Native garden design and care, Wollongong to Sydney. Thoughtful gardens, by qualified hands.

Lüdi Gardens is led by Dayne Corbishley, a qualified horticulturist working across the Illawarra, South Coast NSW and Sydney. Every garden starts with the habitat it sits in: the soil, the exposure, the plants already growing nearby.

Lüdi designed gardens are crafted for each property, and the maintenance is planned out from the start. We love our native plants here, but we also enjoy working with a vast variety of plants and understand that everyone has their own taste.

We take pride in our hard work and in building a strong relationship with each client, which makes for easy communication between us and you.

Autumn. In the Illawarra, March to May gives new plantings warm soil, cooling air and the wettest months of the year, so roots establish before their first summer. Spring works too, but a spring-planted native meets summer with a smaller root system. Summer is the one window we avoid for new native plantings unless you can commit to watering.

We set the whole year out, month by month, in our Wollongong native planting calendar.

Yes, and soil type drives plant selection more than anything else. Wollongong’s escarpment suburbs run heavy in clay, while coastal suburbs like Thirroul and Austinmer trend sandy with high salt exposure.

Our team assesses soil during the site visit and selects species that suit the conditions. Each garden is given its own character. No two gardens are the same. For the detail on how the two ends of the region differ, read escarpment versus coastal Illawarra gardens.

Start with the site, not the plant list. We record soil, aspect, drainage and salt exposure on the first visit, then choose species that already grow in those conditions locally. Structure comes from a few larger plants, repeated groundcovers and grasses fill between them, and the whole thing goes in during autumn so the rain does the establishing.

Garden design pricing depends on the scope of your space, ranging from a single planting plan through to a full garden masterplan. Installations vary based on garden size, soil preparation and plant selection.

We provide a clear written quote after the on-site consultation, with no charges or commitments before that. The consultation itself is free.

Every garden we plant gets its own management plan, because no two are the same. We encourage irrigation to go in at the time of planting; it gives a new garden the best chance to thrive, though we understand it’s not for everyone.

We offer maintenance led by our team, including pruning, fertilising, mulching and everything in between, so the garden doesn’t just survive its first year but comes out of it established.

If you live in Sydney, the Illawarra or South Coast NSW and would like to get in touch, we would be more than happy to take your call and answer any questions you may have.

Locally that covers Wollongong, North Wollongong, Fairy Meadow, Figtree, Keiraville, Balgownie, Corrimal, Towradgi, Woonona, Bulli, Thirroul, Austinmer, Unanderra, Port Kembla, Dapto and the surrounding suburbs.