Let’s be real, Calgary. We all do this EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. September hits, the temperature drops to a pleasant 18°C, a few leaves start turning golden, and we collectively lose our minds. 🎃 We’re posting Instagram stories of pumpkin spice lattes, planning trips to the corn maze, digging out our flannel shirts, and genuinely believing we’ll have a “proper” fall season this year. We’re convinced that THIS is the year Calgary gives us that dreamy October we see in movies you know, the one with spent leisurely raking leaves while wearing cozy sweaters, sipping cider, and watching our kids jump in leaf piles. Spoiler alert: That fantasy lasts approximately 72 hours before Mother Nature laughs in our faces and dumps 30cm of snow on our still-leaf-covered lawns. 😅

Here’s the thing nobody tells you when you move to Calgary (or maybe we all just have selective amnesia): Fall doesn’t actually exist here, it’s more like a surprise intermission between summer and winter that happens so fast you’ll miss it if you blink. One day you’re barbecuing in a t-shirt, contemplating whether you even need to rake those leaves yet, and the next day you’re scraping ice off your windshield at 7 AM while those same leaves are now frozen to your driveway like nature’s cruel mosaic. 🥶 The forecast will literally go from 15°C and sunny on a Tuesday to -5°C with snow warnings by Thursday. And every year, we act shocked. “I can’t believe it’s snowing already!” Yes, Karen, you can. It’s Calgary. It ALWAYS snows in October. Sometimes in September. Once it snowed in July. We’ve been through this.

“I spent last Saturday raking leaves in shorts. By Monday, I was shoveling snow in my parka while those same leaves were frozen underneath. Classic Calgary.” — Every Calgarian Ever“

But here’s where it gets really frustrating: despite knowing this meteorological betrayal happens annually, we still somehow never prepare for it. 🤦 Your gutters are still full of leaves (and now ice), your lawn looks like a soggy autumn smoothie under that surprise snowfall, and you’re standing at your window with your coffee thinking “I should have dealt with this two weeks ago when it was nice out.” The worst part? That perfect fall weekend you were waiting for to do yard work? It never came. You waited for “next weekend” because you wanted to enjoy the nice weather, and now your yard is a disaster zone that’s literally frozen in time. Your neighbor, you know, the annoyingly prepared one, did their fall cleanup in September and their yard looks pristine under the snow. Meanwhile, your yard looks like a crime scene where autumn went to die. 💀

The reality is that Calgary’s fall season demands ninja-level timing and execution. You basically have a 2-3 week window (if you’re lucky) to get everything done: rake the leaves, clean the gutters, do that final lawn mow, winterize your sprinklers, and prep your yard for the inevitable arctic blast. Miss that window? Congratulations, you’re now doing winter yard work, which is exactly as miserable as it sounds, or you’re waiting until spring to deal with the moldy, matted mess that used to be your lawn. 😤 And let’s not forget the mental gymnastics we do every fall: “Should I rake now or wait until more leaves fall? But what if it snows? Should I winterize my lawn? What does that even mean? Do I need to aerate? When is the last time I cleaned my gutters, 2019?” It’s exhausting just thinking about it, and honestly, after a long summer of actually enjoying your yard, the LAST thing you want to do is spend your precious fall weekends doing maintenance work when you could be at Heritage Park’s Halloween event or hiking in Kananaskis before it’s covered in snow.

What if you could actually ENJOY Calgary’s fleeting fall season instead of stressing about your yard? 🎉

Try Us Lawn and Snow Services gets it. We LIVE here. We know the struggle. We’ve seen the forecast change from sunshine to snowmageddon overnight. That’s exactly why we’ve mastered the art of the Calgary fall cleanup—fast, thorough, and timed perfectly before winter crashes the party.

While you’re: Enjoying pumpkin patches, hitting the last summer farmers’ markets, or taking that weekend trip to Banff before the roads get sketchy…

We’re: Making your yard winter-ready so you don’t have to choose between enjoying fall and preparing for winter. Plus, book your fall cleanup now and get priority snow removal service when the white stuff inevitably arrives! ⛄

Because life’s too short to spend Calgary’s 3-day fall season cleaning gutters. Let’s be honest, you’ve got pumpkin spice lattes to drink and mountains to see before they’re buried in snow! 🏔️☕