Living Earth Landscapes

We have employed Living Earth Landscapes on a number of separate projects since moving to Washington sixteen years ago. These have centered on the complete transformation of two backyards into delightful and environmentally friendly living spaces. The landscaping has included stone work, bed design and planting, yard leveling, irrigation and French drain installation. Each project has been completed in a timely manner, with a quality of work second to none, and with excellent products, from stone to shrub. Bill is creative and fun to work with. His work crew is capable and friendly. He has become our go-to landscape artist and we recommend him without hesitation.

Living Earth Landscapes (LEL) completed a 12' X 25' paver utility area in our yard. LEL helped us through the process of selecting the pavers (color/pattern) and taking the area from a very back of the yard, out of sight, out of mind neglected area to an area that looks wonderful, has great curb appeal and very functional for back yard access, spare parking, etc. The team that did the work are great, polite communicators, professional and skilled, have great ideas and checked frequently with us so we could monitor progress. They checked with us every step of the project. There were a few unknown site conditions that popped up and the team came up with ideas to save time in other areas (like minimizing paver cutting) to keep the project on track. Looking at the finished project one could not tell that any corners were cut.

If you want an experienced team, one that is skilled in landscape design and knowledgeable about plant varieties—including light and soil preferences, when to feed and how to prune—then Living Earth Landscapes is the right company for you. From design to maintenance, the LEL team ensures your garden is beautiful and remains healthy, so you have an oasis to enjoy throughout the year. -Christina, client in Newcastle

We love our new garden created by Living Earth Landscapes! Bill, the owner/designer, takes great pride in his work, as does his very professional and courteous crew. The beautiful artistry of the new flagstone walk and the carefully chosen new plants have turned our once barren backyard into a welcoming sanctuary. In the front, Bill's crew took out an overgrown hedge and damaged dogwood, reworked the curvature of the lawn, and added new shrubs. Bill is a good listener and thoughtful designer who really knows his plants. Our projects were on time and on budget, communication was excellent, and cleanup was thorough. We've received many compliments from neighbors and friends, and couldn't be happier with the results! Debbie & Norm Redmond, WA

Bill and his crew at Living Earth Landscapes are, hands down, the best. Since landscaping my backyard, my neighbors refer to it as “the park” now – it’s gorgeous. Of all the contractors I’ve worked with (and I’ve worked with quite a few), Bill was the most communicative and was always willing and patient enough to listen to my vision for the yard. His crew is very hard working and did a spectacular job not only on the yard but on the brick paver walkway. Bill and his crew did such a good job that I’ve contracted them to do my front yard as well. I can’t recommend Living Earth Landscapes enough.

Living Earth Landscapes designed and installed flagstone walkways and a patio for me, as well as the plantings. They also do the maintenance. In his design, Bill chose several plants that you don't see in every other garden. Right now there's a mahonia in full flower that's a big hit with the hummingbirds. Bill and crew are great to work with--honest, reliable, and flexible. And their work is beautiful. I couldn't be more happy with my yard.

Living Earth Landscapes has been taking care of my property since 2016. They are outstanding. My landscaping, which includes plantings around my house as well as a woods, has never looked better. Their work is skillful, creative, and shows a deep understanding of the plants under their care. They go out of their way to be helpful, as they were with the last project they undertook for me. It involved relocating a large unwieldy wooden sculpture which they did with care, patience and a fine sense of the site. I'm delighted with the result. Living Earth Landscapes is a pleasure to work with, and I am happy to recommend them without reservation.

I highly recommend Living Earth Landscapes. I have worked with them over the past four years. They have done extensive work in my yard, designing major remodels of my front and backyards. They created a beautiful stone path in my back garden and designed plantings that add color and texture all yearlong. I also use them for pruning, cleanup and other maintenance projects in my yard. They are very reliable and knowledgeable about plants, shrubs and trees. I trust them to choose the right plants for every location. I love my yard and I have them to thank for it! The work is always done on time and within my budget. I get lots of compliments from neighbors on my plantings and the way my yard and trees are pruned.

Through out our house remodeling, the work that Living Earth Landscapes was by far the most efficient and the best work done for us and our house. Bill was very easy to work with. He offered ideas on what we could do to enhance our yard that was within our budget. He even went out of his way to look at my irrigation system to see if it was working properly to ensure the work that he and his company did would be supported by it. He noticed some things wrong and offered ideas on to fix it and why it should be fixed. He knew we were looking to put our house on the market and he wanted us to get the best bang for our buck and within our budget and making sure our irrigation system was an important selling feature. The work they did was done on time and was beyond what I expected.

We recently hired Bill Bowlus with Living Earth Landscapes to design our front yard and are extremely pleased with the result. We had some ideas (add several large boulders, use only plants that are easy maintenance with open mulched space in between), but didn’t know how to put it all together. The fact that we wanted to bring in large boulders complicated the process for us since not all landscapers who can suggest and arrange nice plants are also adept at bringing in and placing large boulders. Since the two processes would have to be coordinated before placing large rocks, we needed one person who could handle it all. What we liked about Bill: 1) His design ability. He listened to what we wanted (besides our ideas, we had some photos from yards we’d seen) and designed it even better than we had envisioned. He sent several plant and tree lists for us to choose from and we had lots of questions about these which he patiently answered after our various trips to different nurseries to see them in person. He brought out the larger plants and we worked together on placing these and marking the spaces for large rocks until we agreed on the design. The day of the rock placement (with large cranes), Bill expertly directed the placement, tuning rocks on their sides and digging them in to look like they were naturally protruding from a hillside and seeming larger than they were, thus we were able to get by with smaller rocks that still looked significant. 2) His plant knowledge. Though we had our own ideas, Bill was able to help us stick with just plants that are known to be currently successful in our climate while still meeting our criteria for the look we were after. He adds new plants and drops off old plants from his suggestion list based on how harsh the winters have been lately (the snow last year made him drop a few items from the list). I liked knowing we were getting the hardiest specimens that met our criteria since I don’t want to have to baby any plants. He steered us away from trees we’d seen in neighbors’ yards because the size they would get in our timeframe would not work well. 3) His reasonable prices. We had gotten another bid and we were having trouble getting back in touch with the contractor whose price was higher (and whose ideas we didn’t care for). Bill gave us a price range for each of our 3 separate bids (we added on a nice flagstone path and a separate drip irrigation system) and the final prices for each were always in the middle—and usually closer to the lower end of the range--for each of the 3 projects. The cost for the landscaping, including rocks, trees, plants and of course the design work, was $9500. We opted to add on the path later since we felt the price for the landscaping was reasonable. 4) His quick response to questions. We’ve worked with various contractors who drive you crazy by not getting back to you in a timely manner, especially when you need information to make a time-sensitive decision. Bill was great about answering questions quickly so we could proceed. We would highly recommend Bill for any of your landscape design needs.