Fencing and Landscaping

Landscaping Built for Sydney Conditions

Half the skill in landscaping around Sydney is knowing what not to disturb. Established gardens, old services and councils that each interpret the same state controls slightly differently all sit in the way of the obvious approach.

Sydney is not a uniform place to work. Between everything from flat river plain to steep sandstone escarpment and reactive shale clay in the west, sandstone and sand through the coast and north, two properties in the same street can need quite different approaches to the same job.

Every landscaping quote we write for Sydney starts on site, with photographs, levels and a walk of the full run. You cannot allow for ground conditions that change completely between one side of the basin and the other from a satellite image.

We are based at Wentworthville and cover Sydney regularly. Call 0492 879 796 to book a site visit and a fixed written quote.

Landscaping Styles Suited to Sydney

Access, Logistics and Site Management

Access shapes the price more than most people realise. Around Sydney we plan around coastal salt exposure on one side of the city and cracking clay on the other, which decides whether material comes in on a truck or on a barrow, and that difference runs through the whole program.

Neighbouring properties, verges and driveways get protected. Around Sydney we allow for access constraints that vary from a wide western verge to an inner-west rear lane, because a delivery in the wrong place causes more trouble than it saves.

From First Measure to Finished Job

We set out the whole run first, mark the levels, and agree the approach on site before anything is ordered. Once material is cut for a Sydney job it is committed.

Services are located before excavation, every time. Around Sydney the older streets carry runs that are not where the plans say they are, and a strike is expensive for everyone.

• Turf, paving and garden bed construction
• Planting schemes suited to the aspect
• Lighting and power provision
• Drainage and stormwater correction
• Retaining and level changes
• Staged works to suit a budget

Materials, Fixings and Finishes

Material selection here is driven by exposure and by use. Once you allow for a very wide range of housing eras with different original boundary types, the finish and the fixings decide the service life more than the substrate does.

The parts you cannot see once the job is finished are the parts worth paying for: footings, drainage, fixings and substructure. That is as true in Sydney as anywhere.

• Landscaping is sequenced from the ground up, so drainage and levels are resolved before anything is planted or paved.
• A garden designed around how much time the owner actually has will look better in three years than an ambitious one that does not get attention.
• Any structure, retaining or level change should be built before soft landscaping, so plants are not damaged twice.
• Soil preparation determines whether a new garden establishes; imported topsoil over unbroken clay simply becomes a bathtub.
• Drainage falls are set at the excavation stage and cannot be corrected with surface material afterwards.

Signs It Is Time To Do Something

We are based at Wentworthville and Sydney is well inside our regular run, so a site visit is a short trip rather than a scheduling problem.

• A yard that holds water for days after rain
• A series of small unconnected jobs that never added up to a finished yard
• A garden that has outgrown its original layout
• Level changes that make most of the block unusable

What the relevant local council Controls

We can tell you what usually applies around Sydney, and we will always recommend confirming the current position with the relevant local council before you commit. Controls change, and a wrong assumption is expensive to unwind.

Approvals are administered by the relevant local council, and the controls that matter sit in its development control plan alongside the relevant state provisions. What applies to your street is what counts, not what a neighbour did five years ago.