HD Landscape and Maintenance provides leaf removal in Hillsboro, OR for homes, businesses, and HOAs. We clear lawns, beds, gutters, and hardscape, and we haul everything off site — including the yard-tree leaves the City’s street tree collection program won’t take. Oregon LCB #9977.
By Donavan Hesedahl, Owner/Operator · Last updated July 2026
Start here, because it’s the thing most Hillsboro homeowners get wrong and it determines whether you need to hire anyone at all.
The City of Hillsboro runs a genuinely good fall leaf collection program. Public Works crews sweep every neighborhood, the city is divided into four leaf zones, and each zone gets picked up once in November and once in December. It’s free.
It’s also a street tree program. The City collects leaves from trees in the public right-of-way, raked into the street. Read the City’s own program rules and the limits are explicit:
So: the maple in your parking strip is covered. The two Douglas firs, the big-leaf maple in the back, the leaves matted into your lawn, packed into your gutters, buried in the beds behind the laurel, and drifted across the patio — none of that is. That’s the work, and that’s the part people hire out.
There are also two drop-off events each season at the Public Works facility on NE 30th Avenue, which double as a food drive for the Oregon Food Bank. Useful if you have a truck, a Saturday free, and one tree. Less useful if you have a half-acre lot under mature canopy.
Leaf removal service is the full clearing and hauling of fallen leaves from a property — lawn, beds, hardscape, and gutters — with all debris removed off site rather than piled at the curb. It’s distinct from mowing over leaves or raking them into the street, because the material actually leaves.
Ours includes:
Left on the ground, a wet leaf layer kills turf and creates real hazards — and in the Willamette Valley the leaves stay wet, so the damage window is months rather than weeks.
Four specific consequences:
Turf death. A matted leaf layer blocks light and traps moisture against the crown. Hillsboro gets its first sustained rain right as the heaviest drop starts, so leaves go down wet and stay wet. Four to six weeks of that and you’re looking at bare patches, snow mold, and a spring reseed bill that costs more than the cleanup would have.
Clogged gutters and water in the wrong place. Douglas fir needles and maple leaves are a bad combination in a gutter — needles knit into a mat that holds the leaves in place. Overflow finds fascia, siding, and foundation. On Hillsboro’s flat lots with heavy clay soil, water that overflows a gutter doesn’t drain away; it sits.
Street flooding. The City is direct about why the program exists: leaves in the street clog storm drains, which causes localized flooding and sends debris and pollution into local waterways, including the Tualatin River. Public Works runs three regenerative-air street sweepers across more than 465 curb miles, working alongside leaf crews in November and December — but a blocked drain on your frontage between passes is your puddle.
Slip hazards and code exposure. Wet leaves on a sidewalk are slick. Hillsboro also holds property owners responsible for maintaining trees and vegetation in and adjacent to the right-of-way — and if the City flags a property, you have 15 calendar days to respond before Code Compliance gets involved. Leaves aren’t the usual trigger there, but the underlying maintenance duty is real.
One thing worth saying honestly: leaves aren’t waste. We compost what we haul. And if you have a back corner away from turf and structures, leaving a leaf pile there is genuinely good for overwintering insects and soil. Clearing everything to bare dirt isn’t the goal — clearing the lawn, gutters, beds, and hardscape is.
The drop here runs roughly mid-October through early January, which is longer than most people plan for. The City’s own program spans November into December and hits each zone twice. That cadence tells you something: two passes is the minimum for a treed lot, not the maximum.
How it typically sequences on Hillsboro properties:
Practical scheduling by property type:
| Property | Typical visits |
|---|---|
| Small lot, one or two ornamentals | 1–2 |
| Standard subdivision lot, mature street tree | 2–3 |
| Large or heavily treed lot, mixed conifer and deciduous | 3–5 |
| HOA common areas and commercial frontage | Weekly or biweekly through the season |
We also time at least one visit to land just before your leaf zone’s City pickup where it makes sense, so street-tree material goes into the free program and everything else goes on our truck. No reason to pay to haul leaves the City will take.
