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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. After a blow, the cleanup is broken limbs and shredded shrubs, plus the regular leaf load. We cut clean and haul, and we do not shear the damaged plants into sad nubs unless they are hedges.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98020 · 2020 population 42,690
Windthrow and salt-burned brush
Damaged shrubs get cut back to live wood or removed if they are done. The walks get cleared so you are not grinding twigs into the pavers. Debris does not go over the bluff.
A view prune can be part of the same visit if we planned it. A surprise “while you’re here, take the tops off” is how trees get ruined. We keep those separate.
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
A cleanup is debris gone, beds redefined, and the hazards cut. We haul. A pile at the curb that sits for a month is not a finish. Brush, rotten wood, the fallen fence panel, the blackberries that took the side yard: that is the work.
We do not “clean” a yard by blowing leaves into the beds and covering them with a thin coat of bark. If bark is part of the visit, the bed is weeded first. If it is not in the bid, we do not fake it.
The walk-through is the scope. A bigger pile, a surprise blackberry thicket, or a tree that needs a climber changes the day, and we say that before we start rather than after the trailer is full.
What we look at first
- What is actually being hauled
- Blackberries, downed limbs, and junk versus a normal leaf drop
- Access for a trailer
- Whether you want it bare and ready, or just safe and tidy
Blackberries
Cut to the ground and hauled, with the understanding they return from the roots. A cleanup is not eradication. A follow-up, or a dig-out if the patch is small, is how you actually get rid of them. We will say which you bought.
Leaves
Off the lawn, off the beds you care about, off the walks. Into the trailer. A wooded corner can keep its duff. Blowing every leaf out of a natural area is busywork, and we will not pretend it is horticulture.
Ready for the next thing
A good cleanup ends with edges you can mow and beds you could bark. If the next step is renovation, we leave the yard ready for that instead of dressing it with mulch we are about to dig through.
More from this crew
- Yard cleanup across Snohomish County
- Tree and shrub pruning in Edmonds
- Beauty bark in Edmonds
- Landscaping in Edmonds
- Pressure washing in Edmonds
- Yard cleanup in Mukilteo
- Yard cleanup in Lynnwood
- Yard cleanup 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.
