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 lawns get the same path every week, and that path becomes a compacted stripe. We vary the pass when the yard allows, and we keep the deck up in the wet months.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98043 · 2020 population 21,272
Small lawns, sharp blades, no ruts by the gate
Gates, fences, and a wet strip by the downspout are the whole job. We trim the edges, blow the walk, and leave the yard usable the same afternoon. If the lawn is small enough that mowing takes twenty minutes, we still will not scalp it to make it look “fresh.”
Weekly is right in May. Every other week is right in August if it is dry, and it is wrong in April. We schedule to the growth, and we tell you when winter service should pause.
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
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
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.
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.
Height by season
Higher from late fall through spring. Slightly lower in a dry August if the lawn is healthy, never down to the crown. The number on the deck matters less than not seeing soil and not tearing wet tips.
More from this crew
- Lawn mowing across Snohomish County
- Lawn aeration in Mountlake Terrace
- Lawn fertilization in Mountlake Terrace
- Lawn weed control in Mountlake Terrace
- Yard cleanup in Mountlake Terrace
- Lawn mowing in Lynnwood
- Lawn mowing in Edmonds
- Lawn mowing 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.