We’re based in Aloha, roughly ten minutes from downtown Hillsboro, so Hillsboro is a standing route for our fall crews rather than a drive across the metro. That matters more in leaf season than any other time of year — when a windstorm drops everything on a Tuesday, response time is the whole service.
In Hillsboro we cover Orenco · Tanasbourne · Downtown Hillsboro · Witch Hazel · South Hillsboro · Reedville · Jackson School · Rock Creek · Quatama · Five Oaks · Brookwood · Sunrise Lane.
Volume varies a lot by neighborhood, and it’s mostly a function of when the subdivision went in. The older streets around Downtown Hillsboro and Jackson School have mature big-leaf maples and oaks — high volume, long season, and street trees big enough that the City program genuinely helps. Newer builds in South Hillsboro and Witch Hazel have younger, smaller street trees, so the City pickup does less for you and the yard-tree leaves are most of the job. Rock Creek and Orenco run heavy on conifer needle cast, which means gutters more than lawns.
Outside city limits we serve Aloha, Beaverton, Cornelius, Forest Grove, North Plains, and Tigard, plus unincorporated Washington County. If you’re outside Hillsboro city limits, there is no municipal street leaf pickup at all — the City’s program stops at the city line, and Clean Water Services runs separate Washington County leaf drop-off events you’d have to haul to yourself.
Because our crews are already on Hillsboro properties for tree pruning and year-round maintenance, deadwood and clearance issues spotted during a leaf visit get flagged in writing — not quietly upsold on the spot.
HD Landscape and Maintenance is an Oregon LCB-licensed landscape contracting business, license #9977. Request a free Hillsboro leaf removal quote →
A full leaf removal visit covers blowing and collecting leaves from the lawn, clearing beds and shrub interiors, blowing hardscape and steps clean, clearing gutters and downspouts, clearing the storm drain edge on your frontage, and hauling all debris off site. Ours includes all of that plus scheduled return visits through the season, since leaves in Hillsboro drop from mid-October into January rather than all at once.
Cost is per visit and depends on lot size, tree count and species, leaf volume and moisture, whether gutters are included, and equipment access. Wet matted leaves weigh several times more than dry ones, so a delayed cleanup costs more than a timely one. Seasonal packages price lower per visit than one-off calls. We quote on site in writing with the visit count stated up front.
A wet matted leaf layer blocks light and traps moisture against the turf crown, causing bare patches and snow mold — and in the Willamette Valley leaves stay wet for months, so the damage window is long. Leaves also clog gutters, which sends overflow into fascia, siding, and foundations, and they block storm drains, which is why the City of Hillsboro runs a leaf program at all: clogged drains cause localized flooding and carry debris into waterways like the Tualatin River. Wet leaves on sidewalks are also a genuine slip hazard.
For a standard Hillsboro subdivision lot with a mature street tree, two to three visits across the season. Large or heavily treed lots with mixed conifer and deciduous cover need three to five. The City’s own program hits each leaf zone twice, once in November and once in December — a useful signal that two passes is the floor for a treed property, not the ceiling. Conifer needle cast means gutters often need attention after the deciduous drop finishes.
We haul. Everything we collect goes on the truck and off the property the same day, and it gets composted. This is the main difference between hiring us and doing it yourself with the City program: Hillsboro’s free street leaf collection only takes leaves from street trees in the public right-of-way, raked into the street 18 inches off the curb, and it explicitly excludes branches, grass clippings, weeds, and plastic bags. Leaves from your yard trees, lawn, beds, and gutters aren’t covered. Where it makes sense we time a visit so street-tree material goes into the free City program and everything else leaves on our truck.
HD Landscape and Maintenance LLC 6581 SW 192nd Ave Aloha, OR 97007
Phone: (971) 336-5520
Email: hdlandscapellc@gmail.com
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. · Sunday, Closed
License: Oregon LCB #9977
Serving Hillsboro and surrounding areas including Orenco, Tanasbourne, Witch Hazel, Reedville, Rock Creek, and South Hillsboro, plus Aloha, Beaverton, Cornelius, Forest Grove, and Washington County.