Service area

Landscaping on Mercer Island, WA

Mercer Island has the biggest private lots and the densest tree cover of anywhere we work regularly, and both change how a project is planned. The canopy here is not decoration — it governs how much light a garden gets, where roots make excavation inadvisable, and what will actually grow. The city also regulates tree removal on private property more tightly than most of the region, so that question gets answered before a design is drawn rather than after. Toward the shoreline the ground falls away steeply on every side of the island, which is where the retaining and drainage work concentrates.

Get a free Mercer Island estimate (425) 533-9734

From our Capitol Hill base: 15–25 minutes from Capitol Hill via I-90
Typical lot: 10,000–20,000 sq ft, among the largest average private lots in the region, most of them heavily treed.
Terrain: A domed island — relatively level across the crown through Island Crest, then falling away to the shoreline on every side, steeply in places.

What we plan around here

The ground decides the job.

Mercer Island is large lots, mature trees and a shoreline slope on every edge, and the trees are the defining constraint. The city regulates removal on private property more tightly than most, and the canopy on these lots is dense enough that light and root plates govern where hard surfaces can realistically go. Toward the shoreline the ground steepens and slope stability becomes a design factor rather than a formality. Access is generally excellent, which is one reason island projects tend to be full renovations rather than piecemeal work.

Soil: Glacial till across the island's crown, with steeper, looser material and landslide-sensitive ground on the shoreline slopes that ring it.
Terrain: A domed island — relatively level across the crown through Island Crest, then falling away to the shoreline on every side, steeply in places.
Water: City of Mercer Island. The island runs its own utility on regionally supplied water. The bigger practical factor for gardens here is the canopy: heavily shaded planting needs far less summer irrigation than an open lawn, and systems that water both alike are the most common inefficiency we find.
Lot sizes: 10,000–20,000 sq ft, among the largest average private lots in the region, most of them heavily treed.
HOAs & covenants: Rare. The constraint that genuinely matters here is the city's tree regulation, which is among the more protective in the region and applies to removal on private property.

Designing around the island canopy

Mercer Island has the densest mature tree cover of anywhere we work, and the city regulates removal on private property more protectively than most jurisdictions in the region. Between them, those two facts mean most island projects are designed around trees that are staying rather than starting with a clearance.

The constraint is not only the trunk. Most of the roots keeping a large tree alive sit in the top foot or so of soil and spread well beyond the branch line, so a conventional patio base or wall footing excavated through that area severs a substantial share of them — and the tree may take three or four years to show it, long after anyone would connect the two events. Where a tree matters we shift the layout, reduce the excavation depth, or float the surface over the root zone rather than digging through it.

The upside is that a garden designed for the canopy rather than against it is far less work to keep. Woodland planting — sword fern, salal, evergreen huckleberry, hellebores — thrives in exactly the low light, summer-dry soil and acidic litter that defeats a lawn here, and it looks intentional rather than compromised.

What we build on Mercer Island

Every service, on ground we know.

Detailed local guides

Also available here

Serving Mercer Island and surrounding neighbourhoods

Where this is, and what it tells you about the ground.

Luther Burbank Park
Seventy-seven acres of shoreline on the island's north-east side, with the mature canopy that characterises most of the island's gardens.
Pioneer Park
A hundred and thirteen acres of second-growth forest at the island's south end — the clearest statement of what the tree cover here means.
Mercerdale Park
The park behind the town centre, on the flatter central ground where island lots are least constrained by grade.

Neighbourhoods covered

North End · East Seattle · First Hill · Mercerwood · Island Crest · South End

ZIP codes

98040

Recent work

Projects from Mercer Island.

Flagstone

Natural flagstone patio

Hand-fitted flagstone laid tight, replacing a tired lawn that never drained properly.

Long tan split-face block retaining wall with a flat capping course holding a raised bed of hostas, grasses and boulders beside a lawn

Retaining Walls

Capped block wall holding a raised front bed

A long run of split-face block turning the fall between house and street into a raised bed at standing height, capped flat so the whole length reads as one line.

