Landscape design and build in Vancouver, WA.

Gravelly outwash. It drains too well

Much of Clark County sits on glacial outwash — gravelly loams that water passes straight through. After a decade of Portland clients complaining about drainage, this is the opposite complaint, and it catches people out.

A bed that never waterlogs also never holds anything in July. Organic matter is the whole game here: it is what gives a fast-draining soil the ability to hold water at all, and it needs topping up rather than installing once. The plant list shifts accordingly, towards things that genuinely tolerate summer drought rather than things that merely survive it.

Irrigation is not optional the way it sometimes is south of the river

Vancouver runs measurably hotter and drier in summer than inner Portland, with less mature canopy over most neighbourhoods. We design irrigation here as a permanent part of the garden rather than as an establishment aid you can remove in year three, and we say so at the budget stage rather than at the end.

Deer

Genuine pressure in Felida, Salmon Creek and the northern edges. Much less so in the older grid neighbourhoods close to downtown.

The lots

Larger on average than comparable Portland neighbourhoods, with more sun and less canopy. That opens up a much wider plant palette than the Oregon side allows, and it is one of the few places in the metro where a genuinely sun-loving, drought-adapted planting makes sense.

This is Washington, and an Oregon licence does not cross the river

Stormwater here is administered under Clark County and City of Vancouver rules, not Portland's, and they are not interchangeable. More importantly for you: an Oregon Landscape Contractors Board licence has no standing in Washington. Any Portland firm working on your Vancouver garden needs Washington contractor registration as well, and you are entitled to ask for the number. Ours is on the about page next to the Oregon one.