Landscape Design & Installation in Seattle

A layout you can build from and price against: zones and levels set out, surfaces and materials specified, planting areas defined with species suited to each aspect, and the buried work — drainage runs, irrigation sleeves, lighting conduit — positioned before anything covers them. It is a working document rather than an artist's impression. Where a rendering helps you picture a specific area we will produce one, but what decides whether you like the finished garden is the dimensions and the levels, not the illustration.

Less than most people assume, and the reason is climate rather than fashion. A lawn here is shaded for much of the day on a typical city lot, wet from October to April, and worn through wherever people walk. Under roughly 400 square feet it rarely thrives and always looks tired. The gardens that work in this city tend to hold a smaller, well-drained lawn or turf area with a genuine purpose, more paved surface than instinct suggests, and planting deep enough to give the boundary structure. That is a recommendation rather than a rule — if you want a big lawn we will build one that drains.

Yes, and for a lot of budgets it is the sensible route — with one non-negotiable rule. Everything buried goes in during the first stage, because retrofitting drainage, irrigation sleeves or lighting conduit means excavating through work you have already paid for. Beyond that, staging follows structure first: clearing, grade and walls in year one, surfaces in year two, planting and lighting in year three. We plan it that way from the outset rather than pretending a phased build is the same as a full one, because the phasing changes the design decisions.

Both, and the planting is specified rather than decorated. Plants get chosen for the aspect, soil and exposure of the specific spot — a west-facing West Seattle bed and a shaded north-facing Capitol Hill side return want almost nothing in common. Worth knowing where the warranty sits: hardscape work is covered, vegetation is excluded, because whether a plant lives depends on watering and conditions after we leave. We will tell you what each planting needs to survive its first two summers, and we would rather specify something that lives than something that photographs well in June.