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. Flat clay yards need surfaces that shed and pipes that leave. A hardscape plan made of walls is solving a hillside you do not have.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98270 · 2020 population 70,714
Floors and drains, not tall walls
We tie the walk, the patio, and the downspouts into one grade. Beds are raised just enough to get roots out of the soup, with a rock or block edge that has a drain. Gravel takes the side path where pavers would be wasted money.
The test is January. If the drawing only looks good in July, we redraw it.
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
Hardscape is the permanent part of the yard: the floors you walk, the walls that hold soil, the steps between them. We design it around how water moves and how you move. A pretty patio with a stair that lands in the low spot is a collection of pieces, not a yard.
We would rather build less and have it drain than fill a lot with surfaces that all tip the wrong way. Materials stay limited. One stone, one wall type, so the place looks finished instead of like a showroom.
What we look at first
- The route from the door to the gate, the drive, and the part of the yard you use
- Every place water stands now
- Slopes that need a step or a wall before they need a plant
- What has to stay: trees, fences, the neighbor’s grade
The grade drawing
We can usually do this on site without a formal plan set, and we still mark elevations. Water is a number, not a feeling. If the fall is not there, we add a drain or we change the floor. We do not squint and hope.
Phasing
Drainage and walls first, floors second, plants last. Doing the plants first is how they get buried or trampled. If the budget is a phase, we stop at a stable, drained yard, not at a finished-looking corner that dumps water on the rest.
One material, used honestly
Pavers, a wall block or a rock, and gravel. That is usually enough. Mixing flagstone, brick, river rock, and a second paver line makes a small yard loud and gives water more joints to exploit.
More from this crew
- Hardscaping across Snohomish County
- Paver installation in Marysville
- Patio installation in Marysville
- Retaining walls in Marysville
- Landscape design in Marysville
- Hardscaping in Everett
- Hardscaping in Arlington
- Hardscaping 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.
