Edmonds faces the Sound. Salt air reaches the patios, the wind comes off the water, and the soils change as you move up off the beach — sandier near the shore, heavier as the hills rise toward the ferry and the bowl downtown. A thin, wind-burned edge fills with whatever survives. Spraying that edge and reseeding grass is a loop.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98020 · 2020 population 42,690
Weeds in the lawn, salt on the edge
Sheltered lawns get spot treatment for dandelion and buttercup, then seed in the gap so the weed does not reclaim bare soil. The exposed bank gets pulled and replanted with shore plants, not treated as turf.
Gravel paths near the water grow weeds in the fines. We refresh the path and pull them. A heavy spray along a walk that drains to a storm line is not our first move.
The ground in Edmonds
A yard with a view of the water is also a yard in the wind. Screens and plantings have to stand up to salt and to gusts that shred a soft shrub in one winter. Madrone, shore pine, and kinnikinnick already grow on these bluffs for a reason. We use that palette when a client wants the bank to stay put without a weekly watering schedule.
Lower down, salt film builds on pavers and railings, and a pressure-wash is maintenance, not a one-time event. Retaining work on the west-facing slopes is about holding a sandy bank, with drainage behind the wall so the hill does not load up and shove. The older neighborhoods up the hill have more conventional clay and bigger trees, so we do not treat every Edmonds lot like a beach cottage.
How we do the work
Buttercup, dandelion, and clover in a lawn usually mean the grass is thin, the soil is wet or sour, or the mowing is too short. Spray on a lawn that is mostly weed is a brown yard. We thicken the grass and treat the weeds that are actually invaders, and we tell you when the lawn should be renovated instead.
In beds, the honest tools are a thick bark layer, a pulled root, and a edge that the field cannot cross. Pre-emergent has a place on gravel and on open soil. It is not a substitute for three inches of bark in a bed that was never mulched.
What we look at first
- Which weed it is, because buttercup and horsetail are not the same job
- How much of the lawn is still grass
- Wet spots that will regrow the weed no matter what we spray
- Beds versus turf, so we are not putting a lawn product in a shrub bed
Horsetail and buttercup
Both point at water. Horsetail especially will laugh at a single spray. We can suppress it and we will tell you it returns if the seep stays. Drainage is the actual fix. We do not sell a secret jug for it.
Beds
Hand pull the perennials, three inches of bark, and an edge the mower can feel. Fabric under bark is something we spend the next visit cutting out. We do not install it as weed control.
Spot treat, do not fog
A targeted application on the weeds you can name beats a broadcast that yellows the grass and still misses the roots in a wet spot. We would rather make a second short visit than burn a lawn to get the dandelions.
More from this crew
- Lawn weed control across Snohomish County
- Lawn fertilization in Edmonds
- Lawn aeration in Edmonds
- Beauty bark in Edmonds
- Lawn mowing in Edmonds
- Lawn weed control in Mukilteo
- Lawn weed control in Lynnwood
- Lawn weed control in Woodway
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.
