What's different about gardens up here
Terrey Hills gardens have a few quiet problems you don't get in the harbourside suburbs. Grass in a wet October will get away from you fast, and grass getting away from you isn't just ugly up here — it's a genuine fire risk. Most properties sit inside a bushfire-prone designation and the RFS Asset Protection Zone guidelines are worth taking seriously. Keeping the 10 to 20 metres around the house short, clean and clear isn't a nice-to-have; it's the difference between "a good summer" and a very bad one.
Native plantings dominate most front yards — banksias, grevilleas, hakeas, tea trees — and they want different treatment to the hedges and camellias you'd find in Mosman. Lantana creeps back into cleared margins every year. Possums help themselves to the citrus. Cockatoos go at anything that catches their eye. The kookaburras are the only ones that won't cost you money.