Landscaping in Minnesota gets a short season between deep frost and the next hard freeze. Salt piles kill the same boulevard strip every spring. Clay and rock fight a grade change. Snowmelt with nowhere to go fills basements that the heating season already stresses. Shelterbelts dump snow on the walk you need. Humidity in the brief summer feeds fungus, then a hot spell scorches a planting made in a kind week. Drainage and heaved hardscape come before a show bed.
Downspouts that end at the foundation will prove themselves at thaw. Keep soil sloping away even when snow makes the lot look flat. A swale beats a pipe that moves the puddle to the neighbor. Say if their grade already sends water to you. Heaved steps are a trip now, not a June idea. Mark them before someone uses them in the dark. Stone and concrete that lifted are part of the call, not a stain on the design.
Plow blades and salt scar young bark and peel the lawn edge. Seed alone dies in that strip again. Shrubs in the splash zone rot at the crown. A limb on the roof or over a bedroom comes first. Deer edit lists that ignored them. Choose for wind, clay, salt, and a short season. Irrigation and hose bibs have to be shut or blown out, or the yard work becomes a frozen line.
Mulch on the trunk rots bark that winter wind finishes. Fall planting races a hard freeze. Spring planting races mud. Edging decides whether the yard stays keepable. If you are only planning, say so. If water is at the wall during melt, say that louder. A lakeshore bank that is slipping is a different job from a boulevard lawn, and it should be named that way.
Lead with drainage, a heaved walk, a dying hedge, or limbs you cannot leave overhead. Name the town and whether salt piles own the edge. Minnesota will not hold the season open. Call the number on this page.