Absolutely thrilled with the work from Sydney Gardeners! The team transformed our overgrown backyard into a beautiful, low-maintenance garden. They were professional, punctual, and paid attention to every detail. Highly recommend their services!
Hurstville to Cronulla · River, bay and bush
Gardening Services in
Southern Sydney
Dune sand at Cronulla, sandstone shelf at Menai, heavy clay through the land-locked St George suburbs and a salt line creeping up every waterfront lawn on the Georges River. Four soils and two coastlines — and the right answer is different in each of them.
Rated 5 out of 5 by our customers
- Waterfront, seawall and drainage know-how
- Salt-resistant planting for bay and estuary gardens
- Soil tested, not guessed
- Open 7 days, 7am–6:30pm
Request a Southern Sydney quote
Your suburb and what needs doing. We'll come back today.
Google reviews
What customers say about our gardening
Real reviews from our Google Business Profile, word for word.
I highly recommend Lachlan and the team at Sydney Gardeners. Not only do they do great work, but more importantly they are reliable! Lachlan was also more than happy to help me out when I needed an extra service squeezed in just before Xmas.
Lachlan and his team have been looking after my Strata Property for over 2 years now. He is diligent with his timekeeping, punctual, provides attention to detail and does not hesitate to go above and beyond to provide satisfaction to our strata residents and property management team.
Great communication and exceptional workmanship. The team arrived on time and did an amazing job with pruning, planting, and lawn care.
I'm very happy with Lachlan and his team at Sydney Gardeners. They did a professional, clean and well-rounded job. I would highly recommend their work.
Been getting great service and value from Sydney gardeners now for a number of years, always great high quality work in my feature gardens. Attention to detail is second to none. No job to big for these boys to tackle.
- On this page
- Where you are
- Waterfront & drainage
- Four soils
- What we do
- Suburbs
- Questions
Before we quote
Which part of the south are you in?
Southern Sydney covers ocean beach, sheltered estuary, bushland edge and dense inner suburb inside about fifteen kilometres, and a garden plan that suits one of them is wrong for the others. Tap yours.
Tap where you are — the plan changes
Ocean side
Sand, salt and a lot of wind
Cronulla and Kurnell sit on old dune sand — it drains before the water reaches the roots, it goes water-repellent once it dries out badly, and everything gets a face full of salt off the Pacific. The fix is the same every time: compost and organic matter through the beds to give the sand something to hold water with, a wetting agent on the patches that have given up, thick mulch on top, and a windbreak layer of genuinely salt-tolerant plants taking the hits on the outside.
- Compost + wetting agent
- Salt-tolerant windbreak
- Buffalo lawn, cut high
Improve the sand once and it stops being a sand problem.
Riverfront & bayside blocks
Why the lawn dies in a stripe along the seawall
It's the most common call we get from the Georges River and Botany Bay waterfronts, and it's almost never the lawn's fault. Salty water sits in the ground behind the wall and rises through the soil on the big tides. Grass roots in that band are drinking seawater — so you get a brown stripe two or three metres wide that reseeding never fixes.
2–3 mthe usual width of the salt-affected band behind a seawall — plant it instead of mowing it
Drainageagi line behind the wall so rainwater flushes down and out rather than sitting in the soil
Low spotsraised beds, regrading and drainage for the blocks that hold water after every storm
Before touching a seawall or a foreshore
Anything structural on a seawall, or work below the mean high water mark, is usually council or Crown land territory rather than yours — and foreshore vegetation is often protected as well. We'll happily do the planting, drainage and garden side of it, and tell you what needs approval before anyone starts.
Local knowledge
Four soils, fifteen kilometres apart
The most useful thing anyone can tell you about a Southern Sydney garden is what's actually under it. Dig a spade-depth hole and compare it with these — the right plan follows straight from which one you've got.
The jar test, if you're curious
Half fill a jar with soil, top it up with water, shake it hard and leave it overnight. Sand drops to the bottom first, then silt, then clay on top, and the depth of each band tells you roughly what you're working with. It takes five minutes and settles a lot of arguments.
More Google reviews
Sydney homes and businesses we've looked after
Unedited reviews straight from Google — the same crews, the same standard.
Can't thank Lachlan and the rest of the team enough for the professionalism and outstanding service I have received. I have been using their services for the past 18 months and I am always impressed with the results of their work. Highly recommended.
Sydney Gardeners provide exceptional services. Their team is professional, efficient, and knowledgeable. They transformed my garden beautifully, exceeding my expectations. Highly recommended for all gardening needs!
My first time using Lachlan from Sydney Gardeners. I had overgrown high hedges to be significantly cut back and I was impressed with the finished job. I will be using them again and recommend him for all your gardening needs.
