Garden Planting Services Sydney

Screening and hedging, native and habitat planting, structural shrubs, ground covers for dry shade, cottage and perennial beds, ornamental and small feature trees, and pot and planter schemes for courtyards and balconies. Natives and exotics both — the useful distinction is not native versus exotic, it is suited to the position versus not. What we do not do is fruit orchards at scale, or large tree transplanting, and we will say so rather than have a go.

By assessing the position before choosing anything. That means hours of direct sun and at what time of day, aspect, soil type and drainage — sometimes literally digging a hole and filling it with water to see how fast it goes down — root competition from nearby trees, and exposure to salt or wind. Then plants are matched to that, not to a look. The other half is the planting method itself: wide holes, teased roots, planted level, watered in and mulched, plus a watering regime for the first year.

Of course, and most people do. Bring photos, a Pinterest board, a plant you saw down the street — all useful. We will work with it, and where something on the list will not survive in that spot we will say so and offer the nearest thing that will. It is your garden; our job is to make sure what you want is still there in five years.

Autumn, and it is not close. March to May gives you warm soil, the wetter months ahead and six months for roots to establish before the first serious heat. Spring is the second-best window and is fine for most things. Midsummer planting is possible but commits you to daily attention through the worst of it, and planting into a heatwave is a genuinely bad idea. The exception is anything frost-tender in the colder pockets of the Hills, which is better going in during spring.

It is quoted, because the plants are often the smaller half of it. The cost is driven by bed preparation, how much soil and mulch has to be brought in, access for getting materials to the bed, the number of plants and their pot size, and whether anything has to be removed first. A courtyard bed replanted is a modest job; a full screening hedge with soil improvement along a boundary is a bigger one. You get an itemised quote, and swapping pot sizes is the easiest lever if the number needs to come down.

We warrant our planting through establishment, provided the watering regime we give you is followed. That is not a technicality — the overwhelming majority of first-year deaths are water, either too little or a daily sprinkle that never soaks in. Where we also maintain the garden, the watering is our responsibility and the warranty is simply ours to honour.

Smaller, in most cases. Advanced stock spends a year or two rebuilding roots that were cut to fit the pot, while small stock roots away immediately, so they typically converge around year three and the small ones often pass. Advanced plants are worth it when you need screening now for a specific reason, or for one or two feature specimens. On a hedge, buying more smaller plants at correct spacing closes the gap faster than fewer large ones spaced too widely.

Either. We normally source them, because we can check the stock before it goes in and reject anything root-bound or stressed, and because we know which growers have decent material. If you would rather buy your own, that is fine — we will give you a list with sizes and quantities. The only thing we ask is that we see the plants before planting, since our establishment warranty depends on what went in the ground.

More than most people expect, and it is done across the whole bed rather than hole by hole. Compacted or builder's-fill soil gets broken up, compost and organic matter is worked through the full planting depth, and drainage gets addressed if water sits after rain. Shrubs want a decent depth of workable soil, not 100 mm of nice soil over compacted clay. Improving only the hole is worse than not improving it at all in clay, because you have created a sump.

Often, but not automatically, and only once they are established. A native suited to the position needs less water, less feeding and less fussing, and supports local birds and insects. A native from a completely different climate — and plenty sold in Sydney are from Western Australia — can be fussier than an exotic that has been grown here for a century. Also worth knowing: most natives dislike phosphorus-rich fertiliser, so they need different feeding rather than no feeding.

Deep and infrequent, from the first day. Roughly: a heavy soak at planting, then every two or three days for the first fortnight, twice a week through the first couple of months, then weekly through the first summer, tapering after that. Adjust for rain and for how quickly your soil dries. Keep mulch at 75 mm and clear of the stems, hold off fertiliser for six to eight weeks, and expect a period of sulking that is not the same thing as dying.

All of them — the North Shore, Northern Beaches, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, CBD, Western Sydney, the Hills District and Southern Sydney. The plant list changes noticeably across those — a coastal frontage, a shaded inner-west courtyard and a hot western-suburbs backyard need three different answers.