About 27 minutes from our Broadmeadow yard
On Toronto's western shore, many gardens run down to the water and older town blocks sit close to The Boulevarde. Fernline Landscapes plans each job here to run whole days on site, about 27 minutes from our Broadmeadow yard.
NSW contractor licence, structural landscaping: Lic. 000000C (demo)
Toronto was laid out as a lakeside town in 1887, and many of its gardens still run down to the water. That changes how you dig.
Toronto is the commercial centre for the suburbs on Lake Macquarie's western shore. The Excelsior Land, Investment and Building Company subdivided the Toronto Estate in 1887, and The Boulevarde, the main street, still starts at the foreshore. Along the water there are public baths, private jetties, sailing clubs, and small boats pulled up onto private land at the water's edge. Toronto also appears on a different mine subsidence district map from the rest of these suburbs: West Lake, not Lake Macquarie.
Plenty of Toronto backyards finish at the lake. The best of them do two jobs at once: they're a garden you enjoy from the house, and a route to the water for the boat, the kayak or the kids. We design with both in mind. There's a firm, clear path from the side gate to the shore, wide enough for a boat trolley, and garden beds sit to either side where they won't be run over.
The lake also sets the planting. Near the shore, plants have to cope with wind off the water and the odd soaking after big rain. Further up the yard, where it's drier and more sheltered, there's room for shade trees and softer planting close to the house.
Think about the view back from the water, too. Many Toronto houses are seen as much from the lake as from the street. A planted edge along the bottom of the yard, kept low enough to see over from the deck, makes the house look settled from a boat and helps hold the lawn at the shoreline.
Low ground beside the lake is where acid sulfate soil turns up. Left wet and undisturbed, it's harmless. Dug out and left in the air, it can turn acidic, damage plants and concrete, and wash into the lake. Lake Macquarie's LEP has a clause and a map for this land, so before we plan footings, drains or deep garden beds on a foreshore block, we check your lot on the map. If it's flagged, we design to keep the digging shallow or get the right advice first.
Toronto also appears on the West Lake mine subsidence map rather than the Lake Macquarie one. Planting isn't affected, but before anything structural we check your exact address, not the map.
Toronto is the furthest of our Lake Macquarie suburbs, about 27 minutes from Broadmeadow. The price and the crew are the same as anywhere else, and the planning is tighter: we load the truck the afternoon before, run your job as full days on site, and line up deliveries with local suppliers where it saves a trip, so your garden gets built without paying for us to sit in traffic.
They left a firm gravel strip from the shed to the water so I can wheel the tinnie down, with the garden either side of it.
Greg, Toronto · Sample review
Lawns, paths and planting for backyards that run to the water, with a clear, firm route for carrying a kayak or dragging a tinnie down to the shore.
Garden design in TorontoNew paths, beds and levels for established houses on the old town streets, keeping mature trees and original features where they're still sound.
Paving in TorontoFootings, drainage trenches and garden beds on low lakeside ground, planned after checking the acid sulfate soils map so the work doesn't need undoing.
Yes, as long as we can plan them as full days on site. A small job in Toronto gets the same crew and the same care; we just group the work so we're not driving back and forth. It's about 27 minutes each way from our yard.
Easily. We leave a clear, firm strip from the shed or the side gate to the water's edge, with turf or gravel that takes a boat trolley without rutting, and keep garden beds and edging out of the way.
It's soil, common on low ground near water, that's harmless while it's wet and undisturbed but can turn acidic when it's dug up and exposed to air. Lake Macquarie's LEP has a clause and a map for it. We check your lot on the map before we plan any digging near the lake.
Tough, clumping plants with dense roots, like lomandra and native grasses, set in a band along the bottom of the lawn. They hold the soil when the ground is wet, slow down water running off the yard, and stay low enough that you can still see the lake from the house.
We don't build seawalls or work on the lake's edge itself. That work needs its own approvals and a contractor who specialises in it. We look after the garden behind the wall, and we can leave the access and levels ready for whoever does the seawall.
Yes. On Toronto's older blocks we look at what's already there first, like mature trees, old brick edging or a sandstone step, and design around what's sound. New paths and beds are chosen to suit the age of the house rather than a new estate.
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.