Woodway is large, wooded lots and a town of 1,384 people. The canopy is the landscape. Lawns live in the gaps between old trees, the soil stays shaded and cool, and privacy is the reason people bought the property. Hardscape under a deep canopy should be the path and the sitting pad, not a plaza. The rest of the floor wants to be bark and shade plants.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98020 · 2020 population 1,384
Stone where your feet are, plants where the shade has won
We keep excavation off the major roots, we pitch the walking surfaces, and we do not surround a tree with a tight paved well. Steps are lit by being obvious, not by being steep. Moss will come. The joints and the pitch decide whether it is a nuisance or a slip.
The ground in Woodway
We are not opening these lots to the street. Pruning is about structure, light, and keeping limbs off the house, done so the screen of trees stays. Under that canopy the lawn is the hard part: moss, thin grass, and roots at the surface. Aeration helps the pockets that get some sun. The deep shade wants a different floor — bark, ferns, and the understory that is already trying to grow — not another season of seed that germinates and dies.
Hardscape, when it belongs, is a terrace or a quiet patio in a clearing, built for wet shade so it does not turn green and slick. Bark on the beds keeps the mud down and the edges readable from the house. The work should look like it was always in the trees, because it is.
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
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.
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.
Steps
Even risers, a tread you can put a whole foot on, and a surface that is not slick when it is wet. Landscape steps are where people fall. We build them like we will use them in the dark, in January.
More from this crew
- Hardscaping across Snohomish County
- Paver installation in Woodway
- Patio installation in Woodway
- Retaining walls in Woodway
- Landscape design in Woodway
- Hardscaping in Edmonds
- Hardscaping in Mukilteo
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.