Long cut-stone veneer retaining wall under construction along a street frontage with traffic cones set out in front of it

Retaining Walls

Street-frontage wall in cut stone

A long frontage wall going up in cut stone, cones out and the base course still showing. The bed above it was regraded to drain towards the street rather than back into the wall.

Wide paver steps leading down from a house to a paved terrace with a curved lawn edge and clipped hedging behind

Paver Patio

Patio, steps and a kept lawn

A wide run of paver steps down from the house to a terrace that stops where the lawn begins. Not every garden wants paving all the way to the fence.

Low cut-stone wall with a wide cap holding a mulched planting bed beside a wet asphalt driveway

Stonework

Stone bed wall along the drive

A low cut-stone wall holding a bed against the driveway edge. The cap is wide enough to sit on, which is the only reason anyone ever actually does.

Landscape Lighting

Steps lit at dusk

Bollards set beside the treads rather than in front of them, so the light lands on the step and not in your eyes on the way down. Aiming is most of this trade.

Local questions

What people on Mercer Island ask us.

Something specific to your street? Call (425) 533-9734 — we would rather look at it than guess.

How do the Mercer Island tree rules affect a landscaping project?

They affect it early, which is the useful thing to know. The city regulates removal of trees on private property more protectively than most jurisdictions in the region, and given the size and density of the canopy here that touches a large share of projects — not only obvious removals but sometimes significant excavation within a root zone. Rather than design a garden and then discover a tree cannot move, we establish what is on the lot and what its status is at the start, and design around the trees that are staying. Where a removal is genuinely justified we will tell you what the process involves rather than proceeding and hoping.

What grows well in a heavily shaded island garden?

Woodland planting, and a great deal of it does very well. Under an established canopy you are dealing with low light, summer soil dryness because the trees take the water, and acidic needle or leaf litter — so the planting has to tolerate all three. Native ferns, salal, evergreen shade shrubs, hellebores and woodland groundcover thrive in exactly those conditions and look considerably better than a struggling lawn. The single most common mistake on island lots is repeatedly reseeding grass in deep shade. Where an open lawn area genuinely matters, it usually needs to go where the canopy is thinnest rather than where the house happens to face.

Is the shoreline slope a problem for building a patio or wall?

It is a design factor rather than an obstacle, but it is one to take seriously. The island falls away to the water on every side, and the shoreline slopes carry looser material and are more sensitive to loading and to water than the level crown is. Building there means paying real attention to what is being added above the slope, where surface water is being routed, and whether the wall or terrace is transferring load into ground that can carry it. On the level ground through Island Crest none of that applies and the work is straightforward. We look at where on the island a property sits before we look at anything else.

Is Mercer Island work quicker for you than the rest of the Eastside?

Yes, and it is one of the reasons we like working here. The island is a fifteen to twenty-five minute run from our Capitol Hill base across I-90 — closer than several Seattle neighbourhoods and considerably closer than Redmond or Sammamish. Combined with generally excellent site access on these lots, that means crews spend their time building rather than travelling, and a project runs in continuous blocks instead of stop-start visits. It does not change our pricing approach — you get a fixed written price before anything starts — but it does mean scheduling here is more flexible than at the far end of the Eastside.

Circular stone fire pit and curved seat wall on a paver patio overlooking a valley view

Get a fixed price for your Mercer Island project.

We come out, walk the property, look at the grade and the drainage, and put a written price together. No deposit, and it does not change once agreed.

Book a free site visit Call (425) 533-9734

Nearby

Areas we cover next to Mercer Island.

Large concrete paver planks set into an artificial turf lawn beside a dark modern house

All 25 service areas →

Free estimate

Book a visit on Mercer Island.

15–25 minutes from Capitol Hill via I-90 from our Capitol Hill base. Three minutes on the form and we will come out and look at it properly.

Or call (425) 533-9734