Snohomish is the old river town. Downtown sits above the Snohomish River, the houses have mature trees, and a lot of the gardens were planted decades ago and then left to get big. The ground near the river stays wet. The hills just south of it do not. Bark in the low ground floats and ends up in the fence. We mulch the beds by the house. The floodplain gets plants, not a load of mulch.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98290 · 2020 population 10,091
Bark above the flood stain
Upper beds are a normal job. We still keep the depth off the trunks of the old trees these yards have. Down at the river side, a bark bed is a donation to high water. We will not install it there to make a spring photo.
If you want the lower area to look kept, the tools are mowing, a gravel standing spot, and native plants. We will say that on the walk-through.
The ground in Snohomish
Historic lots come with plants nobody planned: a cedar too close to the porch, a lilac that has swallowed the walk, beds that were neat in 1998 and are roots and bindweed now. Pruning and a hard cleanup are often the whole first phase. Bark, used with a little restraint, puts a finished line back on a Victorian front without covering the problem.
Closer to the river, drains matter. Riparian edges want native plants that can take wet soil, not a sod lawn rolled to the bank. We do not haul fill into the floodplain to “raise the yard” without understanding where that water will go next. Uphill, in the newer pockets, the work looks more like the rest of the county: lawns, small patios, and moss.
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 the region
- Lawn weed control in Snohomish
- Yard cleanup in Snohomish
- Landscape design in Snohomish
- Tree and shrub pruning in Snohomish
- Beauty bark in Everett
- 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.
