Granite Falls takes the mountain rain and sits on ground that falls away toward the river and the falls. Steep sides of lots are normal. Water concentrates, finds the weak spot in a bank, and leaves a rill where the lawn used to be. Foothill yards are designed by the slope and the runoff. Planting is what we do after the bank is held.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98252 · 2020 population 3,572
The design is the grade
Walls, steps, a flat bench for the actual living, drains at the top of the slope, and plants that can take thin soil and a long wet season. We do not draw a broad lawn down a fall line. Gravel and rock belong in the palette.
Access for the build is part of the design. A beautiful upper terrace we cannot reach with material is a sketch, and we will not sell it as a build.
The ground in Granite Falls
Properties on the edge of town back into fir and alder. The lawn, if there is one, is a cleared bench. The rest is slope, stump, and shade. We get called when a bank has started to slump after a wet winter, or when a path down to the lower yard has turned into a creek.
Rock walls and a drain at the top of the slope do more than plants will. Beauty bark in the deep shade keeps the weeds down and the mud off the house, but it will not hold a bank by itself. Tree work is practical: limbs over the roof, and sightlines where the forest is closing the drive. Aerator and seed belong on the flat piece only. Treating the whole hillside like a turf job is how you waste a season.
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
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.
Plants
Chosen for this rain, this soil, and the light on that side of the house. Natives where they do the job, ordinary tough shrubs where you want something you can buy again. We do not specify a plant we cannot get or cannot keep alive here.
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.
More from this crew
- Landscape design across Snohomish County
- Landscaping in Granite Falls
- Patio installation in Granite Falls
- Hardscaping in Granite Falls
- Beauty bark in Granite Falls
- Landscape design in Arlington
- Landscape design in Lake Stevens
- Landscape design in Marysville
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.
