Downing Landscape Services

About Downing Landscape Services

February arrives in Arlington sideways — snow packing against the triple-deckers on the climb toward the Heights, Spy Pond gone flat and white behind the houses. Those are the nights Downing Landscape Services, Inc. is out plowing driveways, condominium and commercial lots, running snowblowers, shoveling walks and spreading sand until every path down to Massachusetts Avenue is walkable again. When the thaw comes they trade the blade for rakes: spring and fall cleanups, mowing, thatching and aerating, weeding, mulching, pruning shrubs back into shape, feeding lawns, clearing gutters. The heavier work waits for the long light — patios and walkways set stone by stone, retaining walls holding a hillside yard level, trees and shrubs planted, lawns started from seed, hydroseed or sod, and low lighting that keeps a front walk glowing after dark. It is work you can read from the sidewalk anywhere in Arlington and the towns around it: a crisp mown edge, a bed dressed dark with bark mulch, a yard that holds its season.