Landscaping across Newcastle
Whether yours is a Federation front yard in Hamilton or a bare new block in Fletcher, Fernline Landscapes designs and builds your garden with one crew, from a yard in Broadmeadow minutes from most of the city.
NSW contractor licence, structural landscaping: Lic. 000000C (demo)
Each has its own page: the ground, the houses, the council rules and the jobs we do there.
Newcastle has sand on the coast, clay out west and slopes almost everywhere in between. A garden that suits one suburb can fail in the next.
The City of Newcastle covers two very different kinds of garden. Close to the harbour and the beaches, the soil is sandy, the blocks are small and the houses are often a hundred years old, with heritage rules to match. Out west, through Wallsend, Maryland and Fletcher, the ground turns to reactive clay, the blocks get bigger and steeper, and many houses are only a few years old with nothing but builder's turf around them. We work both every week.
The mistakes are different on sand and on clay. On sand, water vanishes and new plants dry out before their roots are down. On clay, water stays put, lawns turn boggy and walls get pushed over. Out on the ridges where the mines once were, there's slope to deal with too, and in places old workings underneath. So the first thing worked out at your site visit is which ground you're on, with a test hole rather than a guess from the suburb name.
If you're in Hamilton, Georgetown or the streets around them, your job is most likely a front garden or a small backyard. Your house is probably a Federation or interwar cottage, maybe with original brick or sandstone edging still in the ground. What it needs is restraint: a straight path to the door, a low hedge to the street, beds that suit the age of the house, and paving that doesn't fight the old brick. If your house is in a heritage conservation area, the City of Newcastle's controls can cover what's seen from the street, so we check the maps before drawing anything.
If you've moved into Maryland, Fletcher or the newer parts of Wallsend, your garden probably starts from nothing. A new house on a cut-and-fill block usually comes with a steep bank, builder's turf laid straight on clay, and a backyard that turns into a pond after the first storm. Your water gets fixed first, then the levels with low retaining walls, then turf on proper soil and natives along the edges that grow happily in clay.
Our yard is in Broadmeadow, right in the middle of the city. Sandstone, block, gravel and soil come in by the truckload and go back out to your site, usually the same morning. Being central means shorter travel, earlier starts at your place, and a crew that can come back after the first big storm to check your drainage is doing its job.
Clear quote, clear start date, and they finished on the day they said. That's all I wanted.
Tom, Georgetown · Sample review
A bare, sloping block with builder's turf and a clay base. We level it with low walls, fix the drainage, and plant natives that cope with clay.
Retaining walls in NewcastleSandstone paths, edging and planting that suit a Federation cottage, with the heritage rules for your street checked before anything is built.
Garden design in NewcastlePaving, raised beds and a screen of planting for houses where the whole backyard is a few metres square.
Paving in NewcastleRegrading, strip drains and ag pipes for yards that pond after every heavy storm, which on clay is most of them.
Paving in NewcastleAll of the City of Newcastle. The suburbs we work in most are Hamilton, Georgetown, Wallsend, Maryland and Fletcher, but we take jobs from Stockton to Minmi. Our yard is in Broadmeadow, so most of the city is under twenty minutes away.
With the water. Clay doesn't drain, so before any lawn or garden goes in we work out where storm water will run and give it somewhere to go. Then the levels: usually one or two low retaining walls to make flat, usable space. Planting and turf come last.
They can. The City of Newcastle's DCP lists nine heritage conservation areas, including Cooks Hill, The Hill and three named for Hamilton. Their controls focus on what the street sees, such as face brick and stone front fences, open front gardens and mature trees. Planting is rarely an issue. Fernline checks your address against the LEP maps before drawing anything.
Natives that come from clay country do best: lomandra, dianella, westringia, grevillea and many of the eucalypts and banksias. We improve the topsoil in garden beds and mulch heavily, but we choose plants that like the ground rather than fighting it.
Quite possibly. Large parts of Newcastle are in mine subsidence districts, where building work generally needs Subsidence Advisory NSW approval. Its exempt list covers retaining walls up to 1m and pergolas up to 50 square metres on every property, and decks up to 50 square metres on some, depending on the guideline, so a taller engineered wall or a big structure is what usually needs it. We check your address before quoting.
Site visits are usually within a week of your call. Build start dates depend on the season, and spring books out first, but the date is in your quote and we stick to it.
A few photos and a rough idea is enough. We'll ring to book a free site visit, then send a fixed quote with a drawing.