On the Snohomish County side of Bothell the lots sit between newer housing and the Sammamish River trail. Roofs, drives, and the trail corridor move a lot of water. The soils are urban soils: graded, compacted, and quick to grow moss where the sun is weak. City lots do not have leftover space. The design has to hold the cans, the gate, the dryer vent, and a place to sit, and still get rid of the roof water.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98021
A small yard with a job for every foot
We measure. The plan is usually hardscape, one tree that fits, and beds you can weed from the path. Storage is designed, not hoped for behind a shrub. Drainage is drawn, because paving the whole yard without it is a flooded slider.
Style follows the house. A busy paver pattern in a twenty-by-thirty yard makes it feel smaller. We keep the materials few.
The ground in Bothell
We work the north side of the city, not a pretend second office. Yards are a mix of older ramblers and newer houses with small planting strips and a patio poured on tight fill. Runoff is the theme. A permeable patio or a short drain does more for the foundation than a wider concrete pad.
People here ask for plantings that feed birds and do not need a sprinkler all summer. That fits. Native beds along a back fence, a bark layer that is actually thick enough to suppress weeds, and a lawn that is aerated instead of constantly reseeded. Pressure washing keeps the walks and the siding from going black under the trees. The trail is a nice neighbor and a weed source. Edges need a clean line or the brush moves in.
How we do the work
Design starts on the lot, not on a template. We look at the doors, the wet spots, the trees worth keeping, and the part of the yard you never use. The drawing, if you want one, comes after that. A plan that ignores January water is a picture.
We design what this crew can build: grade, drainage, patios, walls, planting that belongs in Snohomish County. We do not hand you a tropical planting plan and a hope. You can hire us to design only, or to design and build. The fee is clearer when those are separate.
What we look at first
- How you want to use the yard, in plain language
- The wet spots and the slopes
- Trees and structures that stay
- A budget range, so the plan is not a fantasy
Budget
Tell us the range. We design inside it, or we design a first phase that stands alone. A plan that costs four times what you will spend is a hobby. Phasing is drainage and structure first, plants after.
What you leave with
A marked plan you can build from: surfaces, walls, drains, and a plant list that names real plants. Not a watercolor with no scale. If you only need us to lay it out on the ground and build, we do not force a drawing set on you.
Design without the build
You can take the plan elsewhere. We would rather build it, and the plan will say the details we know matter: base depth, drain outlets, plant sizes. A vague plan is hard for anyone to bid. We try not to write those.
More from this crew
- Landscape design across Snohomish County
- Landscaping in Bothell
- Patio installation in Bothell
- Hardscaping in Bothell
- Beauty bark in Bothell
- Landscape design in Mill Creek
- Landscape design in Lynnwood
- Landscape design in Brier
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.
