We design and build landscaping: terracing, lawns, planting, irrigation, paths, drainage and outdoor lighting, and we can then keep the plot under regular care.
A subtropical plot is not a seasonal garden
Here plants grow nearly all year and a neglected plot closes over within a month. So we plan for maintenance from the start: beds that can be reached, mowing routes a machine can actually follow, irrigation with accessible valves, and planting chosen for humidity, wind and, near the coast, salt spray. A design that looks good on paper but needs a gardener three days a week is a design problem, not a maintenance one.
Water first
On a slope the landscaping starts with drainage and channels, otherwise the first heavy autumn washes the soil down onto the paths and the terraces lose their fill. That part is invisible in photographs and decides whether the garden survives its second year. We also plan where runoff from the plot above enters and where it leaves, because a garden is where that water becomes visible.
Planting for this climate
Species are chosen by position rather than by catalogue photograph: salt and wind tolerance on the first line, shade tolerance under existing trees, root behaviour near paving and drainage lines. We avoid plants whose roots lift a path within five years, and we say when a popular choice is a bad idea here.
Irrigation and lighting
Even with two thousand millimetres of rain a year, summer has dry spells, so irrigation is usually worth it. It is designed to be serviced — valves in boxes, not buried irreversibly. Path and step lighting goes in with the cable routes before the paving, on a separate circuit so it can be switched independently.
Timing and price
Depends on the area and the amount of earthwork. We quote after a site visit and plan the planting for the right season rather than the convenient one.