Tired beds, bare corners and planting that never quite worked. We draw up a plan and rebuild it, with new soil, plants, mulch and clean edging.
Most gardens we are asked to improve are not neglected. They were planted twenty or thirty years ago, they have grown into each other, and the trees around them have got much taller since. What used to be a sunny border is now deep shade. What used to be a low hedge is now a wall. Nothing is wrong with the garden, it has simply moved on and the planting has not.
Garden design here starts with the site rather than with a catalogue. We look at where the sun actually lands through the day, how the water moves across the property in a heavy November rain, how exposed the site is to wind, and what the soil is. Then we plan planting that will work in those conditions in ten years, not just look right on the day it goes in.
That plan is not a folder of drawings you pay for and then chase somebody else to build. We design it and we build it, so the person choosing the plants is the person who has to make them live.
Usually it is one of three things. It is too dark, it is too wet, or it has simply grown out of shape. Any of those is a good starting point.
We look at light, water, wind, soil and what is worth keeping. Plenty of mature planting is worth saving and working around, and that is cheaper than starting again.
You see what goes where, what it will look like in a few years, and what it costs. You can build all of it at once or take it a bed at a time.
Old planting out, soil improved or replaced, new plants in, edging set, mulch down. Then we tell you plainly how to look after it, or we look after it for you on a regular round.
This is the widest ranging of everything we do. Replanting one tired bed at the front of a house is a day of work. Rebuilding the whole garden around a home is a project measured in weeks.
The two things that move the price most are soil and plant size. Bringing in good soil is the single best investment in any bed and it is rarely the cheapest line. Plant size is a choice, and it is a real one. Smaller plants cost far less, establish better and catch up with the big ones within a few seasons, so we usually recommend them.
Taking a garden a bed at a time over two or three years is a completely reasonable way to do this, and quite a few of our customers do exactly that. We price each stage in writing, and there is no charge for the design visit.
Every community on the Sunshine Coast has its own ground, its own weather and its own trees. Here is how this work usually looks in the three places we are called out to most.
Gibsons gardens are small, steep and often terraced, which makes them some of the most interesting to design. Retaining, steps and level changes matter more than planted area, and screening is usually the first thing people ask for because neighbours are close. On the harbour side we plan for salt wind and pick planting that will take it.
Roberts Creek is a shade gardening problem almost every time. Second growth fir and cedar have closed over gardens that were planted when the trees were half the height, and sun loving planting has slowly failed underneath them. Our Roberts Creek designs lean on ferns, hostas, hellebores, native shrubs and woodland ground cover, and on selective pruning above to get some light back down.
Sechelt is dry, bright and exposed, which is the opposite problem. Summer water is the constraint, and beds that stay green in Gibsons will burn there. Sechelt designs are where we use drought tolerant planting, gravel mulches and deep soil preparation, and where a rain garden that holds winter runoff on site pays for itself twice, once in winter and once in July.
We also design and rebuild gardens in Langdale, Wilson Creek, Davis Bay, Halfmoon Bay, Secret Cove, Madeira Park, Garden Bay, Pender Harbour and Egmont.
There is no charge for the first visit and the plan that comes with a quote for the work. A full standalone design that you take away and build yourself is a separate piece of work, and we price that up front.
It is a planted low area that collects the runoff from a roof or a driveway and lets it soak into the ground instead of running off the property. On the Coast, where winter rain arrives fast and heavy, it solves a wet corner and looks like a garden rather than a drain.
Yes, and we usually want to. Mature shrubs and trees are the most valuable things in a garden and they cannot be bought back. A good part of most plans is deciding what stays.
Autumn is the best planting window on the Sunshine Coast. Roots establish over a wet mild winter and the plant is ready for its first summer. Spring is the second best. Summer planting works but it needs watering you have to commit to.
We can. Most people who have us rebuild a garden go onto a regular lawn and garden round afterwards, so the same crew that planted it is the one looking after it.
Most people start with one job. Once we are on the property, it is usually easier to have one crew handle the rest of it too.
Tell us what you need done. We will come out, take a look at it and give you a price in writing. There is no charge for that.
