A finished garden photograph never shows you the hard part. It does not show the slope that ran the length of the block, or the courtyard boxed in on every side, or the heritage frontage where anything new had to sit quietly beside something already handsome.
We have spent 30 years designing and building gardens across Melbourne, and the interesting work is nearly always in the gap between the site you start with and the one in the photograph. Here are five of ours, with the problem named first and what we built second. The full photography for each one sits on our projects page.
Five Melbourne gardens, before and after
Toorak: a slope that ran the length of the block
The problem. A large slope ran from the front of the property through to the back. A grade like that usually forces a choice between a lot of retaining or a garden you look at rather than use.
What we built. Rather than fight the fall, we sank the pool into it. One side sits partially exposed above ground, which removed the need for a pool fence along that edge and kept the view through to the neighbouring tennis court open. An entertaining area and a fire pit sit nearby, so the space still works after dark and outside swimming season.
The front garden had far less room. Stepping stones handle the approach, with dichondra filling the gaps between them, and a bronze sculpture gives the entrance something to look at. See the full project: Toorak Poolside.
Caulfield: a courtyard with nowhere to hide
The problem. A courtyard, with boundaries closing in on every side, neighbouring windows looking down into it, and no distance for the design to work with.
What we built. We went soft and natural with the palette, gravel and raw timbers rather than large expanses of hard paving. Gravel does quiet work in a small garden. It drains, it suits a range of styles, and it tells you when someone is walking on it.
Timber batten screens and gates solved the privacy problem without turning the courtyard into a box. Battens let light and air through, so you get separation and shifting shadow instead of a solid wall.
Planting carried the rest. We layered grasses for movement, sculptural shrubs as the focal points and perennials for seasonal colour, so the space reads as full rather than small. See the full project: Caulfield Courtyard.
East Melbourne: planting that had to respect a heritage house
The problem. A historic residence with classical architecture. The building was already doing the talking, so the garden either sat with it or competed with it.
What we built. Layered planting drawn from the lines of the house. Ornamental grasses run through perennial flowers, with shrubs and trees above them, so the beds have height, texture and colour working at several levels at once. That layering is what makes a garden shift through the year instead of peaking for three weeks in spring.
A pond brings water in, which changes how the garden sounds as much as how it looks, and bluestone paving ties it together. Bluestone is the default Melbourne stone for a reason: the blue-grey tone sits comfortably with heritage and contemporary buildings alike, and it wears well. See the full project: East Melbourne Terrace.
Kew: the side of the house, put to work
The starting point. A contemporary home with garden running along the side of the building, which is the part of a block most people give up on.
What we built. A custom seating area anchors the garden, placed so it is somewhere you stop rather than a bench you walk past. A reflection pond runs along the side of the house, and still water does something planting cannot: it doubles the sky and the foliage above it, so a contained space reads as larger than it is.
Bluestone paving again, and lighting through the garden. Lighting is the item most people leave until the budget has gone, and it is the one that decides whether the garden exists at all after six o’clock in winter. Placed well, it picks out a canopy, a wall texture or the edge of a path, and turns the view from inside into something worth having. See the full project: Kew Canopy.
Windsor: keeping the rustic character, adding the entertaining
The starting point. A property with rustic charm the owners had no interest in erasing, and a brief that had to cover both relaxing and hosting.
What we built. Corten steel planters and edging give the garden its structure. Corten weathers to a rust-coloured surface and then settles, so it holds a crisp edge for years without painting or replacing.
A built-in BBQ with timber-clad cupboards handles the cooking, a curved concrete bench does the seating, and a timber pergola covers the lot. Mesh panels built into the pergola give climbing plants something to hold, so the canopy fills in and improves each season rather than ageing.
The planting mixes natives with less common foliage, which is what stops a new garden looking new. See the full project: Windsor Alfresco.
What the five gardens have in common.
The sites, budgets and briefs were all different. The decisions underneath them were the same ones.
- Materials get chosen for the problem, not the mood board. Gravel where drainage and upkeep matter, battens where privacy still has to breathe, bluestone where the surface has to last, and Corten where an edge needs to hold its line without maintenance.
- Level change gets designed with rather than flattened out. The Toorak pool exists because the slope was treated as an asset.
- Something to sit on is placed before the planting goes in. In Kew and Windsor the seating is the anchor, and the garden was built around it.
- Sustainability shows up in the construction decisions as much as the planting. Most of our timber is grown in Australia, and the cypress battens we use on screens and fences are 100% sustainable Australian timber that needs no chemical treatment, because cypress resists rot and termites on its own. Radial cut milling reduces the waste, and we source pavers and stone locally where we can. More on our approach to sustainability.
- Water gets designed in. Water-wise planting and drip irrigation put water at the roots rather than into the air, which matters for Melbourne households living under Victoria’s permanent water saving rules.
What the five gardens have in common. What a garden transformation involves, start to finish.
The process explains why the finished gardens look the way they do. We work in three design stages, then build. The consultation is a conversation about how you want the garden to feel and what you need it to do, and it ends with a clear design fee. The site inspection is a full analysis of soil, aspect, drainage, existing features and access. Then we produce construction documentation, a written specification and a detailed quote.