I highly recommend Sydney Gardeners to anyone seeking professional garden design and maintenance services. Their commitment to excellence, creativity, and client satisfaction is unparalleled, and I am thrilled with the beautiful garden they've created for me. Thank you, Sydney Gardeners, for turning my garden dreams into reality!
Sydney Gardeners helped us clean up our backyard after months of neglect. The team was punctual, friendly, and worked efficiently. Our lawn and hedges now look fantastic. Would happily use them again.
Lachlan did a great job mowing my lawn!
Greatest gardening service ever, couldn't be happier.
Great job on my garden
Lachlan and his men have been doing my garden for some years. My hedges and trees are beautifully trimmed every time. I share the same experience with the majority, those with excellent reviews.
Lachlan and his team were fantastic. They were professional and did the job in a timely manner. He gave me some great insights on how we could develop our business garden.
Very happy with the job Lachlan did mowing and pruning at our home. He was very pleasant to deal with and did a great job with prompt service. Thank you
Lachlan provided high quality gardening services including trimming of trees on our property in Mosman. We were very happy with the excellent communication, efficiency and professionalism. We would be happy to recommend Lachlan to friends and family.
Highly recommend. They took over from long-time gardeners for our apartment building and Sydney Gardners standard is far greater and less expensive.
Great quality work and professional service. Was very happy with the job that was done! Will definitely be using these guys again 😊
Lachlan did a great job mowing and edging the property. Only just starting using them. Very happy
Great gardener with a very strong work ethic and excellent attention to detail. Well priced and timely.
Lachlan is very professional and hard working. Highly highly recommend.
Great service, friendly staff, my garden looks amazing.
Thank you so much. You guys did a great job. I will be a continuing customer.
Professional and polite. They did exactly what I wanted. Highly recommend.
Amazing service, highly recommend!
Prompt and excellent service
My usual gardener wasn't available to me so I decided to go with the guys at Sydney Gardeners. I was surprised with how quickly they managed to do the job (I have a large backyard with hedges).
Incredible service, excellent communication skills and a pleasure to work with! Would definitely recommend to anyone looking to maintain or brighten up their garden! Thank you
These boys did a great job, very responsive, very professional.
Great service, extremely timely and professional. Thanks!
Would highly recommend to anyone looking for any gardening maintenance needs
Excellent service and quick, helpful responses.
Sydney Gardeners were amazing at working on my lawn and the rest of my backyard. They were very friendly and enthusiastic to complete the job.
The guys at Sydney gardeners serviced my gardens with a professional manner, it's rare to find a quality gardening service in Sydney that is this good now-days.
Super helpful!!
Why choose us
Why Choose Sydney Gardeners for Your Southern Sydney Gardening Services?
Southern Sydney sits between the Georges River and Botany Bay, and it packs an unusual amount of variety into a small area — ocean beach, sheltered estuary, national park edge and dense inner suburb, all within a short drive. Gardening it well is mostly a matter of knowing which of those you're standing in.
Drainage, both directions
Half the region's problems are water in the wrong place. The low-lying blocks around the bays and the clay suburbs hold it — waterlogged roots, moss in the lawn, beds that never dry out — while the sandy suburbs lose it before anything can drink. Raised beds, regrading, drainage lines and the right soil amendments fix the first; compost, wetting agents and mulch fix the second.
Salt, without the beach
You don't need surf to have a salt problem. Estuary and bay frontages carry salt in the groundwater and on the breeze, and it shows up as burnt leaf tips, a dying strip near the wall, and plants that sulk for years without ever quite dying. Salt-tolerant planting in the exposed positions solves more of it than any amount of feeding.
The two most expensive words in a waterfront garden are "more turf".
Small spaces, invasive weeds and the bush next door
Blocks are getting smaller through the inner suburbs, so vertical planting, screening and containers do a lot of the work. Out at the bushland edge the opposite problem applies: garden escapees like lantana, privet, asparagus fern and morning glory spread straight into the reserve, so we keep them out of the planting list and clear them where we find them — and the green waste leaves with us rather than going over the back fence.
- Fixed written quotes before anything starts
- All tools and equipment supplied
- Full clean-up and green waste recycled, every visit
- Houses, waterfront blocks, strata and commercial
7
Days a week, 7am–6:30pm
1hr
Response time at the latest
$0
Site visit & written quote, always
What we do here
Gardening Services We Offer in Southern Sydney
Everything from a fortnightly mow in Kirrawee to a full waterfront replant at Sylvania — and the soil and drainage work that makes either one last.
Garden maintenance packages
Scheduled pruning, feeding, weeding and edging, tightened through the growth season and eased back in winter.
