We did a lot of everything on this residential design build landscaping project. It took about 5 months with most of my crews working there. It was a pleasure to install the hardscape and landscape at their home. The front yard consisted of a 200′ long cultured stone faced retaining wall, 10,000′ sod, irrigation, front entry pond, and extensive flagstone patio work, trees, shrubs, low voltage lighting, dry creeks and of course bark.
As you will see the front yard landscaping was very large. the entire project was in the acres and I will be showing you just the front yard at this time. The following landscaping photos show all that was described above.
The first landscaping photograph shows some of the scope of the front yard. OUr web site is woodyscustomlandscaping.com

the next 7 landscaping photographs show more detail of the flagstone work, front entry pond, and cultured stone faced retaining wall.

We have been installing custom and exceptional quality landscapes in the Clark County area for over twenty years. This project was a award winning project presented by The Washington Association Of Landscape Professionals. OUr landscaping services we provide are the best.

I have been asked by Clark County PUD to be a speaker Friday, April 23, 2010. It is for the Clark County Home and Idea Fair. I will speak at the speakers corner in the new exhibition hall. The seminar will be at 4:00 PM. It should last about 1 hour.
The title of my seminar is, “Growing Your Landscape Dreams Into Reality”.
I plan to cover why should our potential clients choose landscape designers and landscape contractors instead of being a DIYer. Nothing is wrong with home owners doing projects themselves, but I usually encounter a lack of planning, cheap materials and a very average job. I also plan to speak on how should homeowners choose a landscape designer or landscape contractor and think budget.
I will show some great examples of before and after shots of landscaping that were designed by landscape designers. Can the typical homeowner come up with visions like what I’ll show?
Most of the time, no.
The example below shows a woodsy setting. Could a typical home owner come up with what got installed. Yes, if they had a great designer and a qualified landscaper.

Come to the Clark County Home and Idea Fair, April 23rd at 4:00 PM in the new hall. I promise to be full of answers to your landscaping questions and have a fun fact filled one hour seminar.
I will explain how you can grow the before picture into your landscape dream.

Woody’s offers outdoor living at its finest in Portland Oregon and Vancouver Washington

If I could only harness the power.
I’d be the man of the hour.
To push through winter to spring,
To have all the alarm clocks ring,
The strength of a Crocus flower

The garden shows in the north west seem to have the same power as the Crocus in the limerick, I made up today.. Every one is so ready to think gardens, landscaping, patio projects, and sprucing up the yard. The time has come for winter to end, and give rise to wonderful spring. To be truthful, I am more than ready to get very busy and start building my clients landscape dreams. It has been a dreary winter.
This year we will be working with Gregg and Ellis Landscape Design for the Home and Garden Show and The Better Living Show. Both of them are fantastic landscape designers. The Home and Garden Show is in the middle of February and the Better Living Show is on 3-26 to 3-28 2010. Both shows are also at the Expo in Portland OR.
We also are going to be in the Clark County Home and Idea Fair the fourth week of April.
All the shows should give great landscaping ideas and spark that feeling of spring.
We hope to see you there.
A little video of our display last year titled, “Asian Fusion”.

Reduce, reuse, recycle are what many in businesses are attempting to do in greening up America and the world. We are in the day and age where the 3 R’s are very important in our business dealings. How does the landscaping industry stack up with others attempting to do that very thing?

Here in Clark County Washington, there are many recycling plants that take our green waste such as, pruning debris, lawn clippings, excess soil, sod, sand and concrete. We pay to get rid of the waste and in return buy back three way soil mix, compost, and crushed rock we have previously recycled as green waste. The landscape industry has diligently been recycling for many years. This helps to reduce the amount of landfill and enables us to use recycled products. Soil, concrete and green waste was for many for years nothing more than something to fill up land fills. They are now vital to our needs as landscapers. Soil mix is used to insure that landscapes have the proper soil preparation. Compost is used as a top dress of plantings and soil preparation. Crushed rock serves as our base for pavers, segmented retaining walls, gravel paths and as a base for road construction. Chips from larger branches are used for play grounds, informal paths and as mulch around trees and planter beds. The amount of material that is recycled by the landscape industry is huge. Just take a look at a local recycler and see for yourself what is brought in as waste and what is sold back to us products we use every day.

