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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. 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 98275 · 2020 population 21,246
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 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 on the upper, slightly flatter streets 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
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
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.
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.
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.
More from this crew
- Yard cleanup across Snohomish County
- Tree and shrub pruning in Mukilteo
- Beauty bark in Mukilteo
- Landscaping in Mukilteo
- Pressure washing in Mukilteo
- Yard cleanup in Everett
- Yard cleanup in Edmonds
- Yard cleanup 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.
