Landscaping in Lexington, WA means working with river soil. Lexington stretches along the west bank of the Cowlitz north of Kelso and Longview, with State Route 411 running through it beside the river, Beacon Hill on its southwest edge, and Castle Rock about 8 miles up the road. At about 33 feet above sea level, the neighborhood is flat, diked, and much of it was built within the last few decades.
That makes Lexington different from its neighbors. Instead of century-old yards or steep hillsides, we see 1990s and 2000s landscapes that have hit middle age: sprinkler systems with worn heads, foundation shrubs that outgrew their beds, and lawns that thin out on sandy spots each August. Bogar Landscaping is 25 to 30 minutes away in Woodland, and Lexington sits well inside our Cowlitz County service area for renovation, irrigation and lawn work.
Lexington's Newer Homes and Maturing Landscapes
Lexington first appeared as its own census-designated place in 2020, with 3,834 residents on about 1.4 square miles. It has the newest housing of the Longview and Kelso communities we cover. City-Stats' summary of 2023 Census survey data gives Lexington a median build year of 1993, against 1961 in Kelso, and shows about 80 percent of homes lived in by the people who own them.
Landscapes installed with those houses are now 20 to 30 years old. Common requests:
- Overgrown foundation plantings. Shrubs set close together for a quick fill now touch the siding and cover windows.
- Arborvitae rows that got away. Privacy screens planted along back fences are taller and wider than anyone planned.
- Original sprinkler systems. Heads that no longer pop up, valves that stick, and zones laid out for a younger, sunnier yard.
- Tired lawns. Thin turf on sandy spots, thatch buildup, and moss where trees now shade the grass.
- Patios and walks that settled or never quite drained.
A full renovation does not have to mean starting over. Often the right move is keeping the trees and hardscape, then replacing beds, irrigation and lawn around them.
Lexington Soils: River Silt, Sand, Fill and Terrace Clay
Soil survey points around Lexington show a patchwork. Much of the flat ground is Clato silt loam and Newberg fine sandy loam, both laid down by the Cowlitz. Clato is well drained with moderate permeability, and the soil survey notes some areas flood unless protected. Mixed in are pockets of disturbed, extremely gravelly sand, which is placed fill rather than native soil. Toward Beacon Hill, the ground rises onto Kelso and Olympic silt loams with clay-rich subsoils.
Each behaves differently in a yard:
| Soil | How it acts | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Newberg fine sandy loam | Drains fast, dries out fast | Regular summer watering, compost, mulch |
| Clato silt loam | Drains well, holds moisture better | Aeration where it compacts |
| Gravelly sand fill | Rocky, droughty, hard to dig | Imported topsoil before sod or beds |
| Kelso silt loam (terrace edges) | Water perches over subsoil in winter | Drainage and raised beds |
Summers here are dry. Longview's NOAA normals, just down the road, average 0.63 inches of rain for July and 0.97 for August. WSU puts the intake rate of sandy loam at about 3 inches per hour, against about half an inch for clay loam, so water soaks in quickly but the soil holds less of it. Sandy Lexington lawns usually need more frequent summer watering than lawns on Longview's clay, and compost worked into the soil helps them hold moisture.
Levees, Creeks and Flood Protection in Lexington
Lexington depends on the Cowlitz levees and has its own diking district. In 2019 that district joined Cowlitz County, Castle Rock and the Longview and Kelso diking districts in paying the Army Corps of Engineers to survey the river. Water also comes from the hills behind the neighborhood: in 2023 the Lexington Flood Control Zone District moved into the final phase of rebuilding the South Fork McCorkle Creek detention structure to improve flood protection for homes below it.
What that means for yard work:
- Leave levees and district ditches alone. If your lot backs onto a levee or drainage ditch, check with the diking district before planting, digging or placing anything on it.
- Plan drain outlets for high water. During the December 2025 storms, flood warnings went out for the Cowlitz at Kelso and Castle Rock. A yard drain that empties toward the river needs to work when the river is up.
- Permits run through the county. Lexington is unincorporated, so retaining walls, grading and drainage tie-ins answer to Cowlitz County, not a city. Thresholds vary, so check before work is designed.
