How often should a strata scheme’s gardens be maintained?

Is there a legal minimum for how often strata gardens are maintained in NSW?

No. What the law sets is the duty, not the timetable. The NSW Government’s strata repairs and maintenance guidance says the owners corporation or strata committee must repair and maintain common property, and it names gardens as an example of common property. Owners look after anything within their own lot.

The strata publication LookUpStrata puts it plainly: there are no mandated guidelines on maintenance frequencies for a strata complex, and the needs have to be addressed in the contract. As a general reference point for medium to large complexes, it gives gardens as weekly to fortnightly maintenance depending on the season.

So the frequency is a decision the committee makes, usually on the strata manager’s advice and a contractor’s quote. The rest of this guide is about making that decision on something firmer than habit.

How often strata lawns need mowing in Sydney

In most strata gardens the lawn sets the rhythm, because it is the thing that visibly gets away from you. Lawn Solutions Australia says how often to mow depends on the turf variety and the local climate: a fast growing grass such as couch in a warm climate needs mowing more often than a slower growing grass such as buffalo in a cooler one.

The same guide gives the rule that turns that into a schedule. Mow often enough that you remove no more than one third of the leaf with each pass, because cutting that way limits stress on the grass and helps avoid scalping.

Strata lawn mowing in the warm months

As temperatures rise, lawns start to grow actively and need more frequent mows to keep up. Lawn Solutions Australia also says it is generally better to mow lower in warmer months and higher in cooler months. On a busy strata site that usually means the shortest gap between visits falls somewhere between late spring and early autumn.

Strata lawn mowing in winter

Growth slows but does not always stop. Lawn Solutions Australia says warm season grasses start to slow once average soil temperatures drop below 14 degrees, that a lawn still growing in winter needs mowing every few weeks, and that the mowing height should go up a notch or two. A winter schedule can be lighter, but it should not stop.

Working out the gap between mows with the one third rule

The rule gives you a simple test. If a lawn is kept at 30mm, it should be cut again before it reaches about 45mm, because 15mm is a third of 45mm. If the grass reaches that height in seven days in January and in three or four weeks in July, those are the mowing gaps for those months.

1. Agree a target cutting height for each lawn, higher for shaded or cool season areas.
2. Multiply it by 1.5. That is the height at which the lawn is due again.
3. Watch how long it takes to get there in summer and in winter.
4. Set the warm season and cool season visit gaps from those two figures.

A starting maintenance schedule for a Sydney strata garden

Lawns are only part of it. Garden beds, hedges, mulch, feeding and irrigation each have their own natural interval, and a schedule that lists them separately is far easier to check than one line that says “fortnightly gardening”.

The table below is a starting point for a committee to adjust, not a standard. Where a figure appears, the source is linked in this guide. Where there is no sourced figure, it says what to agree instead.

What changes how often a strata garden needs a visit

Two strata schemes with the same lawn area can need very different schedules. These are the things that move the frequency up or down, and they are worth writing into the brief before anyone quotes.

Site factors that change strata garden visit frequency

Most of these are fixed by the site, so they are worth noting once and leaving in the brief.

• The grass. A fast growing grass such as couch needs mowing more often than a slower growing one such as buffalo.
• Irrigation. Watering keeps a lawn growing, so an irrigated lawn can need visits closer together in a dry spell.
• Hedges and fast growing screens. A long boundary hedge can need more attention than the lawn in late spring.
• Bare soil. Mulch suppresses weeds, so bare beds need more weeding than mulched ones.
• Foot traffic. Shortcuts across lawns and busy entries wear faster and show neglect sooner.

Presentation standards for the entry, the pool and the back fence

Not every area needs the same standard. The street frontage and the main entry are what buyers, tenants and visitors see first, so it is reasonable to keep those on the most frequent schedule and visit service areas, rear boundaries and car park edges less often. Write that split into the schedule so it is a decision, not an accident.

Seasonal calendar for a Sydney strata garden

Turning the schedule into a calendar makes it easy to check a contractor’s visit log against what was due. For lawn feeding, Lawn Solutions Australia suggests three to four feeds a year, using long weekends as a guide: the Australia Day weekend in summer, Easter in autumn and the October long weekend in spring, once soil temperatures stay above 14 degrees. After an autumn feed, a lawn can usually go without until spring. Beds and shrubs have their own needs, which our page on garden fertilising in Sydney covers.

