Gardening Services in
Sydney's North Shore

Work out which band you are in first. Where there is dappled light and dry soil, clivia, liriope, dianella, hellebore, plectranthus and native violet all genuinely thrive — they want those conditions rather than tolerate them. In deep shade right against the trunk, mondo, cast iron plant and hardy ferns are about the limit, and often the best answer is no planting at all: heavy mulch, stepping stones and a seat. Lawn under a mature canopy will never look good, and the sooner that is accepted the better the garden looks.

Very likely, and North Shore councils take it seriously — this is one part of Sydney where people have faced significant penalties over a single tree. What is exempt, what needs a permit and what needs a full application varies between Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby, Willoughby, Lane Cove, North Sydney, Mosman and Hunters Hill, and the rules change. We check the current requirements for your address before quoting and handle the paperwork where it is needed. Anyone offering to remove a large tree on the spot with no approval is a risk to you, not just to themselves.

Dig a hole a spade deep. Rock or coarse pale sand within about 200 mm means sandstone country — thin, sandy, acidic, low in nutrients. Darker, heavier soil that holds together when squeezed means shale, which is deeper and richer but compacts and stays wet. Broadly the harbour end is sandstone and the upper north shore is shale, but plenty of blocks sit on the join, which is why a front and back yard sometimes behave like two different gardens.

Neat conical holes about a thumb's width are bandicoots, digging out grubs. They are native, protected and in decline, the holes fill in within a week, and heavy digging usually means the lawn has a curl grub problem worth treating in its own right. Larger areas that lift like loose carpet are the grubs themselves. Whole beds raked into a mound is a brush turkey, and that needs dealing with promptly.

Get in early. Once a male commits to a mound site he will rebuild it as fast as you spread it back, so clearing the pile in the first days matters more than anything you do later. Heavy coarse mulch, river pebble and bark that is too heavy to rake all help, and wire mesh pinned over beds protects new planting while it establishes. They are protected, so relocating or harming them is not an option — making the site unrewarding is.

Usually, yes, and on the North Shore it is often the single best thing you can do. Terracing stops soil and mulch migrating to the bottom fence, gives you level ground you can actually use, and lets you water without half of it running away. Depending on height and materials, retaining work can need engineering and council approval, and we will tell you which category yours falls into before quoting rather than after.

Build an outer layer that takes the hits: westringia, coastal rosemary, banksia, correa, lomandra, dianella and pigface all shrug off salt wind. Behind that windbreak you can grow much softer things than you would expect. Watering the foliage occasionally after a big blow helps too, since it washes salt off the leaves before it burns them.

Yes, and carefully. Old North Shore gardens usually have a structure worth reading before anything is cut — original hedge lines, mature camellias and specimens, sandstone edging and paths laid out around the house. We work out what is original and what has crept in, then restore the bones rather than imposing a new plan over the top.

Fortnightly through the growth season from about September to March, and monthly over winter, suits most gardens here. The leaf litter from established trees is what usually decides it — a heavily treed block generates work all year and often does better on a fortnightly visit right through. We set the schedule around your garden rather than selling one frequency to everybody.

Mowing sits in the same brackets as the rest of Sydney — from $55 for a small lawn, $75 for a medium one and $110 for a large one, each including the mow, edging, a blow down and taking the clippings away. Bigger upper north shore blocks are quoted on site, since access, slope and the amount of green waste move the number more than area does. Our North Shore mowing cost guide has the detail and a calculator.

Yes, on every visit. Prunings, clippings and leaf litter go with us rather than into your bin or over the back fence. On heavily treed blocks that is often the most valuable part of the service, because a council bin does not go anywhere near covering what comes off a mature garden.

All of them. Mosman, Balmoral, Cremorne, Neutral Bay, Kirribilli, North Sydney, Cammeray, Naremburn, Northbridge, Castlecrag, Willoughby, Artarmon, Lane Cove, Longueville, Riverview, Greenwich, Wollstonecraft, Crows Nest, St Leonards and Hunters Hill on the lower north shore; Chatswood, Roseville, Lindfield, Killara, Gordon, Pymble, St Ives, Turramurra, Warrawee, Wahroonga, Waitara, Hornsby, Asquith, Normanhurst, Thornleigh and Pennant Hills up the ridge.