Autumn Walk @ Emerson: Landscaping

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): We mow your lawn for you! But you have to weed, trim, and mulch your flower beds, and shovel the snow from your driveways and sidewalks.

Many of our residents have expressed their appreciation for the landscaping service provided to all homes in Autumn Walk. It's probably the favorite benefit for most of us!

HOA-Provided Services

The Autumn Walk Board, with resident input and concurrence, elected to sign a three-year contract in 2013 that extended landscaping services to all of the resident-owned lots in addition to the common areas already maintained by Autumn Walk HOA.

These services mostly consist of lawn mowing and trimming, leaf removal, and a one-time annual Spring cleanup.

(Update: In 2019 we changed landscaping contractors and added a Fall mulching as well.)

(Homeowners can opt out of the service, but their HOA fees will remain the same.)

This has kept the community in a uniformly excellent condition, while also relieving homeowners of most lawn maintenance chores during the Spring, Summer, and Fall months, at a fairly minimal added cost.

Individual Homeowner Responsibilities

Homeowners are still responsible for weeding, pruning and re-mulching flower beds in the months following the Spring Clean Up, as well as any maintenance not covered by the contract.
Snow removal is also mostly an individual homeowner responsibility. (Streets are plowed by Howard County, and Autumn Walk HOA is responsible for Common Area sidewalks.)

*** Note: It is highly recommended that you periodically inspect your backyards since the landscaping contract means there's less reason to go back there, particularly drainage. You also want to ensure there hasn't been any damage to your downspouts, and that there isn't any standing water that would permit mosquitoes to breed. ***

Services provided under the contract are as follows:

All Properties (Both Common-Area and Resident Lots):

Spring Clean Up, mulching with enhanced mulch (c. March-April)

Trenching/edging around all mulched beds
Mulching for front & side beds
Beds in rear will not be mulched
Weed control for beds (pre-emergence) in Spring

Fall Mulching (as of 2019)

Light replenishment of the mulch in Fall to replace what has gotten washed away

Grub control applied to entire property (twice in 2013)
Fertilizer and weed control - 4X (one pre- and two post-emergents with fertilizer; one Fall application)
Mowing of all areas in community* (22 times)
Edging all areas in community* (11 times)
Aeration of Entire Property
Slit seed 1/3 of property at time of aeration
Shrub fertilization (one time)
Leaf removal (3X)

* Note that two existing fenced-in properties with gates were grandfathered into the contract to include mowing and edging in those back yards for the duration of the contract, but newly fenced yards will not be included. One property without a gate cannot be accessed.