How does the landscape industry reduce waste and pollution in house? Most of us only order the exact amount of material we need. When we over order it would end up hitting our pocket book and then we waste time and money to dispose of the material. This helps to lessen the amount of material we put in land fills. When maintenance people fertilize and spray for pathogens or pests they rarely use more chemicals than are necessary. They calibrate exactly the amount of chemicals needed and apply to specifications. Any more chemical usage adds to pollution, is wasteful and very costly. Integrated Pest Management Systems have been in place for many years and help to insure that we use the least possible amount of chemical with the best result. The argument can be made that homeowners in fact are the major contributors to over usage of chemicals in their gardens. Most homeowners have the mind set that if a little works well then more works even better. This is not the case with professional Green Industry Companies.
There is a new program in Oregon that landscape companies are now enabled to become environmentally certified. DeSantis Landscapes has been the states first commercial ecological landscape contractor awarded this certification. The Portland Regional Pollution prevention outreach Team made up of eight Portland-area agencies, recognize landscape design, installation, and maintenance contractors that “reach the highest standards in minimizing environmental impact. DeSantis said environmental certification will become more commonplace as landscape companies around the country look for ways to lesson their impact. Even though most of us are not certified environmentally at this time, we have programs we are trying to implement. Many landscape companies offer carpooling. Bio diesel is being used more for our trucks and tractors. Many of us design projects that require less maintenance and are environmentally friendly.

What can landscapers do to help our clients reduce energy and water use? Water features are very expensive to operate on a monthly basis. The energy use can be very high. There are pumps that use much less electricity and are about half the cost monthly of older types and produce the same volume of water. Another new innovation is satellite base irrigation controllers. They keep accurate records of weather in the exact area and actually run your irrigation only when needed.. This saves 20-50% of the amount of irrigation water that is normally used by presetting to come on 3 times a week, versus watering when water is needed according to the satellite. These kinds of controllers can also reduce runoff up to 70%. This technology is spreading very fast and will be widely adapted in a few short years.
Professional Green Industry Landscape Contractors recycle, reduce and reuse on a daily basis. Many of us are aware how important this is to make the earth more environmentally friendly, and are quickly implementing new programs and ideas that help our world be just a little bit greener and pollution free. We are the True Green Industry.

Serving the Vancouver WA, and Clark County areas with exceptional landscaping services for over twenty years.

I’ll keep it short and just have a selection of videos and photos. All are award winners. All are landscapes in the Vancouver WA and Portland OR area.

Serving the Clark County area for over twenty years with fantastic landscaping services.

I sometimes am amazed that I have survived being in business over 30 years. Not once have I bounced a check. I have always met payroll. I have always paid all bills on time and have always paid myself with out fail. I don’t really have a answer to why its worked for so long. I guess it’s what I do for a living. I take it seriously and do whatever it may take to keep grinding along. This year is especially tough. So instead of just rambling along saying nothing that people care about, I thought some photos, might be in order.


We are one of the most highly recognized landscaping companies in South West Washington.
No one has the amount of ICPI or NCMA certified employees that our company has. They are nationally recognized certifications for paver and retaining wall installation.
No one has the amount of landscaping awards that we have. Most of all our awards are Washington Association of Landscape Professionals awards for residential construction. At best the other landscape companies in South West Washington have a few, we have 16. Below is a photo of my first Grand Award from WALP. A especially nice water feature.


As far as retaining walls go, check out the photo below. Over 400 lineal feet of wall 3′ high. Yes, we won a WALP award for that one also.

For award winning, certified ,landscape professionals who are SERVICE oriented, try Woody’s Custom Landscaping, Inc.

If you own a newer home. Chances are you live on a sloped piece of property. Either your property drops off from your home or you have a small mountain looming as soon as you look out. Every one is in need of some sort of outdoor flat space. The sod lawn for the kids to play on. A larger patio for enjoying the Pacific Northwest’s great late spring, summer and fall weather. Retaining walls are the answer for that flat space.

There are many types of retaining walls. The most popular are natural rock or boulders walls and segmented concrete units. Boulder walls usually take up a lot of lateral space. For a 3′ wall you can usually count on about 3-5′ of flat space taken up by the wall itself. Segmented concrete units will take up about 75% less space a they are built more vertically. Drainage is critical both both types of walls. A well designed drainage system is a must.

Another type of wall is a CMU block wall. This is a wall with a concrete subslab with parallel rebar, CMU units built up that are built with mortar and concrete filled. In many cases these types of walls are the same price range as a segmented concrete wall. You can install CMU that is textured on one side or face with cultured stone or natural stone. You may be surprised to learn that the cost of faced walls like CMU are not much more than top of the line segmented concrete unit walls. The best thing about these kind of wall is the ability to really hold back the soil and the fact that they can be built totally vertical. Two years ago we built a 12′ high CMU block wall, that held back the rear patio. Below the wall a sports court wall built. We won a distintion award from WALP in 2009 on that project.

Flat space in your back or front yard is a common theme we run into when we bid the landscaping for new homes, Builders forget that that 10by10 concrete patio really doesn’t cut it.

For your retaining wall needs in the  Portland Metro area and Vancouver Clark County, give Woody’s a call. One half of our employees are certified for wall and paver patio and walkway construction.

www.woodyscustomlandscaping.com   or 360-687-1882