Landscaping and tree care in Cache Valley, Utah

One valley, one set of conditions

Every town on this list shares the same basic ground and weather: alkaline soil, cold winters and a short growing season. USU Extension counts as few as 113 frost-free days in Lewiston, at the north end, and as many as 158 on its campus in Logan. A plant that does fine further south can struggle here, and pruning that suits a milder climate can land at the wrong time of year. That is why we pick plants, plan soil work and time pruning around the valley itself.

It also means the service pages hold wherever you are in the valley. A Hyrum yard gets the same kind of work, the same cleanup and the same straight answers as one in North Logan. What changes from town to town is the detail around the work, and that is what the town pages cover.

What changes from one town to the next

Four things vary more than the weather does. The first is the water a yard runs on: a canal company, a city secondary system or the kitchen tap. The second is the rules for trees on the strip between the sidewalk and the street. The third is the wildlife, mostly deer, that browse young trees near the foothills. The fourth is the ground itself, which is gravel in one town and silty clay in the next.

A plan that ignores them fails in familiar ways. A thirsty bed goes in where the only water is on the bill. A tree goes into a strip that the city's code says is too narrow. A young trunk goes unprotected in a street where deer walk through every winter. Each town page below starts from those local facts, then says what they mean for pruning, planting, soil and cleanup.

Canal water, city secondary water and the kitchen tap

Water is the biggest difference between yards here. In North Logan, homes on city water follow a three-day schedule by address, and a lot that can use canal water must use it on the lawn. In Hyde Park, about a third of homes sit above the canal and water with drinking water.

Providence has a city secondary irrigation system, and in Hyrum the city runs a pressurized system from late April to early October. Nibley has no city system at all, so private canal companies set the dates. In River Heights, most connections water the landscape with treated drinking water.

Before you plan a bed, find out which of these your lot has. It decides how much a new planting can drink, how soon in spring you can water, and whether mulch and drip lines are a good idea or a necessity. Check each city's current page, since watering days and dry-year rules change.

Street trees and park strips

Park strips are public ground with a private upkeep. In Logan, the city forester's permit is required to plant, remove or cut down a strip tree, and the request goes in at least 48 hours ahead. In Smithfield, the city owns the strip tree and the owner next door is expected to look after it.

River Heights code asks for a street tree about every 30 feet, bars fruit and nut trees from strips and sets minimum heights for branches over the sidewalk and the street. Providence allows trees in strips wider than 4 feet and keeps a list of the trees it accepts.

These rules decide which jobs can start with a phone call and which start with the city office. If your tree stands on a strip, call us and we will help you work out what to ask the city before anything is cut.

Deer, and what they do to young trees

Mule deer come down from the foothills in late November and browse the yards of the towns at the mountain edge. Logan and North Logan both have herds that live in town. Hyde Park worked on an urban deer plan with North Logan and the state wildlife division. Utah rule R657-65 ties any city deer plan to a ban on feeding deer.

USU Extension says burlap or trunk guards protect young woody plants, a tall fence is the surest guard for a planting, and bucks rub antlers on trunks in the fall. We plan around that: tender plants near the house, tougher ones along the edge, guards on new trunks at planting time. Further down the valley the pressure is lighter, and the planting plan changes with it.

Soil, from Lake Bonneville gravel to silty clay

The valley floor is the bed of an ancient lake, and its soils run from gravel to clay. The federal soil survey names a gravelly loam for Hyrum and a deep silty clay loam for Nibley. North Logan sits on gravelly fans below Green Canyon, and the bench towns stand on gravelly delta ground.

Gravel drains fast and holds little, so beds dry out and compost and mulch matter more. Silty clay holds water and packs down, so roots need air and the soil needs organic matter worked in. USU Extension says Utah soils average a pH of about 8.0, and the lime in them locks up iron, which is why a maple here can turn yellow between green veins. The soil work we do starts with what your own ground is short of.

How it works, in any town

Call or text (435) 232-2638, or send the quote form, and tell us what the yard needs. Eric works by appointment, booked with him directly or through the website. We come out, walk the property with you, look at the plants and check the soil, then give you a written plan and a price. If something can wait a season, we'll say so.

The work then happens at the right time of year for each plant, and every job ends with what we cut or cleared hauled away.