Landscaping in Malvern East, planned around the trees

Here it's mostly renovation rather than new builds. We renew tired lawns with Sir Walter Buffalo instant turf, rebuild garden beds and hedging, lay paths and paving that suit older brick homes, and fit or repair Hunter irrigation. Every job gets planned around the established trees, because in Stonnington a lot of them are protected.

• Lawn renewals. The old grass and the tired soil under it come out, the levels get fixed, and new turf goes down. Sir Walter Buffalo is our usual pick where the yard gets part shade.
• Garden beds, hedging and screening. Plants picked for the light each bed really gets, with mulch on top and drip line underneath.
• Paths and paving. Brick, bluestone or pavers on a compacted base, with the fall running away from the house.
• Irrigation. New Hunter systems, or repairs and upgrades to the one already in the ground. Daniel, our registered plumber, looks after the connection side.
• Low walls and steps. Where the garden changes level, with drainage behind every wall.
• Artificial grass. For side strips and courtyards that never get enough sun to hold real turf.

Quite possibly. Malvern East is in the City of Stonnington, and three separate rules can cover a tree on private land: the council's significant tree local law, the Hedgeley Dene overlay in part of the suburb, and the state's canopy tree rule. Which ones apply depends on how big the tree is and where it stands on the block.

Council also lists a Significant Landscape Overlay along Gardiner Creek (KooyongKoot), and heritage overlays with their own tree controls, as places where tree works can need a planning permit. Its Tree Works Permit page has a checker. Any permit is the owner's to get, and I won't remove or prune a protected tree. Honestly, I'd rather design around a good one.

That changes how we build. Near a big tree we dig by hand instead of with a machine, route new paths and pipes around the root zone rather than through it, and keep the soil and paver stockpiles well away from the trunk. If the job needs works inside a significant tree's root zone, the permit comes first and the digging second.

Malvern East has two of Stonnington's best-known gardens. Central Park, on the corner of Burke and Wattletree Roads, covers almost 8 hectares. It's one of a handful of Edwardian public gardens, laid out in 1908 on land from the Gascoigne Estate, with avenue trees, flowerbeds and one of the oldest conservatories in Victoria.

Hedgeley Dene Gardens runs as a stretch of lawn through a series of streets, with deciduous and broadleaf trees and an ornamental lake. Council bought the land in 1911, returned soldiers planted Turkey Oaks after the First World War, and the gardens were developed from 1924.

The streets around it were the first area in Victoria judged to have a character worth special protection, and the overlay is still there. Council's guidance asks for low, permeable front fences so the vegetation stays in view, and site coverage of no more than 50 per cent so medium to large trees have room. For a front garden in that precinct, design for the canopy. Lawn and low planting that let the trees lead will suit it far better than tall hedging and wall-to-wall paving.

Gardiners Creek runs past Malvern Valley Golf Course on the Malvern East side, and the Percy Treyvaud Wetlands off Chadstone Road clean and filter stormwater before it reaches the creek. Every garden's runoff ends up somewhere, and roofs, paving and compacted lawn all shed it fast.

So before I price anything, I look at three things: which way the ground falls, where the downpipes and stormwater pits are, and whether new paving will push water toward the house or the neighbours. More planted area, gravel, or stepping stones set in pebbles all let rain soak in where it lands. For your block's flood risk, check with council.

We don't assume what's under the lawn either. We once dug up a struggling lawn and found it growing on 30mm of soil over a concrete slab. No amount of fertiliser was ever going to fix that. Soil changes from block to block, so I check it at the site visit before deciding how much good soil the new lawn needs.

Yes, with a permit. Stonnington lets residents plant the nature strip, but anything beyond mowing or laying new real grass needs a free Nature Strip Planting Permit, and only plants are allowed. Synthetic turf, pavers, gravel, retaining walls and irrigation are all ruled out, and plants have to be kept to 90cm or lower.

• Apply online for the free permit, with a Before You Dig Australia report attached
• Plants only, kept to a maximum of 90cm
• Groundcovers and low grasses under 50cm along the kerb and footpath, near driveways and close to corners
• No synthetic turf, pavers, bricks, fine gravel or granitic sand
• No irrigation, lighting, planter boxes or retaining walls
• Leave room for the bins and keep utility pits clear

Once the permit is through, we can prep and plant the nature strip as part of a front garden job. If you want artificial grass out the front, it has to stay inside your own boundary.

It can. Under a Heritage Overlay, Stonnington says a permit can be needed to build or carry out works, including a fence, pergola, verandah, or a pool or spa. Like-for-like maintenance that doesn't change how the place looks generally doesn't need one. So call council before we price a new front fence or anything structural out the front.

Plenty of homes here date from the Federation and interwar years, and we pick materials that sit with them: bluestone, red brick edging, or recycled brick paving. One client had us lay heritage brick paving from a mix of old recycled bricks that varied in size and colour, and it still came out level and consistent.

In January this year we were called to a Malvern East home with a fault in its Hunter irrigation. The battery terminal in the Hunter node had corroded. We replaced the node, fitted a new DC latching solenoid, cleared two blocked risers so they sprayed properly again, and showed the owner how to run it manually before we left.

Just across the border in Malvern, we laid the Sir Walter Buffalo lawn beside a lap pool pictured here. We've also finished several jobs this year in Glen Iris, on the other side of Stonnington, and laid lawns in Oakleigh, near our Clayton South base.

All up we've laid 15,000 square metres of turf, and we carry $5 million public liability insurance. In their own words:

Katherine F.: "re-imagined our garden in a way I could not have thought possible", after we took on overgrown hedges and a defunct irrigation system.

1. First contact. Ring 0489 952 492 or send photos through the quote form. Shots of the big trees and any existing sprinkler controller are a big help.
2. Site visit. I walk the block with you and note the trees and their root zones, the shade, the fall of the ground, and how materials will get in.
3. Rules check. If a tree, overlay or nature strip rule could apply, I flag it so you can check with council before anything is booked.
4. Written quote. Labour, materials and waste disposal each on their own line.
5. The build. Drainage and levels go in first, then paths and walls, then irrigation, turf and planting.
6. Handover. I go through the watering with you. New turf needs water every day for the first two to three weeks, and that part decides how the lawn turns out.

If you're weighing up garden landscaping in Malvern East, call 0489 952 492 or put a few photos through the quote form, and tell me what you want the garden to do. The site visit and the quote are both free. We cover the rest of the south-east as well, and every suburb is listed on our service areas page.