Hiring a landscaper: from garden tidy-up to full redesign

What landscaping covers

Landscaping splits into two families. Soft landscaping is the green stuff — soil preparation, turf, garden beds, plants and mulch — and it's relatively cheap per square metre. Hard landscaping, or hardscaping, is the built stuff — paving, retaining walls, decks, steps, outdoor structures and drainage — and it costs several times more per metre because it's construction. Most real projects mix the two.

Because the scope is so wide, so is the trade. A general landscaper handles most residential work; a landscape designer or architect produces a plan first on bigger projects; and specialists come in for retaining walls, irrigation or lighting. The bigger and more built your project, the more it pays to have a design and a clear scope before anyone quotes, so you're comparing like with like.

How the cost works

Landscaping is broadly priced per square metre, but the range within that is enormous depending on how much is soft versus hard. A garden makeover — soil, plants, mulch and a patch of turf — sits at the low end; a full yard with paving, beds and irrigation in the middle; and a designed redesign with retaining, extensive paving and mature plants climbs steeply. The calculator on this page reflects those bands for your area.

Site condition sets the starting line before anything decorative goes in. Sloping blocks need retaining and machinery; rocky ground and tree roots slow excavation; poor drainage has to be solved underground first. Plant maturity is another quiet multiplier — advanced trees cost many times more than tubestock that takes years to fill in. And green waste and soil removal add up fast on big digs, so ask whether they're included.

Choosing a landscaper

Licensing depends on your state and the work involved — structural landscaping like retaining walls above a certain height, or work over a value threshold, often needs a building or trade licence, while planting and turf generally don't. Retaining walls above roughly a metre usually need engineering and council approval, so confirm that's sorted before quoting starts. Always check ABN and insurance regardless.

The signals of a good landscaper are a clear staged plan, a written scope that separates soft and hard work, and honesty about drainage and access rather than a headline price that ignores them. If the budget is tight, a good landscaper will suggest staging — earthworks, drainage and hardscaping first, plants added over time — rather than cutting the structural work that's expensive to redo.

Mistakes to avoid

Landscaping regrets usually come from comparing quotes that assume different scopes, or from skipping the unglamorous groundwork — drainage, levels, retaining — that's cheap now and ruinous to fix once the pretty stuff is on top.

• Comparing quotes without a written scope separating soft and hard landscaping
• Skipping drainage and earthworks that are cheap now and expensive to retrofit
• Not checking whether retaining walls need engineering and council approval
• Forgetting to ask if green waste and soil removal are in the quote
• Buying tubestock to save money when the look you want needs advanced plants
• Doing it all at once on a tight budget instead of staging the structural work first