Marysville spreads across flat ground north of Everett, out toward Tulalip. The lots are bigger than the city lots to the south, and the ground is slow to drain. Water does not run off a slope because there often is not a slope. Wet clay under a thin layer of bark grows weeds through it and turns the mulch to muck. Depth and a clean start are the whole job.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98270 · 2020 population 70,714
Bark on beds that stay damp
We strip the decomposed layer if it is already soil, then bark. In a valley bed that never dries, a thick mat can stay too wet against perennials, so we keep the depth honest and the crowns clear. The lawn edge gets cut so the mower is not flinging grass into the fresh bark.
Bark will not drain a bed. If the bed is a puddle, we fix that or we stop pretending mulch is the repair.
The ground in Marysville
Flat ground sounds easy until a winter storm sits on it. French drains and permeable surfaces matter here more than tall walls. Yards are family yards: room for a lawn, a play set, fruit trees that people already have and want kept, and a patio that can take a barbecue without turning into a pond.
The soil is the kind that grows a decent lawn if it can breathe, and moss if it cannot. We mow, aerate, and seed the open lawns, and we bark the beds so the weed cycle slows down. Drainage is the job we would rather do first. A new sod lawn laid over undrained flat clay is a replacement lawn in two years. Fruit trees get pruned for light and for the fruit, not sheared into balls.
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
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.
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.
Depth
About three inches after it settles, less against the stems, none against the trunk. One inch looks like a lot in the wheelbarrow and does nothing by July. We would rather do a smaller bed correctly.
More from this crew
- Beauty bark across Snohomish County
- Lawn weed control in Marysville
- Yard cleanup in Marysville
- Landscape design in Marysville
- Tree and shrub pruning in Marysville
- Beauty bark in Everett
- Beauty bark in Arlington
- 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.
