Winter Leaf Clearance and Grounds Maintenance Across Midlands Hospital Trust

Ensuring the continued safety of patients, staff and visitors is of the utmost importance on hospital grounds all-year-round, but especially during the winter months. The combination of fallen leaves and branches, windblown litter and the UK’s unpredictable wet, stormy weather can create a myriad of situations that, if not seen to, can quickly become hazardous and endanger people onsite who are already dealing with whatever has brought them to a hospital in the first place.

With this in mind, the Midlands Hospital Trust recently entrusted us to carry out winter leaf clearance and grounds maintenance across their sites to bring them back up to standard and keep people safe.

The first port of call on jobs like this is going around and gathering all the leaf fall and other unwanted green materials, such as fallen branches and tree greenery around car parks, pavements and pathways, and collecting it up into large garden waste bags to take away. We carried this work out in November, which gives the wet and windy UK autumn weather time to do its worst before our teams go in and collect all of the leaves and natural debris that have been blown to the ground before winter sets in. Wet leaves covering the ground can easily become a slipping hazard and can also cover up uneven ground that could also lead to injury for an unsuspecting person, so it’s incredibly important to make sure that they’re taken care of first and foremost.

As well as picking up leaves, our teams ensure that a thorough litter picking is carried out across all sites. Much like the fallen leaves, it’s another safety issue as much as it is an aesthetic issue - an unsightly crisp wrapper can quickly become a slip hazard during a rainy spell.

The positive side of being tasked with collecting large volumes of fallen leaves from a site is that we’re able to take this green waste away and recycle it into compost or mulch, giving the leaves another purpose after they’ve fallen to the ground and creating our own environmentally-friendly and more cost-effective gardening system in the process. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Another key aspect of grounds maintenance during the colder months is winter pruning. With many trees and shrubs now dormant and having shed their leaves, it’s the perfect time for our team to go in and give them a tidy up. The bare branches make it easier to spot and remove dead wood and to see the structure as a whole. From there, we can reshape the structures and cut back crowded branches to open trees up to more air and light, as well as to encourage new, stronger growth once spring arrives.

All of the hard work above from the SPA Landscaping team comes together to leave the Midlands Hospital Trust site neat and tidy, ready to reflect the caring nature of the organisation and the vital physical and mental health, learning disability and social care services that they provide.

Contact Us

At SPA Landscaping, we take care of your hospital grounds while you take care of your patients.

If you are a hospital manager looking for a reliable hospital grounds maintenance team for regular maintenance upkeep, landscaping or more, get in touch with us.

Telephone: (0114) 269 9119

Email: info@spalandscaping.co.uk