Nearly seven in ten Surry Hills homes are apartments, so most of the greenery here lives in a planter, on a balcony or at a building entrance. Containers need more attention than gardens do, not less.
Surry Hills sits about one kilometre south-east of the city on hilly ground, inside the City of Sydney. Around 68 per cent of its dwellings are apartments and 29 per cent are terraces or townhouses, with barely one per cent freestanding houses, so almost nothing here is a conventional garden.
A planter against a warm brick wall, with heat reflecting off the building opposite, can empty in a couple of days in February. Pots need checking, watering and topping far more often than an in-ground bed ever would. That is why short frequent visits work so much better here than occasional long ones, and why a quarterly tidy-up is usually money wasted on container planting.
At a building entrance the planting is the first thing every resident and visitor sees. Keeping it sharp lifts the whole address, and it needs a scope a committee or managing agent can approve before anything starts.
One kilometre from the CBD with narrow one-way streets, permit parking, loading zones and no verge anywhere. Working out where a vehicle can stand is genuinely part of the job here rather than a detail.
Short, frequent visits to planters, balconies, entries and the occasional terrace courtyard.
Planters, entry beds, courtyards, paving joints and front steps cleared back by hand, roots included. On a space this small, weeding is most of what makes the difference between looking maintained and looking forgotten.
More on weedingMulch on top of the pots and through the entry beds at a depth that genuinely slows evaporation. Most container planting around here has never been mulched at all, and doing it is the single cheapest thing that keeps that planting alive through a Sydney summer.
More on mulchingThe clipped planting common at building entries and along courtyard boundaries, cut to a clean line. In a tight courtyard a hedge is doing the privacy work from the buildings around it.
How we trim hedgesKeeping climbers, small trees and container planting in proportion, and lifting growth off roofs, gutters and shared walls. On a party wall we work to the line and leave the other side tidy.
See our pruning and trimmingSmall lawns where there is genuinely enough light, which in a walled courtyard between buildings is rare. We would rather say so and put the money into planting that works.
How we lay new turfClippings, prunings and spent potting mix taken away at the end of every visit. With no verge anywhere and parking restricted across the suburb, everything leaves with us the same day rather than being bagged and left.
See our rubbish removalRemoving a tree that has outgrown a courtyard or is lifting paving or a wall. The City of Sydney controls removal and significant pruning of many trees, and we check before quoting.
About our tree lopping workAccess and how much of the planting is in containers.
Three steps, a fixed written price per visit, and no lock-in contract.
Balcony planters, a building entry, a shared courtyard or a terrace. That decides the scope and who needs to approve it.
A fixed price per visit. On containers these are short visits and more frequent ones work out far better than occasional long ones.
Same crew each time. Everything leaves with us and lifts, entries and footpaths are left clear.
Terry and his team are fantastic to work with.
The team have been very professional with their work, communication and they were also fast paced.
They use very high quality materials and workmanship is flawless.
Surry Hills sits beside the city with Darlinghurst, Redfern, Paddington, Chippendale and Potts Point nearby.
For a courtyard rebuild rather than upkeep, see everything we do across the City of Sydney, or browse every Sydney suburb we service.
Usually nothing except underestimating how fast they dry. A pot against warm brick with heat reflecting off the building can empty in two days in February. Mulch on top of the pots, the right mix and more frequent short visits fix most of it.
Yes, and with nearly seven in ten homes here being apartments it is most of our Surry Hills work. We supply a written scope and fixed price a committee or managing agent can approve, and work to the building's access hours.
The visits are short and inexpensive, and on a space that size the difference is immediately visible. Plenty of our clients here are on a short regular cycle for exactly that reason.
That is something we work out before quoting rather than on the day. Permit zones and loading restrictions are the norm here, and knowing the answer in advance is what keeps the price honest.
Almost certainly not, in most of these spaces. Surrounded by buildings there is rarely enough light, and turf thins out within a season. We will say that up front and suggest planting or a surface instead.
Yes. We work across Surry Hills 2010 and the surrounding inner-city suburbs including Darlinghurst, Redfern, Chippendale, Waterloo, Paddington and Potts Point.
Send us the basics and we will come out, look at the light, the access and how much is in containers, then give you a fixed written price per visit. The visit costs nothing.
Prefer to talk it through? Call 0451 267 287.
Whether it is a balcony that keeps drying out or a building entry that needs a consistent standard, we will come out and price it.