For garden beds, the Smart Water Advice factsheet published by Uralla Shire Council says to top up organic mulch every year, or more often if it has broken down, to remove weeds first, and to leave a gap of at least 4cm around plant stems. It also says mulch can reduce evaporation from soil by up to 70%.

Watering a strata garden under Sydney Water’s rules

Watering affects how often a garden needs attention as much as anything else, because a well watered lawn grows. Sydney Water’s Water Wise Guidelines apply to everyone in Greater Sydney. At the time of writing they allow gardens and lawns to be watered with drinking water before 10am and after 4pm, with smart or drip systems allowed between those times, and new turf or plantings can be watered at any time for 28 days. The rules do not apply to recycled water or tank water.

Sydney Water changes these rules from time to time, so check its page rather than relying on the times above. For a strata scheme, the practical points are who changes the irrigation controller each season and how faults are reported.

• Change the controller program twice a year, at the start of the warm and cool seasons, and record it in the visit log.
• Check heads and drippers on a set visit, not only when a resident complains about a wet path.
• Adjust after new planting, then return the program to normal once the 28 days are up.

How strata garden visit frequency affects the administrative fund

The NSW Government’s page on managing strata finances calls the administrative fund the everyday fund, and lists garden maintenance and lawn mowing among its expenses. Every scheme must set a budget each year, the budget is approved at a meeting with the owners, and levy amounts come from it.

That makes the visit frequency a budget question as much as a gardening one. Settle it before the budget is drafted, so the levies reflect the schedule the committee actually wants rather than last year’s figure carried forward.

We do not publish prices, because the same frequency means very different work from one building to the next. These are the things that move the cost of a strata garden schedule:

• Visits per year, and how the warm and cool season gaps differ.
• The mix of lawn, beds and hedges, and how much of each.
• Access: stairs, narrow side paths, no parking, or gear carried through a lobby.
• Seasonal extras such as feeding, mulch top ups and irrigation checks.
• Green waste and whether it leaves the site on the day.

How to set the garden maintenance frequency for a strata scheme

Putting it together, this is the order we would suggest for a committee or strata manager deciding how often the gardens should be done.

1. Walk the site with the strata plan and mark the common property gardens, leaving out lot property and exclusive use areas the by-laws give to owners.
2. Split the site into areas and give each a presentation standard: entry and frontage, courtyards, rear boundaries and service areas.
3. Set a warm season and a cool season visit gap for the lawns using the one third rule.
4. List the yearly and seasonal tasks separately: feeds, mulch top up, hedge shaping, irrigation program changes.
5. Put the schedule into the contract and ask for a visit log, so what was done can be checked against what was due.
6. Review it after the first summer and adjust before the next budget.

Writing the strata garden schedule into the contract

A frequency only works if it is written down. Our guide to what a strata gardening contract should cover sets out the scope, irrigation, tree and termination clauses that sit around the schedule.

Trees on strata common property

Tree work does not belong on a routine schedule. Hornsby Shire Council, for example, says that pruning or removing a tree on private property generally needs a permit, with some exemptions such as pruning live branches that cause a nuisance up to 10% of the canopy, and that for a tree on strata common property the consent comes from the body corporate. Other councils have their own rules, so check with the council for the site.

Where Greenz Gardenscaping fits for strata and commercial sites

We have worked as gardeners across Sydney since 2014, for homes, strata schemes and commercial clients, across the Hills District, North Shore, Hornsby, Inner West, Parramatta and Ryde. Our work covers garden and lawn maintenance, hedge trimming, turf management, fertilising, garden clean ups, and irrigation installation, repair and maintenance.

If you look after a scheme and want a schedule priced, our strata gardening page explains how we work with strata managers. Office parks, retail centres and industrial sites face the same questions about frequency with different access and working hours, and our page on commercial grounds maintenance covers those. Either way, send the site address and how often you think it needs attention through the quote page and we will come back with a quote.