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. A foothill landscape is walls, drains, and a flat place to stand. Ornamental beds are what we add after the bank is not moving.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98252 · 2020 population 3,572
Stabilize, then make it usable
We hold the slope, put the path where you can walk in the rain, and plant tougher natives and conifers where the soil is thin. Lawn is a small bench, or it is seed, not an acre of sod on a grade. Cleanup of the edge is often the first phase so we can see the ground.
Material access is planned. If the driveway is the limit, the design uses what we can get up it.
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
Landscaping, the way we mean it, is building the yard: dirt moved, water handled, plants in the ground, bark and edges finished. It is not a mow, and it is not only a patio. When a project is really just a patio or just a drain, we call it that and we price that.
We plant what can live through a wet winter and a dry August without a full-time gardener. The sequence is always the same. Get the water right, set the hard surfaces, then plant. Plants first is how they get buried or stood in a puddle.
What we look at first
- What you want to be able to do in the yard
- The thing that is failing now: water, a slope, a dead lawn, an empty bed
- Trees that stay
- A budget, so we phase instead of half-building everything
Warranty, plainly
We stand behind the build: pitch, drainage, and plants installed correctly. We do not warranty a plant against no water in August, a deer, or a freeze that splits a species we told you was marginal. Establishment watering is your job unless we are contracted to do it.
Plants we will not specify
Anything that wants a dry summer and no rain in winter, unless you understand it is a gamble. We plant for zone and for the wet. A plant you loved in California can be attempted in a pot. It should not be the backbone of the yard.
Order of work
Demo and haul, grade and drain, hardscape, soil, plants, bark, irrigation last or with the plants. We do not mulch a bed we are about to trench. You should see the yard get rougher before it gets finished. That is the sequence, not a delay.
More from this crew
- Landscaping across Snohomish County
- Landscape design in Granite Falls
- Yard cleanup in Granite Falls
- Paver installation in Granite Falls
- French drain installation in Granite Falls
- Landscaping in Arlington
- Landscaping in Lake Stevens
- Landscaping 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.
