HOA Fall Board Meeting — Landscape Items to Cover

I’ve sat in on a lot of HOA fall board meetings across Central Ohio over the last ten-plus years, sometimes as the contractor giving the seasonal report, sometimes as a guest brought in by a board treasurer who wanted a second opinion on the existing contract. The fall meeting is the one where landscape decisions made or skipped will show up in next year’s budget, next year’s curb appeal, and next year’s homeowner complaints.

This is the agenda I would put in front of any HOA board in Pickaway, Franklin, Fairfield, or Ross County for the late October or November meeting. Use it, hand it to your management company, or bring it to your next contractor walkthrough.

What landscape items should an HOA board cover at the fall meeting?

An HOA fall board meeting should cover seven landscape items: this year’s contract performance review, fall fertilizer and aeration status confirmation, leaf cleanup schedule and budget, tree assessment and removal decisions, snow and ice service contract confirmation, common-area issues flagged for spring, and next year’s landscape budget with line items priced. Working through these in that order keeps the conversation moving and gives the board something to vote on rather than just discuss.

On a Canal Winchester HOA I service, the board used to spend two hours arguing about whether the mulch in the entrance beds looked right and never get to the snow contract. The year they switched to a structured agenda, they got through every item in 45 minutes and voted on three contract decisions. Same board, same property, just better structure.

Item 1: This year’s contract performance review

Before you talk about next year, be honest about this year. The questions to ask:

• Did the contractor show up on the schedule promised in the contract?
• Were the cuts clean, edged, and trimmed consistently?
• Did the fertilizer and weed control treatments happen on time?
• How many homeowner complaints came through this season, and what were they about?
• Were there charges outside the contract scope, and were they reasonable?
• Is the property generally healthier than it was a year ago?

If you can’t answer most of these yes, the renewal conversation needs to happen now, not in February. Quality commercial landscape contractors in Central Ohio are booking 2027 work by January. Wait until April to start interviewing and you’ll be choosing from whoever has open capacity, which is usually whoever just lost a contract somewhere else.

Item 2: Fall fertilizer and aeration status

The fall fertilizer and aeration work is the single most important agronomic input on cool-season turf, per OSU Extension’s lawn care guidance. If your contractor hasn’t done it by late October, the window is closing fast.

Confirm with your contractor:

• Was the September feed applied? At what rate?
• Was core aeration done? On which common areas?
• Was overseeding done following aeration?
• Has the mid-October feed gone down?
• Is the late November winterizer feed scheduled?

If aeration was skipped this year, that’s a conversation. On the Lancaster HOA where I picked up the contract three seasons ago, the prior contractor had been skipping aeration on the back common areas for years because the equipment access was tight. The result was thin, weed-heavy turf that took two full seasons of aggressive aeration and overseed to recover. Skipped fall work compounds. It’s worth the line item.

Item 3: Leaf cleanup schedule and budget

Most HOA contracts include “leaf cleanup” as a single line item that the contractor interprets as a single sweep. That’s not enough for most Central Ohio properties.

The honest leaf cleanup schedule for a Central Ohio HOA is three visits between late October and the week after Thanksgiving:

• Late October: first cleanup catches early-drop trees (silver maples, ashes if any are still around, ornamentals)
• Mid-November: second cleanup catches the bulk of oak and sugar maple drop
• Post-Thanksgiving: final cleanup catches the last oaks and clears the property for winter

If your contract only includes one cleanup, expect the property to look buried for ten days every November. The fix is to add a second and third cleanup, or to renegotiate the contract to include them. Don’t expect the contractor to absorb extra cleanups for free. Their fuel, labor, and disposal costs are real.

A Bexley HOA I work with switched from one cleanup to three this past year. The board voted to add about $2,400 to the annual contract for the additional visits. Homeowner complaint emails about leaves dropped from 14 last fall to one this fall. The math worked.

