Property care tips
Property care tips for Durham Region homeowners.
Property care tips for Durham Region homeowners: straight seasonal advice written for Durham soil and Durham weather. Not copied from an American lawn blog.
- Written for Durham, not the internet
- We tell you when you do not need us
- Free to read, no membership needed
See all three memberships and what each one covers
Green in summer. Clear in winter.
Why we write these
Two instructions turn up on almost every lawn site: spray for weeds, and aerate in spring. Ontario banned cosmetic spraying in 2009. Spring aeration on its own is fine and the province names it as a window, but spring aeration paired with new seed is the pairing that fails, because a seedling germinating in May runs into July with too little root behind it. Both instructions were written for somewhere else.
These guides are written for Durham soils and a season that runs May 1 to November 1. They also tell you when you do not need us: the salting guide is mostly about spreading less, the aeration guide names the one short window it is worth paying for, and the thatch guide tells most readers to put the machine back.
The guides
Start here
Guides covering the questions Durham homeowners actually ask.
Spring cleanup in Durham Region
The April job is built in October, and the bill is written by the leaf mat, the footprint of the pile, the sodium along the driveway edge and clay that has to crumble before anybody steps on it. Plus the soil test that settles the date, and what each of the five towns will actually haul away.
Lawn care · Spring cleanup
Read the guide →Where to put snow from your driveway in Oshawa
One Oshawa by-law holds anything inside a driveway sight triangle to 0.9 metre, and a snowbank is a thing. The provincial ban on the roadway, the five towns that disagree about the boulevard, the three items on a frontage a pile must never touch, and where the water goes in March.
Snow removal · Snow storage
Read the guide →Interlock driveway snow removal in Durham Region
Three millimetres is both the tolerance a paver driveway was laid to and the trigger that says reset it before winter. Why clay lifts it, which way a blade should cross the joints, and the de icing salt test the Canadian standard already contains.
Snow removal · Paver driveways
Read the guide →Snowbird snow removal in Durham Region
Leaving the house empty for part of the winter changes four things at once. The insurance clause that catches a snowbird is measured in days rather than the thirty everybody quotes, the sidewalk duty carries on without you in every Durham town, and the wall vent at ankle height still has to breathe.
Snow removal · Unoccupied property
Read the guide →Townhouse snow removal in Oshawa
Oshawa writes a street townhome driveway at 3.0 m and every other driveway at 3.5 m, and the plow leaves the same ridge across both. Where the snow may lawfully be piled, who owns the lane, and the three ownership shapes that change the answer.
Snow removal · Townhouses and condominiums
Read the guide →Steep driveway snow removal in Durham Region
Five authorities approve driveways here and every one of them permits a grade steeper than a car can climb on smooth ice. The published maxima, where the real slopes are, and the pavement temperature at which salt stops being the answer.
Snow removal · Sloped driveways
Read the guide →Shared driveway snow removal in Durham Region
Ontario wrote a statute to settle who maintains the fence on a property line and wrote nothing at all for the driveway on the same line. What your title decides, where the snow may lawfully go, and why both households owe the duty at once.
Snow removal · Shared and mutual driveways
Read the guide →Commercial snow removal cost in Durham Region
Seasonal, per visit and hourly set against the published event count for an Oshawa winter, five municipalities asking five different things of the asphalt you pay taxes on, and the temperature at which rock salt quietly stops being a de icer.
Commercial snow removal · Durham Region
Read the guide →Commercial snow removal in Pickering
Four published winter deadlines land on one commercial address and only one of them has no grace period at all, which is the one on the asphalt the owner pays taxes on. The by-law, the City targets, the sixty day letter and the card rate.
Commercial snow removal · Pickering
Read the guide →Snow removal cost in Bowmanville
Two Environment Canada stations inside one municipality are 48.8 cm of snow a year apart, and the Municipality states in writing that your windrow will not be cleared. The bands, the ground underneath them, and the mild week that costs the most.
Snow removal · Bowmanville pricing
Read the guide →Snow removal for seniors in Oshawa
All five towns run an assistance program and four of them close on four different dates, the first of them this week. What each one reaches on your frontage, and the two strips none of them touch.
