Landscaping in Green Lake, Seattle

Yes, and it is the main reason two Green Lake gardens four blocks apart can need completely different work. The low ground around the lake basin sits close to a high water table, so there is less depth available before you reach saturated soil and a drain has less fall to work with before it needs a discharge point. Further up toward Phinney Ridge or Maple Leaf you are on ordinary sloping till and the usual answers apply. On the low ground we look carefully at where a drain can actually discharge to before designing anything, because a system with nowhere to go is money spent on a trench.

With height rather than area, and by accepting you cannot screen everything. Blocking a specific window from a specific seat is achievable; enclosing the whole garden from every neighbouring building is not, and trying usually produces a dark box. What works is a planted vertical layer — a hedge, a trellis with climbers, or a row of narrow upright trees — positioned to interrupt the two or three sightlines that actually bother you, and enough overhead structure over the seating area that you are not looked down into. A pergola does more for the sense of privacy in a small Green Lake garden than an extra foot of fence.

Frequently not, and it is worth saying plainly. Under roughly 400 square feet, a lawn in this neighbourhood is shaded by the house and the neighbours, stays wet from October, wears through wherever people cross it, and needs a mower stored somewhere on a lot with no shed space. Paving the majority, using raised planters for planting depth, and keeping any green as a small turf or planted area consistently produces a garden that gets used more. Where a real lawn does make sense here is the open, sunnier north-facing streets where there is genuine light and enough space for it to recover from use.

Manageable with planning, but it does change the schedule. The older Green Lake streets have narrow side returns, restricted parking and heavy foot and cycle traffic from the park loop, which means material cannot be dropped on a pallet and left. We time deliveries so they are cleared from the kerb the same day, arrange any street occupation permissions needed, and stage the work so the front of the house is not obstructed longer than necessary. It adds crew hours rather than complexity, and it is priced in the estimate rather than appearing as a variation later.