LANDSCAPE DESIGN · Upper North Shore
Landscape Design in Cheltenham
For more than twenty years we have designed and built gardens across Sydney’s North Shore, and landscape design in Cheltenham is work we know well. It is a quiet, leafy suburb of established family homes on generous blocks, many bordering Lane Cove National Park and carrying significant trees, where the brief is usually a considered family garden that connects to the house and sits comfortably among the canopy.
As your project gets started, we set up a meeting to understand your needs and the space you’re working with. We talk through ideas and materials, and draw on our past projects to see how they might fit your home. After that meeting we send over a quick questionnaire for you to complete. The questionnaire, together with the insights gathered from our initial conversation, forms the foundation of a comprehensive project overview tailored to your new garden.
With experience within and around Cheltenham, our understanding of the area is extensive. Our collection of projects and our experience let us confidently create garden designs and build landscapes of various forms, from a single considered courtyard through to a full garden, pool and entertaining area. If you have a question about our services or your own project, call us on 1300 460 690.
- TYPICAL BLOCK Large, leafy, sloping
- COUNCIL Hornsby Shire Council
- KEY OVERLAY Tree preservation + bushland edges
Why Cheltenham is different
Cheltenham is one of the greenest, most bushland-framed pockets on the border of the Upper North Shore, with deep blocks that back onto Lane Cove National Park and the rail corridor. That setting brings tree protection, retaining and bushfire planning into any landscape design in Cheltenham, alongside the garden itself. Established canopy is protected under Hornsby Shire controls, so a good design works with the existing trees and levels rather than around a removal that may not be approved, and planting is chosen to blend into the bushland rather than compete with it.
Services in Cheltenham
Having completed projects across the North Shore, we understand the Cheltenham brief, from pools and entertaining terraces through to lawns, bushland-edge planting and full landscape builds on large, treed blocks. Our team includes landscape architects, project managers, pool builders, structural landscapers and horticulturalists, so a project moves from concept to a finished, planted garden without being handed between separate businesses.
A project in the Cheltenham area
A typical Cheltenham brief pairs a pool and entertaining terrace with a generous lawn and layered planting, sited to work around significant established trees and the bushland edge rather than clear them. On a large, sloping block, terracing that reads as sandstone outcrop and planting chosen to blend into the canopy keep the garden settled in its setting.
Cheltenham council & site notes
Hornsby Shire Council
Cheltenham is within the Hornsby Shire Council area. Established trees are commonly protected, so removal or significant pruning usually needs consent, and it is better to design around a tree you are likely to keep than to bank on a removal that may not be approved. Blocks bordering Lane Cove National Park are commonly bushfire-mapped, which affects materials and clearances around decks and structures, and larger structures or pools may need a development application. We factor this in during design and can prepare the documentation council requires.
“Our block falls away toward the national park and half of it felt unusable. Think Outside Gardens terraced it so we now have a proper lawn, a pool and a terrace that all connect back to the house, and they did it without touching the big trees we were worried about losing. The sandstone work looks like it was already part of the site, and the planting along the boundary blends straight into the bush.”
— Mary, Cheltenham
Cheltenham FAQs
Every Cheltenham garden is priced to the site rather than a set rate, because slope, retaining, tree protection and access all change the scope. A single courtyard sits at one end and a full garden with pool, terracing and planting at the other. After our initial meeting and questionnaire we prepare a project overview so you can see the likely investment before design work begins. Call us on 1300 460 690 to talk through your block.
Cheltenham sits within Hornsby Shire, where established trees are commonly protected and removal or significant pruning usually needs consent. Larger structures, pools and substantial retaining often require a development application as well. We identify what applies during design and can prepare the documentation council requires.
Not without checking first. Established canopy is protected under Hornsby Shire controls, and it is far better to design around a tree you are likely to keep than to bank on a removal that may not be approved. On a bushland edge block those mature trees are usually what gives the finished garden its setting.
Blocks bordering Lane Cove National Park are commonly bushfire mapped, which affects material choices, clearances around decks and structures, and the planting palette close to the house. It rarely limits what the garden can become, but it needs to sit in the design from the start rather than surface at DA stage.
Yes. Deep, falling blocks are the norm here and much of our work involves retaining and terracing that turns an unusable slope into flat lawn, a pool terrace and connected outdoor rooms. Terracing that reads as sandstone outcrop tends to settle best on these sites, and structural landscaping is handled in house so the engineering and the garden are designed together.
Siting usually comes down to catching northern light and connecting to the house without clearing significant trees, while meeting bushfire clearances toward the boundary. On a large Cheltenham block there are normally several workable positions, and we test them against sun, levels, the existing canopy and the entertaining terrace before settling on one.
Planting chosen to blend into the bushland rather than compete with it works best, with layered natives and shade tolerant species under established trees and more considered feature planting near the house and entertaining areas. Our horticulturalists select for the soil, aspect and light on your specific block, and for how the garden will look as it matures.
Yes. Our team includes landscape architects, project managers, pool builders, structural landscapers and horticulturalists, so a Cheltenham project moves from concept through to a finished, planted garden without being handed between separate businesses.
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