Landscaping in Cheltenham

• Paving. Crazy paving, bluestone, paths, patios and alfresco areas. Our favourite kind of work around here, with a finished local job to prove it.
• Garden makeovers. Full strip-out and rebuild of a tired garden, or a smart tidy-up that gets a block ready for sale.
• Instant turf. Sir Walter Buffalo is our go-to family lawn. On sandy ground, the prep underneath matters as much as the turf itself.
• Garden beds and planting. Screening, hedges, mulch and plant choices that suit the spot, including planting picked to survive shade where a lawn will not.
• Artificial grass. For tight courtyards and spots real lawn will not love.
• Irrigation. Hunter gear, installed with a registered plumber, Daniel, on the team.

Cheltenham is sandbelt country. The same fast-draining sandy ground that made the local golf courses world class runs under the houses too. There is a reason for it: from the 1840s, families set up market gardens on this sandy soil and grew vegetables for the city, carting them off to the Victoria Market, long before the streets and houses went in. That market-garden ground is what you are planting into today.

Sand drains beautifully, but in a home garden it dries out quickly in summer and does not hold nutrients well, so lawn laid straight onto sand tends to struggle. We build the fix into the job: soil improvement under new turf and garden beds, levels done properly, and irrigation where it earns its keep.

Cheltenham went suburban in the 1950s, and plenty of streets still carry their red brick homes and Californian bungalows, often with gardens planted decades ago and showing it. Property profiles describe a steady shift toward villa units and townhouses, smaller yards that have to work harder, and with the new Suburban Rail Loop station going in beside Southland the area is only getting busier.

Two council things worth knowing before we start. First, the suburb is split between two councils: Kingston for most of it, east of the railway line, and Bayside on the golf course side toward the bay. Their nature strip rules differ, more on that in the FAQs below. Second, in Kingston a tree is protected once its trunk gets over a certain size, and listed trees on the council's Significant Tree Register are protected on top of that. So on an older block with established trees, we plan the build around the good ones rather than assuming they come out, and we check with council first if one might need to go.

• Site clearing and green waste removal
• Soil improvement and levelling, with the sandy ground in mind
• Concrete bases, paving and edging
• Instant turf, usually Sir Walter Buffalo
• Hunter irrigation, with a registered plumber on the team

1. Call or send photos. Ring 0489 952 492 or use the quote form. A few photos is plenty to start.
2. Site visit. We walk the space together and look at the soil, sun, drainage and access. No call-out fee.
3. Written quote. One written price split into labour, materials and waste, so you see what each part costs before you commit.
4. The build. We turn up when we say we will and leave the site tidy every day.
5. Handover. We walk you through care, especially watering new turf on sand, then we follow up.

• Completed work in Cheltenham itself, plus nearby Springvale and Carnegie.
• Honest advice. If sand or shade is going to beat a lawn in your spot, I will say so and offer something better.
• Landscaping Melbourne's south east since 2013, rated 5.0 stars across 60+ Google reviews.
• Public liability cover of $5,000,000 through Bizcover and WorkCover through Allianz.
• Daniel, a registered plumber, on the team for irrigation and plumbing-classified work.

What customers say:

Across our 60+ five-star Google reviews, the things that come up most are fair pricing, clear communication and following up after the job.

On a mid-century block, the budget mostly buys renewal: strip out what is past it, fix the soil and levels, then new lawn, beds and paving. In a townhouse or villa unit courtyard, clean paving, a screening hedge and maybe artificial grass make a small space feel twice the size.

On paving, the money you cannot see is the part that matters. On sandy ground we lay crazy paving over a proper concrete base so nothing rocks loose two summers in. Whatever the block, I will tell you straight where your budget works hardest.

If the yard is next on the list, call me on 0489 952 492. Photos through the quote form work too. Either way the quote is free, there is no call-out fee, and with Clayton South only about 10 minutes up the road we can usually come and look quickly.