Everett is the big city in the county, and the ground changes block to block: waterfront fill, older neighborhoods with tired topsoil, and tighter lots where the roof and the driveway shed more water than the yard can swallow. Boeing and the working waterfront are the backdrop. The yards are ordinary residential lots with city drainage problems. City beds are narrow, and a sloppy bark job ends up on the sidewalk. We edge, we fill, and we blow the walk before we leave.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98201 · 2020 population 110,002
A clean edge on a small bed
The old layer in these beds is usually a crust of fines and maple seeds. We rake that out if it is weedy, then refill. Fabric underneath, if someone installed it years ago and the weeds are growing on top of it, comes out. We do not add a new layer of fabric.
Depth is three inches, not a skin. On a small bed that is a smaller load than people fear, and it is the difference between a finished bed and a tinted one.
The ground in Everett
On a typical Everett lot the soil has been graded, driven on, and patched for years. It sheds or it puddles, and it rarely does the quiet middle thing a new lawn needs. Downspouts often end in a splash block ten inches from the foundation. That is the puddle by the basement window.
We work from the Port Gardner waterfront and the streets near the naval station up into the older neighborhoods and out toward the valley. Access is the constraint people forget: a machine that fits a Mill Creek cul-de-sac may not fit a fenced backyard off Broadway. Permeable pavers and a short French drain solve more Everett problems than a bigger patio. Lawns here are for people who want the grass cut and the moss knocked back, not a show lawn. We schedule mowing and aeration around that.
How we do the work
Bark is a blanket, not a cleanup. We pull the weeds and the old matted layer that has turned into soil, edge the bed so the bark has a place to stop, and put down enough depth to block light. A sprinkle that still shows dirt is not a bark job. It is a way to pay for the same weeds in June.
We keep bark off the crowns of shrubs and off the trunks of trees. A volcano of mulch against the bark of a tree is how the trunk rots. Two to three inches across the soil, pulled back at the stems.
What we look at first
- Whether the old bark has composted into a weed bed
- The edge against the lawn
- Plants that are buried already
- How far the truck can get the load
Old fabric
Landscape fabric under bark is where weeds root in the dust on top, and where water sheets off. When we find it, we take it out if the bed is weedy. We do not sell a new layer of it.
Color
Natural bark fades to gray. That is normal. Dyed product holds a color and also stains concrete when it is fresh. We tell you which load you are getting. We do not promise the color in the photo will survive a winter.
How often
Top up every year or two, an inch or so, once the first depth is right. Starting over every spring means the first job was thin or the bed was never weeded. We would rather be on a light top-up.
More from this crew
- Beauty bark across the region
- Lawn weed control in Everett
- Yard cleanup in Everett
- Landscape design in Everett
- Tree and shrub pruning in Everett
- Beauty bark in Mukilteo
- Beauty bark in Marysville
- Beauty bark in Lake Stevens
Sources for the climate and the water
- USDA plant hardiness map for choosing plants that can take a Snohomish County winter.
- EPA WaterSense on watering less once a lawn or a new planting is established.
- EPA Soak Up the Rain on keeping roof and yard water from becoming someone else’s problem.