Item 4: Tree assessment and removal decisions

The fall meeting is when tree decisions get made for winter pruning and removal. Two reasons. First, deciduous trees with leaves off make hazards easier to see. Second, certified arborists in Central Ohio have open capacity in November and January that they don’t have in March.

Items to put on the table:

• Trees identified as hazards during the fall walkthrough (dead wood, splits, lean over structures or paths)
• Bradford pears that are co-dominant and likely to fail in the next ice storm
• Ash trees with emerald ash borer damage that need removal
• Volunteer trees in common areas that have grown into infrastructure (fences, walls, lights)
• Specimen trees that need pruning for shape and health, not removal

Get written tree assessments from a certified arborist before the meeting if you can. The ISA-certified arborist’s letter gives the board cover on the removal decision and gives you a defensible position if a homeowner objects.

On a Pickerington HOA, the board approved removal of four declining ash trees at the November meeting two years ago. The trees came down in January. The board would have approved the same removals in March if pushed, but the January work was 30% cheaper because the arborist needed winter work to fill the schedule.

Item 5: Snow and ice service contract confirmation

If your snow contract isn’t signed and the contractor hasn’t walked the property, you’re late.

Confirm at the meeting:

• Snow contract is signed for 2026-2027 season
• Trigger depths and service tier match what the board approved
• Salt and ice melt application is included or priced separately
• Sidewalks, entrance signs, mailbox clusters, and ADA paths are all in scope
• Contractor has the gate codes, on-site contact information, and any special access instructions
• No-plow zones (storm drains, valve boxes, low landscape features) are marked or documented

The detail that catches HOAs out is the sidewalk piece. A snow contract that covers parking lots and roads but not sidewalks leaves the HOA exposed when a resident or guest slips on an uncleared walk. Read the contract scope carefully and ask the contractor to clarify in writing if anything is ambiguous.

Item 6: Common area issues flagged for spring

The fall meeting is where you set the priority list for spring work. Items that come up most often:

• Bare patches on common-area turf that need spring overseeding
• Mulch beds that are thin and need refresh in April
• Annual planting beds at entrances (decide on the spring color scheme now, not in May when the contractor is buried)
• Drainage issues that showed up during summer storms
• Hardscape repair (cracked sidewalks, sunken pavers, retaining wall repointing)

Putting these on a written list at the fall meeting means your contractor can price them in the winter and the work gets scheduled before the spring crunch. Wait until April and you’ll be at the back of every contractor’s line.

Item 7: Next year’s landscape budget with line items priced

Don’t approve a lump-sum number. Approve line items.

Categories to break out:

• Mowing and trimming (weekly visit count, season length)
• Fertilization and weed control (number of applications, scope)
• Spring cleanup and mulch refresh
• Aeration and overseeding (which common areas)
• Leaf cleanup (number of visits)
• Annual color (beds, planting count)
• Tree and shrub pruning
• Irrigation startup, monitoring, and winterization
• Snow and ice service
• Reserve for unexpected work (storm damage, sinkholes, vandalism repair)

Line-item budgets make next year’s tradeoffs visible. When the board is comparing $42,000 to $45,000, the conversation is meaningless. When the board is comparing line by line and deciding whether to add a third leaf cleanup or upgrade the annual color, the conversation produces decisions.

Want a written walkthrough and budget for your HOA?

Lawn Harmony Landscaping offers free written walkthroughs and line-item budget proposals for HOA properties across Pickaway, Franklin, Fairfield, Ross, and Fayette counties. We’re locally owned and operated out of Circleville, licensed and insured, with a 5.0-star Google rating.

Call 614-425-9789 or email Lawnharmonyohio@gmail.com to schedule. Request a commercial or HOA walkthrough at /quote/commercial.

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Service area: Circleville, Columbus, Grove City, Bexley, Upper Arlington, Pickerington, Canal Winchester, Groveport, Lancaster, Baltimore, Chillicothe, Washington Court House, Jeffersonville, Lockbourne, and Obetz.