A client had had his landscaping crew clean up after our recent storms, as much as his property was littered with leaves and branches. When I arrived to plant some bulbs and dig up the dahlia tubers, I was shocked and a little saddened.

Standard operation for many landscapers—the crew had used blowers to clean out the beds as well as the lawn. And had been so fastidious in their removal of leaves to obviously please the customer—and he was pleased—that they had blown off the top layer of earth, including much of the mulch and organic material they had spread in the prior season! The blowing machine had been used fiercely enough that some newly-planted shrubs were almost uprooted.

So I called him outside and explained this to him. How he would ultimately be paying to improve his soil, and was paying the price of “perfection”. And losing over all. He understood.
We determined that, in the future, only I would gently rake out the beds, they could haul the debris away, and we would use nature’s way to “perfection”.