Snow removal · Older homeowners
Read the guide →Snow removal for large driveways in Oshawa
Two measurements settle the price, and a third of an acre is where the band changes. What 20 cm weighs once a plow has packed it, and the three places an Oshawa by-law will not let the pile sit.
Snow removal · Large properties
Read the guide →Snow shovelling in Oshawa
A winter of hand clearing weighed in kilograms on a stated driveway, what the Canadian cardiac evidence does and does not establish, and the nineteen days a year when a shovel is simply the right answer.
Snow removal · Doing it yourself
Read the guide →Prepare your driveway for snow removal in Oshawa
Nine checks, drawn to scale. The boulevard setbacks leave no legal place for a post, the snow pile belongs on one particular side, and the two municipal programs that charge nothing are the two that close first.
Snow removal · Driveway preparation
Read the guide →Snow plowing in Durham Region
A blade relocates snow and never removes it, so the whole winter stays on your own lot. Where the law lets a pile sit, and how much there is to store.
Snow removal · Where the snow goes
Read the guide →Snow removal in Clarington
One municipality runs from the Lake Ontario shore up onto the Oak Ridges Moraine, and Clarington sets its own building snow load by elevation because of it. What that changes on a driveway.
Snow removal · Clarington
Read the guide →Snow removal cost in Oshawa
The City opens a residential street at 8 cm and gives itself 16 hours. Everything you pay a contractor for happens inside that gap, and nobody at all owns the windrow.
Snow removal · Oshawa pricing
Read the guide →Leaf collection in Oshawa
Bagged only, with no limit on how many. The Region collects in Ajax, Pickering and Clarington, Oshawa and Whitby collect their own, and the bundle rules change at the town line.
Lawn care · Autumn
Read the guide →Dethatching a lawn in Oshawa
One cut with a bread knife settles it. Three published thresholds disagree, the provincial soil mapping is not what anybody says it is, and most Durham lawns should be left alone.
Lawn care · Thatch
Read the guide →Snow removal cost in Whitby
Your street is a Class 5 road, so the Town owes it nothing until ten centimetres have fallen. Your own sidewalk clock is twenty four hours. The municipal figures, and what each depth weighs on a driveway.
Snow removal · Whitby
Read the guide →Freezing rain in Durham Region
The one winter event a blade cannot fix, because glaze bonds to the driveway instead of sitting on it. What works instead, and the by-law clock that starts with the ice.
Snow removal · Ice
Read the guide →Snow mould in Oshawa
The lakeshore does not hold snow long enough for the worst of the two fungi, so the grey scars turn up under the pile instead.
Lawn care · Winter damage
Read the guide →When to start cutting your lawn in Oshawa
Soil temperature beats the calendar. Two weeks of patience buys a better June.
Lawn care · Spring
Read the guide →The right mowing height for a Durham Region lawn
Three inches is the cheapest weed control and drought protection in Ontario.
Lawn care · Summer
Read the guide →Aeration and overseeding: Ontario's September window
Aeration works in one short Durham window. Miss it and the money is gone.
Lawn care · Fall
Read the guide →The fall cleanup checklist for Durham homeowners
Nine jobs in order, the two that matter, and the one done too early.
Seasonal · Fall
Read the guide →When does snow actually start in Oshawa?
A month by month winter timeline, and why the first storm beats everybody.
Snow removal · Winter
Read the guide →What snow removal costs in Durham Region
Per storm, seasonal and bundled pricing compared, with the arithmetic behind each.
Snow removal · Winter
Read the guide →Who clears the windrow in Durham Region?
Every town leaves the ridge at your driveway to you. Programs and deadlines.
Snow removal · Winter
Read the guide →When to stop cutting grass in Oshawa
The last cut decides what April looks like, including the height to finish at.
Lawn care · Autumn
Read the guide →Hedge trimming in Oshawa
The shear window closes in July, and three separate rules decide the rest of the year.
Add on services · Hedge trimming
Read the guide →When to book snow removal in Oshawa
Two dates decide it, and neither one is the first snowfall.
Snow removal · Booking
Read the guide →Snow plow driveway damage in Oshawa
Four things break a driveway in winter, and only one is the blade.
Snow removal · Driveway surfaces
Read the guide →Driveway markers for snow removal in Oshawa
A two week window in October, and three numbers that place every rod.
