visit changes the mowing direction each week, keeps the blade at 65 to 75 mm through summer rather than scalping it to 40 mm, trims the edges along walks and beds, and leaves the clippings on the grass where they return nitrogen. A crew that bags every clipping is removing free fertilizer and charging you for the disposal.

Step one: the spring visit. The first visit is a clean-up rather than a cut. Winter debris comes off, the salt-damaged edge along the driveway is raked out, matted grass is lifted so it can dry, and snow mould is broken up. A February thaw followed by a hard freeze does more damage here than the cold itself, so this is when you find out what died.

Step two: feeding. Three or four applications across the season is the common pattern, weighted to spring and early fall. Autumn feeding matters more in this climate, because roots keep growing after the top growth stops and a lawn fed in September enters winter with reserves.

Step three: aeration and overseeding. Core aeration pulls plugs of soil out and lets water and air into compacted ground. On the clay lots in lower Kanata it is the most useful thing you can do for a tired lawn, and early September is the window, because seed spread into the holes germinates in warm soil and cool air. Aerating dry August ground accomplishes very little.

Step four: weed control, within the law. Ontario's cosmetic pesticide ban means a lawn contractor cannot reach for whatever used to work. Only pesticides in Class D or with an active ingredient on the Allowable List may be used for cosmetic purposes, and Classes A, B and C are off the table for lawn and garden work (Ontario). In practice that leaves corn gluten, iron-based broadleaf products, hand pulling and, more effectively, a thick lawn that crowds weeds out. Any contractor who applies pesticide for hire on your property needs an exterminator licence, and the business needs an operator licence as well (Ontario).

How long it takes. A typical Kanata lawn of 200 to 400 square metres is a fifteen to thirty minute visit for a two-person crew. Aeration is a separate hour, and the spring and fall visits are two to four hours each. Good contracts state the number of visits in writing.

What it costs in Ottawa in 2026. These are indicative ranges rather than quotes. Weekly cutting on a standard suburban lot commonly runs $40 to $70 a visit, or $1,000 to $1,800 for the season. Add $300 to $700 for a three or four step fertilizer programme, and $150 to $350 for core aeration. Larger Kanata Lakes and Morgan's Grant lots, and anything where the crew has to carry a mower through a narrow side gate, sit at the top of those ranges or above them. Labour is the whole cost base here, so the general minimum wage moving to $17.95 on 1 October 2026 (Hicks Morley) shows up in next season's pricing.

What makes Kanata lawns different. Two things. The first is ground: parts of Kanata Lakes and Morgan's Grant have thin soil over limestone, so the lawn dries out and browns in July weeks before a Bridlewood lawn does, while the lower ground toward the Carp River sits on sensitive marine clay that holds water and compacts hard (NRC). The same fertilizer and watering plan cannot serve both. The second is browsing pressure, because a great many Kanata subdivisions back onto the Greenbelt or farmland, and rabbits work the lawn edges and bed margins all winter under the snow.

Licences, and the honest answer. There is no provincial licence to be a landscaper in Ontario. Landscaping is not one of the 23 compulsory trades, which are the ones like plumber and electrician where certification is required to work (Skilled Trades Ontario). There is a voluntary trade, Horticultural Technician 441C, with an apprenticeship of 5,400 hours on the job and 720 hours in school, and because it is non-compulsory nobody has to hold it (Skilled Trades Ontario). What you can verify instead is liability insurance, a WSIB clearance number, which is valid for up to 90 days (WSIB), and a pesticide licence if anything is being sprayed.

What to ask before you hire. How many visits are in the season and what happens in a week of rain. What cutting height in July. Are clippings left on the lawn. Is fertilizer included, and how many applications. Who applies weed control and under what licence. Can I have the WSIB clearance number. What happens if the mower damages irrigation heads or the fence. Get the visit count and the cutting height in writing, because that is where cheap contracts differ from good ones.

One caution. A lawn failing on clay or on thin soil over rock will not be fixed by a bigger fertilizer programme. Aerate, top-dress and overseed first, then judge.