Landscape Design & Installation in West Seattle

It constrains what can be built rather than what can be planted, and it changes the process. A large share of the West Seattle bluff carries steep slope or landslide-prone designations, and inside them the usual retaining wall exemption does not apply, work involving excavation is treated differently, and changes to where surface water goes matter structurally. A design for such a parcel has to be developed knowing that, because a scheme drawn without it may need substantial revision. We check the parcel against the city map at the outset.

Things chosen for exposure rather than for a catalogue. A west-facing plateau or bluff garden here takes the strongest afternoon sun and the most wind in the city through July and August — which are genuinely dry — and is waterlogged from November. That combination defeats a great deal of what thrives in a sheltered Wallingford back garden. The planting that works tolerates wind, copes with summer drought once established, and does not object to wet winter soil. It is a narrower palette and it looks considerably better than replanting the wrong one annually.

Usually both, in different parts of the garden, and that is the design problem worth solving. On a bluff lot the view is west, which is also where the wind and the afternoon sun come from — so the spot with the best outlook is frequently the least comfortable to sit in. The productive answer is two areas: a sheltered everyday terrace closer to the house where the door is, and a smaller destination point positioned for the view with some structure or planting taking the edge off the exposure. One compromise position tends to serve neither.

Yes, with the usual hillside caveat that the first phase buys ground rather than garden. On a Delridge-side or bluff lot, retaining, drainage and level creation come before anything visible, and installing planting or surfaces beforehand means removing them to get machinery in later. So a realistic phase one is drainage, walls and bare usable terraces; phase two is surfaces; phase three planting and lighting. Designed as a whole from the start, the phases join properly — which is the entire argument for designing before building.