Mountlake Terrace is mid-century houses on city lots, with newer buildings near the transit line. The slopes are gentle, the soils are compacted, and the yards were not designed for the amount of roof water a remodels-worth of downspouts can dump. City landscaping fails when every wish is included and the water is not. We edit the wish list to what fits, and we build the drain.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98043 · 2020 population 21,272
A complete small yard
Patio or a repaired lawn, a bed you can maintain, one tree that will not wreck the walk, lighting if you need to see the steps, and a path to the gate. Bark and a clean edge make it look finished. The work is often done with a small machine or by hand. The price includes that labor instead of pretending a skid steer fits.
We leave you with something you can mow or walk the day we finish, not a mud lot “waiting on plants.”
The ground in Mountlake Terrace
Lots are modest. A patio, a small lawn, a side yard that has become a moss strip, and a fence that is older than the owners. That is the usual visit. The soil has been walked on for sixty years. Aeration and dethatching change the lawn more than a bag of seed thrown on top.
Where the lot tips, it tips a little, and a low wall or a re-graded swale is enough. We are not cutting roads into a mountain. Pavers get people off the mud by the back door, and a pressure wash takes the black film off a walk that has not seen sun all winter. Plantings should stay in scale with the house. A hedgerow that needs a lift every year is the wrong tree for a forty-foot lot.
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 Mountlake Terrace
- Yard cleanup in Mountlake Terrace
- Paver installation in Mountlake Terrace
- French drain installation in Mountlake Terrace
- Landscaping in Lynnwood
- Landscaping in Edmonds
- Landscaping 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.
