As the autumn leaves begin to fall and summer flowers fade, it is important to clear them out of your rental property’s garden and yard before the warmer days leave and winter begins to arrive. While it may be tempting to leave the leaves on the ground, there are plenty of reasons why this shouldn’t be done. To make sure that your rental’s lawn and garden stay healthy and to encourage strong roots to grow and help withstand winter temperature, the best practice would be to remove old growth and fallen leaves each fall.
Clearing dead leaves, flowers, and old-growth from your Livermore rental property’s yard isn’t just about keeping the appearance of cleanliness. The benefits of taking care of a home’s exterior includes things that aren’t cosmetic. There are property owners that think it’s a good idea to imitate nature by leaving fallen leaves and old-growth on lawns and in gardens to decompose over the winter. They wrongly assume that because it’s natural, therefore it’s good. If they did that, then the layers of dead leaves and other debris would smother their lawns and other plants, preventing air, light, and essential nutrients from penetrating the ground below. Healthy landscape plants and grass rely on a healthy root system, which in turn relies on abundant access to water, air, and light.
While having healthy plants in your garden is already a very good reason to clear your rental property’s fallen leaves and dead garden plants, there are still additional reasons besides that. For instance, uncleared leaves and dead flowers can result in common plant diseases that can ruin an otherwise healthy yard. As the debris piles up, it reduces ventilation and effectively traps moisture underneath. This can result in damaging mold growths and other issues that will end up killing existing plants. There is yet another problem that usually comes with uncleared dead leaves. That is the increase in insects and other pests. Many kinds of roaches, spiders, and small mammals flourish in layers of rotting foliage. As the number of these pests explodes in your yard, they would start to explore and expand. They would then likely find their way inside your rental home as well. You’re exposing your rental home to great risk. This is the reason why dead flowers, plants, and fallen leaves, have to be removed from the yard before winter arrives.
There are property owners that mistakenly believe that autumn landscaping clean-up is the tenant’s responsibility. Owners should not rely on their tenants to do this task. It may not have crossed your tenant’s mind just how important it is to remove dead leaves and flowers, or perhaps they just don’t know the correct way to do it. Tenants may also be putting themselves at risk and that’s not good for the property owner as well. If your property has tall trees that shed leaves onto the roof or other elevated surfaces, you wouldn’t want your tenant to get on a ladder to trim tree branches or clear the fallen leaves away. It would be a bad idea to ask your tenant to do that.
You don’t have to pick up after every leaf that falls. That would be too much. But large leaf falls are another story. These must be addressed in a timely manner to prevent damage to your rental property’s landscaping, foundation, and even the roof and gutters. There is more than one way to get the job done efficiently. One way is for property owners to rake fallen leaves onto the lawn and then use a mulching mower to shred them into fine particles, which will sift down into the soil and fertilize the grass. Others may ask a professional company to send an experienced team to do the annual clean-up for them. This decision may be the better choice— more efficient and cost-effective— especially if you pick the right company.
Whichever method you ultimately choose would be fine for as long as your priority would be to care for your rental property’s yard without putting your tenant at risk. If you have extra time, you can do the work yourself. But the saying is true: Time is money. It’s true for just about anyone— including real estate investors. That is why Real Property Management One takes care of important seasonal maintenance tasks for active and engaged property owners like you. Our top-tier property management services will see to it that your Livermore rental property will be looked after carefully and will be ready for whatever the winter season throws at it. Contact us online or call at 925-495-4953 to get started.
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