If you need landscaping in Hazel Dell, WA, the job usually starts with a compact, older yard and a few decades of quick fixes: hedges that outgrew the windows, bark beds gone thin, and a lawn worn to dirt by the side gate. Hazel Dell is unincorporated Clark County, split down the middle by I-5, with 23,569 people in 2020 on less than 5 square miles.
Bogar Landscaping comes down from Woodland, about 25 minutes south on I-5, to work for homeowners, landlords, property managers and associations on both sides of the freeway. One crew handles the routine upkeep and the bigger repairs, so a rental can go from neglected to ready to show without lining up three contractors. Call (360) 555-0142 any hour.
Hazel Dell Yards: Older Lots, Tight Spaces and Lots of Rentals
Hazel Dell grew from farmland into a suburb after World War II. The median home was built in 1989, more than a fifth of houses date from before 1970, and only about half of all homes are detached houses, with apartments, duplexes and townhomes making up the rest. Close to half of households rent.
That mix decides what most Hazel Dell properties need from a landscaper:
- Turnover cleanups. The yard is the first thing a prospective tenant sees. We cut back shrubs, weed and edge, lay fresh bark dust and haul the debris in one visit.
- Routine care for several addresses. A manager with several houses and duplexes can put them all on one mowing and trimming schedule.
- Shared grounds. Townhome rows, condo common areas and apartment complexes need beds, lawns and hedges kept to one standard. That falls under our commercial and HOA landscaping.
- Long-held houses. On many older homes the foundation shrubs have swallowed the front walk, and the fix is a bed redesign and replant, not another hard prune.
Soil and Water Between Salmon Creek and Burnt Bridge Creek
Hazel Dell runs from Salmon Creek on the north to Burnt Bridge Creek on the south edge, with Vancouver Lake a short way west. USDA soil maps put most of the ground in between on Hillsboro silt loam and loam, a well-drained old valley-terrace soil whose native cover was Douglas fir, hazelbrush and blackberries. The community's own name came from a stand of filberts, the cultivated cousin of that hazel, at 78th Street and Highway 99.
Well drained is not the same as trouble-free:
- Summer drought. The Vancouver airport station averages 37.47 inches of rain a year, the driest NOAA station near our service area, with only 0.42 inches in a typical July. Lawns without water go dormant fast.
- Compaction. On small lots, foot traffic, dogs and parked cars pack the silt loam hard. Grass thins and moss moves into the shaded patches under old firs. Core aeration and overseeding opens it back up.
- Wet pockets. The same maps show poorly drained Odne silt loam in low spots, and older backyards that settled toward the house hold water every winter. Those get regrading or a French drain, not more seed.
- Steep banks. A few slopes near the creeks run 20 to 50 percent, where blackberry and ivy take hold and bare soil erodes.
Permits and Practicalities for Landscaping in Hazel Dell, WA
Because Hazel Dell is unincorporated, Clark County sets the building rules here, not the City of Vancouver, WA. The county requires a permit for retaining walls over 4 feet measured from the bottom of the footing, and for walls that hold up a slope, driveway or other load at any height. Fences up to 7 feet need no permit. On compact Hazel Dell lots most walls solve small grade changes, but we check the rule on every job.
Older neighborhoods have decades of gas, water and cable lines under the front yard, so we request an 811 locate before any digging. And if you would rather haul your own debris between our visits, H&H Wood Recyclers and Central Transfer and Recycling, both on NE 117th Avenue, take yard waste.
