Landscaping Company in West Linn, OR

Landscaping around West Linn homes from the 1970s to the 2000s

West Linn sits in Clackamas County, where the Tualatin River meets the Willamette River at the city's southwest corner. Half of its homes were built by 1988, by Census Bureau estimates. About 8 in 10 went up between 1970 and 2009, and only about 6 percent are newer.

The city has eleven neighborhood associations, including Robinwood, Bolton, Willamette, Savanna Oaks and Hidden Springs. About 3 in 4 homes are detached houses, and more than 4 in 5 are lived in by their owners. A yard planted with a 1980s house can still have its first shrubs and its first sprinkler system.

By now those shrubs crowd the windows, and the lawn thins under trees that grew up with the house. Some of these yards need a reset, with new planting beds and a new lawn. Others need steady care through the seasons. On our 12-month program, the monthly rate stays the same in leaf season and in winter.

Why do West Linn hillside yards stay wet all winter?

Cornelius silt loam is the most widely mapped soil in West Linn, by USDA soil survey data. About 30 to 40 inches down, it has a fragipan, a dense layer that water moves through slowly. Cascade silt loam, also common here, has the same kind of layer 20 to 30 inches down. In winter, water perches on top of it.

The NOAA weather station across the river in Oregon City logs about 45 inches of rain in a normal year. About 40 of those inches fall in the wet season, October to May. The city counts 21 creeks on its hills: 19 run to the Willamette River and 2 to the Tualatin River.

Lots along those creeks can sit in a drainage way or greenway, where new landscaping may need a zoning permit. On a lot that holds winter water, a French drain can collect it and carry it to a safe outlet. West Linn's permit guide also lists a plumbing permit for rain drains, the pipes that carry roof water.

Retaining walls on West Linn slopes and rocky ground

On a steep West Linn lot, block retaining walls can turn one slope into level terraces joined by block steps. Each wall sits on a trench of compacted gravel, with drainage gravel and a perforated pipe behind the blocks. Taller walls also get geogrid, a mesh laid into the soil behind the wall.

The ground under those walls changes from one hill to the next. Witzel soil, on some West Linn hillsides, is only 12 to 20 inches deep over basalt and full of cobbles. Saum silt loam, another common hillside soil here, sits on slopes where the ground has shifted before.

West Linn's code also sets limits for a fence on top of a retaining wall. On a wall up to 30 inches tall, the fence can be 6 feet. On a taller wall, the wall and fence together top out at 8 and a half feet. A fence set at least 2 feet back from the wall can still be 6 feet tall.

Working around West Linn's trees

A city water guide calls West Linn a city of hills, trees and rivers. The tree code covers trees 12 inches or more across, measured 54 inches above the ground. Oregon white oak, Pacific madrone and Pacific dogwood count at 6 inches. Removing one of those regulated trees takes a permit through Parks and Recreation, where the City Arborist reviews it.

Shrubs such as laurel and photinia do not count as trees under the code, even at that size. We plan new beds and patios around the trees that stay. Trimming shrubs and small trees below six feet is part of our maintenance program, and taller trimming is quoted separately.