Landscaping in Carnegie, for narrow blocks and tight courtyards

Carnegie jobs are rarely big earthmoving jobs. They're tight and detailed, and a typical one draws on some of this:

• Brick and paver paths. Relaying old red brick paths on a new base, matching the pattern that's already there.
• Courtyards. Paving, a patch of lawn or artificial grass, and planting for privacy, sized for a townhouse yard.
• Small lawns. Sir Walter Buffalo laid on fresh lawn mix after the old soil comes out.
• Front gardens. New beds, edging and paths for older homes, with council's heritage rules in mind.
• Screening and planting. Hedges along new fences when the block next door goes up two or three storeys.
• Artificial grass. For the corner behind the fence that never gets the sun.

Carnegie is really two suburbs for a landscaper, and they need different thinking.

In the north-west, council's heritage study counts some 200 homes across 11 streets as the Carnegie Residential Precinct. Most went up in the Federation years from around 1900, with some interwar brick homes in among them, and the Heritage Overlay now covers the precinct. The blocks there mostly run 12 to 14 metres wide and 30 to 33 metres deep, and the ground is fairly flat. So it's levels and drainage, not retaining walls.

Heritage changes the front yard more than the back. In a Heritage Overlay, Glen Eira says a planning permit is usually needed for external works, including building or pulling down part of a fence. A fence that can't be seen from the street is generally exempt. So for a new front fence, a front path or a big change out the front, check with council first. Out the back you usually have more freedom.

Around the station and the Koornang Road shops it's a different story. The state has approved new planning controls for the Carnegie activity centre, and residential streets up to a kilometre around it have been rezoned for buildings of three to six storeys. More townhouses and apartments means more small courtyards, more shade from taller neighbours and more need for screening.

Nature strips are council land as well. Glen Eira needs a permit before you plant one out, and street trees are council's to look after.

Usually, yes. Our Kanga Kid loader is 800mm wide, so it fits through most standard side gates. Our bobcat needs 1.2 metres, which many side paths here don't have. Where the Kanga Kid can't fit either, materials go in by barrow, and I price that time into the quote up front.

On a 12 or 14 metre block with the house taking most of the width, the side path is often the only way into the backyard. That's why I measure the gate and the path at the site walk before I measure the yard. It decides how the soil comes out, how the turf and pavers go in, and how long the job takes.

Plenty of owners of older homes want to keep their red brick paths. One Carnegie household had us relay their brick paths this year. We lifted the existing bricks and stacked them, chipped the old mortar off, put down a compacted crushed rock base and a screeded sand bed, then laid the path back in the existing brick pattern with brick edging front and back. The exposed edges were haunched so the bricks stay locked in. They then booked us for a second section of new red brick path, matched to the first.

Old brick paths rock, dip and grow weeds because they were laid on very little. Reusing your bricks keeps the look, and a proper base stops it happening again.

The team did an excellent job of laying a consistent and level brick pattern using a whole range of old recycled bricks which varied in size and colour.

Often, yes. Glen Eira's Canopy Tree Protection Local Law needs a permit to prune or remove a protected tree on private land, and also to do works inside its tree protection zone. That can include digging for a path or a lawn. So if there's a big tree near the work, check with council before we start.

Under the local law, a protected canopy tree is one taller than five metres, a palm taller than eight metres, or a tree with a trunk at least 140cm around, measured 140cm up the trunk. Minor pruning once a year is allowed without a permit if it takes no more than 10 per cent of the canopy and no branch thicker than 10cm around. The state's canopy tree rule in the planning scheme can also apply in some cases.

I'd rather build around a good tree than fight it: hand digging near the roots and lifting a path over them instead of cutting through. Getting a permit is the owner's job, and council can tell you whether your tree is covered.

A small lawn in Carnegie gets the same prep as a big one. Late last year we laid about 30 square metres of Sir Walter Buffalo at a Carnegie unit. The old soil was dug out and carted away, fresh lawn mix went down and was levelled, then the turf went on. All up we've now laid 15,000 square metres of turf.

Two things decide whether a courtyard lawn works. The first is light. Sir Walter handles part shade better than most lawns, but if a taller building next door keeps the yard dark all winter, I'll tell you and we'll look at artificial grass or planting instead. The second is watering. New turf needs water every day for the first two to three weeks. Skip that and you've paid for a lawn and got a weed patch.

No two Carnegie yards cost the same, which is why I quote from a site walk. These are the things that move the number most around here:

1. Get in touch. Call 0489 952 492 or send photos through the quote form, including one of the side gate.
2. Site walk. I measure the access, check for big trees and heritage controls, and talk through what you want the yard to do.
3. Written quote. Labour, materials and waste each on their own line.
4. The build. Old surfaces out, base and drainage set, then paving, turf and planting last.
5. Handover. A watering plan for any new lawn, then I check back in to see how it's going.

Give us a call on 0489 952 492 or send a few photos through the quote form. The site walk is free and there's no call-out fee.

We work right around Carnegie too, including Bentleigh East, Oakleigh, Glen Iris and our home patch of Clayton South. Every suburb we cover is on our service areas page.