Gardens don't fail all at once. They slip — a bed gets weedy, a shrub grows over a path, the mulch thins out, and eighteen months later it's a weekend-long job nobody wants to start. Regular maintenance is what stops that slide, and it costs a fraction of a full restoration.
Greensward NZ provides scheduled gardening visits across Auckland, along with one-off clean-ups for properties that have already got away. We work to a plan you agree to, not just whatever looks urgent on the day.
What's included
- Hand weeding of beds, borders and gravel areas
- Pruning shrubs, roses, natives and fruit trees in season
- Re-cutting and defining garden bed edges
- Deadheading, dividing and cutting back perennials
- Topping up mulch and checking irrigation
- Removing all green waste from site
Scheduled visits beat crisis clean-ups
Most of our garden clients sit on a fortnightly or monthly visit. Two to three hours on a regular cycle keeps weeds from ever setting seed, which is the whole game — a weed pulled before it flowers is one weed, and a weed left to seed is several hundred next season.
On the same visit we prune what's in season, tidy edges, check that mulch depth hasn't dropped below 50mm, and flag anything that needs a decision from you. You get a short note after each visit saying what was done and what's coming up.
One-off garden clean-ups
For overgrown gardens, pre-sale tidy-ups, end-of-tenancy work or gardens inherited with a new house, we quote a one-off restoration. That usually means clearing the beds back to soil, hard pruning what's salvageable, removing what isn't, re-edging and re-mulching.
We'll tell you honestly what's worth keeping. A camellia that's been butchered for years often comes back beautifully with two seasons of correct pruning; a dying photinia hedge is usually better replaced than nursed.
Working with Auckland's clay
Large parts of East and South Auckland — Flat Bush, East Tāmaki, Dannemora — sit on heavy clay that compacts hard in summer and holds water through winter. Plants that would be easy elsewhere sulk in it.
Where we're planting or replanting, we work compost and gypsum through the top layer and mound beds slightly so roots aren't sitting wet. It's a small amount of extra work at planting that saves replacing plants two years later.
Garden Maintenance — common questions
How much does a gardener cost in Auckland?
Greensward NZ charges from $50 per hour per gardener for regular garden maintenance, with green waste removal included. Most residential gardens need two to three hours per visit. One-off clean-ups of overgrown gardens are quoted as a fixed price after we've seen the property.
How often should a garden be maintained?
Fortnightly through spring and summer and monthly over autumn and winter suits most Auckland gardens. That's frequent enough to stop weeds seeding, which is what keeps long-term costs down.
Do you supply plants and compost?
Yes. We source plants, compost, mulch and soil conditioner at trade rates and pass the cost on at the supply price plus delivery. You'll see it itemised on the quote before anything is ordered.
Can you take over a garden that's completely overgrown?
Yes — that's a large part of what we do. We quote overgrown gardens as a one-off restoration, then most clients move onto a regular maintenance cycle afterwards, which is far cheaper than repeating the rescue.