The same team then builds it. When the designer and the builder are different companies, the compromises get made on site without you in the room. When they are the same team, the garden you were shown is the garden you get.
Timings are worth setting early, because most people underestimate the design end and overestimate the build.
| Stage | What happens | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Consultation | Site visit, brief taken, design fee provided | One meeting |
| Site inspection | Soil, aspect, drainage, access and existing assets assessed | Part of the design phase |
| Design and documentation | Concept, revisions, construction drawings, specification, quote | Two to six weeks |
| Construction | Retaining, paving, decking, irrigation, planting | A few weeks to several months |
What drives the cost of a garden transformation
No two quotes look alike, and any figure given before someone has walked your site is a guess. These are the things that move the number most.
- Level changes. Retaining, steps and excavation are the single biggest swing factor on a sloping block.
- Site access. Whether machinery can reach the back of the property, or whether every cubic metre of soil and stone goes through the house by wheelbarrow.
- Drainage. Melbourne clay holds water. Fixing that properly is invisible in the photographs and unavoidable in the budget.
- The balance of paving to planting. Hard landscaping costs more per square metre than garden beds, so the ratio matters.
- Structures. Pools, pergolas, decking, built-in seating and screening are each their own line.
- Plant size at installation. Mature stock buys you an established look immediately and costs accordingly.
This is why we quote after the site inspection rather than before it. The inspection is where soil, aspect, drainage, existing features and access get assessed, and those five things decide most of the cost. More on how the consultation process works.
Planning your own garden transformation
Come to a first meeting with three things and the design phase moves quickly.
First, how you want to use the garden, in ordinary terms: six people for dinner on a Saturday, somewhere shaded to read, a lawn the kids will not destroy in a fortnight. Second, the parts of the site you already like, because a good design keeps them. That might be an established tree, an old brick wall or an outlook worth framing. Third, a budget range you are comfortable naming. That number decides whether the concept you fall in love with is one you can build, so saying it early saves everybody a revision round.
Garden transformation questions we get asked
Allow two to six weeks for design and documentation, then anywhere from a few weeks to several months for construction. A courtyard is quick. A large garden with retaining, a pool and mature planting is a multi-month build. The design timeline depends on the size and complexity of the project and how many rounds of revision you want.
Often not, but sometimes yes. Planting, garden beds and most paving do not need one. Structures close to a boundary, work around a significant tree, and anything on a property covered by a heritage or environmental overlay can trigger a planning permit, and swimming pools carry their own building requirements. Your local council is the responsible authority, and Planning Victoria explains how permits work. Raise it at the consultation, because it affects the timeline more than the budget.
Sometimes, and only where the specific heights and clearances on your site comply. Every pool and spa in Victoria has to be registered with the local council and meet the barrier standard that applied when it was built. On the Toorak project, the fall across the site let one side of the pool sit partially above ground, which removed the need for a fence along that edge. That was a site-specific outcome for that property rather than a rule you can borrow. Victoria’s building regulator publishes the current barrier requirements.
Design is the drawings and the documentation. Construction is the build. Our landscape consultation covers the brief, site analysis, concept, revisions and full construction documentation, and landscape construction covers retaining walls, timber decking, paving, irrigation and planting. Plenty of firms do one and subcontract the other. We do both.
Yes, and a difficult block often produces the better garden. The Toorak slope is the reason that pool is sunken and the reason the entertaining area sits where it does. Level change costs money to resolve, so it needs to be in the budget from the start, but it also gives a garden something a flat block never has.
Work backwards. Design and documentation take two to six weeks, and construction takes a few weeks to several months depending on scale. Starting the conversation in late winter or early spring generally means a garden you can use by the following summer. Leaving it until November usually means enjoying it the summer after.
We do not take on maintenance ourselves, but we do two things to set the garden up for it. We hand over a document that sets out how your garden works and how it should be looked after once we are off site, and we point you towards maintenance gardeners we trust and work alongside.
We would strongly encourage using one. A layered planting scheme is at its best when someone tends it on purpose rather than when it has got away from them, and the difference shows within a season.
Key Takeaways
- A difficult site is not a problem to be flattened. The Toorak slope produced the sunken pool and the Caulfield courtyard produced the batten screening. The constraint usually becomes the best feature.
- Place the seating before the planting plan. In both Kew and Windsor the garden is organised around where you sit.
- Budget for lighting and drainage at the start. Both are easy to defer and expensive to retrofit, and both change how much you actually use the garden.
- Allow two to six weeks for design before a spade goes in the ground, then a few weeks to several months for construction depending on scale.
- If a pool is involved, confirm registration and barrier requirements with your council early. The rules depend on when the pool was built.
- Ask whether the company designing your garden is the one building it. It is the difference between the garden you were shown and the garden you get.
If one of these gardens looks like your site, the next step is a conversation about yours. Book a landscape consultation, browse the rest of our projects, or get in touch.