Snow removal · Winter preparation
Read the guide →Seasonal snow removal contract in Oshawa
Ontario names sixteen things a snow agreement must carry. Five of them matter.
Snow removal · Contracts
Read the guide →Snow blower vs plow service in Oshawa
Intake height, the ridge the plow leaves, and when the machine is worth buying.
Snow removal · Equipment
Read the guide →Lawn grubs in Oshawa, and why this autumn is worse
Telling grub damage from a dry patch, and the count that decides treatment.
Lawn care · Diagnosis
Read the guide →Snow removal bylaw in Oshawa
The sidewalk in front of your house is yours, and so is the windrow.
Snow removal · The rules
Read the guide →Driveway salting in Oshawa
Rock salt stops working near minus 10. What to spread, and how little.
Snow removal · Ice control
Read the guide →Gravel driveway snow removal in Durham Region
Stone is not a surface until frost builds one, so the season opens late.
Snow removal · Unpaved surfaces
Read the guide →How much does snow removal cost in Ajax?
The Town costed the windrow at $1.8 million a year in 2019 and did not buy it.
Snow removal · Ajax pricing
Read the guide →Landlord snow removal responsibility in Ontario
Two laws answer it differently, and three of the five Durham towns can charge the tenant.
Snow removal · Rental property
Read the guide →Fall lawn fertilizer in Oshawa
Two weeks in October decide the whole feed, and the evidence stops paying after them.
Lawn care · Fall feeding
Read the guide →How much does snow removal cost in Pickering?
The City costed the windrow at $7.4 million a year and did not buy it, and it maps four snow loads across one city.
Snow removal · Pickering pricing
Read the guide →Who plows driveways in Ajax?
Three public bodies plow every road in the town and not one of them clears a driveway, and the Town says so itself.
Snow removal · Ajax responsibility
Read the guide →How to choose a snow removal company in Durham Region
Ontario issues no credential for this work, so four documents have to do the job instead.
Snow removal · Hiring
Read the guide →The Durham calendar
What you should be thinking about right now
The whole year on one screen. Every row is something we handle for members.
| Weeks | What matters | The mistake to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-March to mid-April | Cleanup, salt flush, first-cut timing | Cutting before the soil hits 8 °C |
| Late April to May 1 | Weekly cutting starts | Scalping the first cut short |
| June to August | Height up, water deep and rarely, sharp blades | Watering ten minutes every night |
| September to early October | Aeration and overseeding: the window that works | Aerating in spring instead |
| October to November 1 | Leaves off, final cut lower, snow contract signed | Waiting for the last leaf to fall |
| November 1 to March | Storm clearing, salt used sparingly | Buying salt on the day of the storm |
Feeding and aeration sit on Platinum or come as add-ons, and we tell you which before you buy.
Your year at a glance
Everything above, on one page. Print it and put it inside a cupboard door.
One membership covers everything on this page
The membership that does all of it is Gold: $189 a month plus HST, $213.57 on the card. Twelve equal payments cover weekly lawn care from May 1 to November 1 and snow clearing from November 1 to May 1. Nothing on this page is charged per visit. The three memberships are laid out side by side.
Andrew answers, October 2026
Why is the morning clearing time a target rather than a promise?
Because a promise about the morning is a promise about the weather, and nobody can make one of those honestly. What I can promise is where you sit in the route and the order the route runs in, and both of those are published on this site. In eighteen years of Oshawa data the worst winter had twenty four clearing days and the mildest had four, and a promise written to survive the worst of those is a promise priced for it. A target I actually hit is worth more to you than a promise I have quietly priced the risk of breaking.
One of these goes on each page and it is replaced monthly. If the question you have is not here, ask it: 905-244-5779.
New this week
Published October 13, 2026: commercial snow removal in Whitby, read clause by clause. What the Occupiers' Liability Act asks of a lot owner, the twenty four hour deadline in the new Clean Community By-law, the sixty day notice rule after a fall, how often the 5 cm commercial trigger is actually met near Whitby, and why rock salt stops working below about minus 10.
Want this handled for you?
Every tip on this page is something we do for members every week, on schedule, in uniform, for one flat monthly payment. Tell us your address and we will send a real number the same day.
Green in summer. Clear in winter.