Woodway is large, wooded lots and a town of 1,384 people. The canopy is the landscape. Lawns live in the gaps between old trees, the soil stays shaded and cool, and privacy is the reason people bought the property. Shade seed still needs hours of light. Scattering it under a cedar and hoping is how you pay twice.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98020 · 2020 population 1,384
Seed only where the light reaches
We map the actual sun. Morning sun on the south edge of a wooded lot can hold fescue. The deep bed under the canopy cannot. Those areas come out of the lawn. We will not sell seed for them.
Where we do seed, the moss comes off first and the seed is pressed into soil, not into needles. Water is the rain, usually. If a dry spell hits in the first two weeks we ask you to water lightly, more than once a day, not a nightly flood that washes the seed to the path.
The ground in Woodway
We are not opening these lots to the street. Pruning is about structure, light, and keeping limbs off the house, done so the screen of trees stays. Under that canopy the lawn is the hard part: moss, thin grass, and roots at the surface. Aeration helps the pockets that get some sun. The deep shade wants a different floor — bark, ferns, and the understory that is already trying to grow — not another season of seed that germinates and dies.
Hardscape, when it belongs, is a terrace or a quiet patio in a clearing, built for wet shade so it does not turn green and slick. Bark on the beds keeps the mud down and the edges readable from the house. The work should look like it was always in the trees, because it is.
How we do the work
Seed fails here for three boring reasons: it lands on moss, it lands in the dry week of July, or it is a variety that wants a Midwest summer. We use mixes that can take cool, wet winters and our weak sun. The ground is opened first, by dethatching or cores, or the seed is just decoration.
Hydroseed makes sense on a bare area big enough to justify the tank, especially a cleared bench or a new grade. A small backyard is hand seeded or slit seeded. We say which one when we see the square footage, not from the truck.
What we look at first
- Bare soil versus a mat the seed cannot touch
- Sun hours, because no mix grows under a solid canopy
- How the water leaves the area
- Whether hydroseed or a slit seeder fits the gate and the size
Hydroseed, plainly
A slurry of seed, mulch, and tackifier, sprayed on bare soil. It holds on gentle grades better than dry seed. It still fails on a vertical bank, on moss, and on ground that is underwater. We look at those before we book the tank.
When to mow new grass
At about three inches, with a sharp blade, and not shorter than two. The first mows are slow. Turning the mower on a dime on day ten pulls the seedlings out in a clump.
The mix we actually use
Perennial rye for speed and wear, fine fescues for shade and for the wet. We do not push a bluegrass lawn that wants heat we do not get. The bag is matched to the light on that yard, not to a single recipe for the whole county.
More from this crew
- Lawn seeding across Snohomish County
- Lawn aeration in Woodway
- Sod installation in Woodway
- Lawn dethatching in Woodway
- Lawn fertilization in Woodway
- Lawn seeding in Edmonds
- Lawn seeding in Mukilteo
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.
