Marysville spreads across flat ground north of Everett, out toward Tulalip. The lots are bigger than the city lots to the south, and the ground is slow to drain. Water does not run off a slope because there often is not a slope. A mower on wet valley clay leaves ruts that last until summer. Those ruts hold water and become the next moss line.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98270 · 2020 population 70,714
Stay off the clay when it is soup
We test the lawn with a boot. If we are leaving a print that fills, we do not mow that pass. A skipped week is cheaper than repairing ruts. When we do mow, the deck is up. Scalping clay lawns in March is how you see soil and moss by April.
Edges along beds get trimmed, not dug. A string trimmer that belts the same spot every week makes a dirt channel that runs water. We keep the edge, we do not excavate it.
The ground in Marysville
Flat ground sounds easy until a winter storm sits on it. French drains and permeable surfaces matter here more than tall walls. Yards are family yards: room for a lawn, a play set, fruit trees that people already have and want kept, and a patio that can take a barbecue without turning into a pond.
The soil is the kind that grows a decent lawn if it can breathe, and moss if it cannot. We mow, aerate, and seed the open lawns, and we bark the beds so the weed cycle slows down. Drainage is the job we would rather do first. A new sod lawn laid over undrained flat clay is a replacement lawn in two years. Fruit trees get pruned for light and for the fruit, not sheared into balls.
How we do the work
We mow higher than most people expect, especially from October through May, because a short lawn in this climate is a moss invitation. Blades stay sharp. Dull mowing tears wet grass and leaves the gray tips everyone blames on fertilizer.
Clippings stay on the lawn when they are short. They are not thatch. Bags come out when the grass is long and wet and would clump. We do not mow a saturated yard into ruts and call it service. We skip or we reschedule that corner.
Edges are trimmed. Walks are blown. A mow that leaves a windrow on the sidewalk is not finished.
What we look at first
- How soft the ground is that morning
- Obstacles, toys, and the wet spot we should walk around
- Edges that need a trimmer without scalping the tree wells
- Whether the lawn wants a higher set this month
Clippings
Short clippings stay. They feed the lawn. Long wet clumps get removed because they smother and they track into the house. Bagging every light mow just to have a empty look is how the lawn gets hungry.
What weekly means here
In the surge of spring, weekly. In a dry August, often every other week. In a soaked January, sometimes not at all. A rigid calendar ruts wet lawns and scalps dormant ones. We mow when the grass is growing and the ground can take the machine.
Edges
Trimmer lines along walks and beds, kept vertical. We do not trench the edge a little deeper every visit. When the bed line is lost, that is an edging job with a blade, once, not a weekly excavation.
More from this crew
- Lawn mowing across Snohomish County
- Lawn aeration in Marysville
- Lawn fertilization in Marysville
- Lawn weed control in Marysville
- Yard cleanup in Marysville
- Lawn mowing in Everett
- Lawn mowing in Arlington
- Lawn mowing in Lake Stevens
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.
