Mukilteo drops toward the ferry and the Sound. Salt reaches the lower streets, and the hills above the terminal shed water down through yards that were cut into the slope. A flat inland detail does not survive on these lots. A thin, wind-burned edge fills with whatever survives. Spraying that edge and reseeding grass is a loop.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98275 · 2020 population 21,246
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 Mukilteo
Hillside runoff is the job. A patio with a view is also a patio that can send water at the house if the base and the pitch are wrong. We build the drain before the pavers, and we hold the bank with a wall that has rock or drain tile behind it, not a decorative stack sitting on the sod.
Salt-tolerant natives belong on the exposed edges. Pressure washing is how you get the marine film off a walk and a railing; it comes back, so we treat it as upkeep. Lawns up in Harbour Pointe and over toward Beverly Park sit on flatter ground and behave more like the rest of the county — clay, moss, shade from big trees — and we maintain them that way. The waterfront lots are a different trade: erosion, wind, and a view you do not want to block with a hedge.
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.
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.
Bare spots need seed
A dead weed is a hole. In a lawn, that hole is the next weed unless grass fills it. We seed the opening when the product label and the season allow, or we come back and seed. Leaving dirt is not a finished visit.
More from this crew
- Lawn weed control across the region
- Lawn fertilization in Mukilteo
- Lawn aeration in Mukilteo
- Beauty bark in Mukilteo
- Lawn mowing in Mukilteo
- Lawn weed control in Everett
- Lawn weed control in Edmonds
- Lawn weed control in Mill Creek
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.