Lawn mowing & turf care
Buffalo kept thick and cut high for the sandy and salty blocks, everything else cut to suit the season.
Drainage & regrading
Raised beds, falls, agi lines and swales for the low-lying blocks that hold water after every storm.
Salt-resistant planting
Windbreak and foreshore planting for bay and estuary gardens — the layer that lets everything behind it live.
Soil testing & improvement
Compost and wetting agents on the sand, gypsum and organic matter on the clay, mulch over both.
Weed & invasive species control
Lantana, privet, asparagus fern and morning glory pulled out and taken away, not flicked over the fence.
Hedging & screening
Privacy on the smaller blocks and long boundary hedges on the bigger ones, kept dense rather than hacked.
Tree work & arborist services
Angophoras, gums and storm damage handled safely, with council approval sorted where it's needed.
Strata & commercial grounds
Unit blocks, shopfronts and business sites through Hurstville, Kogarah and Miranda on a fixed schedule.
Where we work
The Shire and St George
- Cronulla
- Woolooware
- Caringbah
- Miranda
- Gymea
- Kirrawee
- Sutherland
- Jannali
- Como
- Oyster Bay
- Sylvania
- Sylvania Waters
- Engadine
- Menai
- Bangor
- Illawong
- Grays Point
- Bundeena
- Kurnell
- Sans Souci
- Blakehurst
- Oatley
- Mortdale
- Penshurst
- Hurstville
- Kogarah
- Rockdale
- Brighton-Le-Sands
Nearby
Neighbouring areas
Recent work
Gardens kept sharp, on every soil
Our pledge
Your Happiness, Our Pledge: Ensuring Total Job Satisfaction Every Time!
We stand behind every job we do. If something isn't right, we'll make it right. That's the Sydney Gardeners promise, and it's why our customers stay with us year after year.
Lachlan Kavanagh
Operator of Sydney Gardeners
Questions
Southern Sydney gardening questions, answered
The lawn near my seawall keeps dying. Can it be saved?
Usually not as lawn, and that's the honest answer. Salty groundwater rises and falls with the tide behind the wall, so grass roots in that two to three metre band are drinking seawater on every big tide. Reseeding gets you a green stripe for a month. The lasting fix is to give that strip up as lawn, plant it out with salt-tolerant natives, raise the bed slightly and put drainage behind the wall so fresh rainwater flushes through instead of sitting there.
My yard holds water for days after rain. What can be done?
A few things, in order of cost. Aerating and adding gypsum and organic matter opens up clay so water can actually move through it. Regrading gives the water somewhere to go. Raised beds lift the roots above the wet zone. And where the ground simply won't drain, an agi line or a swale carries it away. We'll look at where the water comes from before recommending anything — often the real problem is a downpipe emptying into the middle of the lawn.
What grows well on the sandy blocks near Cronulla and Kurnell?
Coastal natives, in a word: westringia, coast banksia, correa, pigface, lomandra and dianella all thrive in sand and shrug off salt. Buffalo is the lawn of choice, cut high at 40 to 50 mm through summer so it shades its own roots. The other half of the answer is soil — compost and organic matter through the beds and a wetting agent on any patch that's gone water-repellent will do more than changing plants ever does.
We back onto the national park — does that change anything?
Yes, in two ways. Practically, it's bushfire country, so long grass, fine fuel and leaf litter close to the house get cleared and hauled away rather than piled by the fence, and gutters matter. Environmentally, garden escapees are a real problem out there — lantana, privet, asparagus fern and morning glory all spread straight into the reserve — so we keep them off the planting list and out of the garden. Some vegetation work near a reserve needs approval, and we'll tell you before we start.
Do you do unit blocks and shopfronts in Hurstville and Kogarah?
Yes. Strata common areas, entries, courtyards and retail frontages on a fixed schedule, with invoicing that suits the owners corporation or the property manager. Small dense sites are their own skill — the work is presentation, access and turning up when we said we would.
How do I know whether I'm on sand or clay?
Dig a spade-depth hole and look, or do the jar test: half fill a jar with soil, top it with water, shake it and leave it overnight. Sand settles first, then silt, then clay on top, and the bands tell you the mix. Plenty of Southern Sydney blocks sit on a boundary between soil types, which is why the front and back yards sometimes behave like completely different gardens.
Which Southern Sydney suburbs do you cover?
All of them — Cronulla, Woolooware, Caringbah, Miranda, Gymea, Kirrawee, Sutherland, Jannali, Como, Oyster Bay, Sylvania, Sylvania Waters, Engadine, Menai, Bangor, Illawong, Grays Point, Bundeena, Kurnell, Sans Souci, Blakehurst, Oatley, Mortdale, Penshurst, Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Brighton-Le-Sands and everywhere between.