A garden, walked across one year
Garden design, paving, decking and retaining walls across Carlton, Kew and the inner east. Scroll, and watch one block move through its seasons.
We draw the whole block before a single shovel lifts.
String lines before stone. Levels, sightlines, what shades the deck in February — set on paper while the ground is still bare. You see the plan and the planting before anything is committed.
Down at ground level
What we build into the ground, in the order the ground needs it — levels first, the pretty things last.
We draw the whole block before we lift a shovel — levels, sightlines, what shades the deck in February. You see the plan and the planting before anything is committed.
Sleeper, block or rendered concrete, engineered and drained behind so the wall holds the slope for decades, not until the first wet winter.
Zoned drip lines on a timer and the surface drainage to match. The garden waters itself and the yard stops turning to soup.
Bluestone, granite, clay paver. Laid on a proper base with the falls set right, so water runs off the path instead of pooling against the house.
Spotted gum, blackbutt or composite, built on a frame that won't move. Screening, steps and a roofline that makes the back of the house usable past March.
Soil prepped, levelled and rolled before a single roll of turf goes down. Buffalo or couch, edged clean, ready to walk on when we hand it back.
Stone goes down once, and it goes down level.
One crew, one block. Bluestone on a proper base, joints swept tight, the falls set so water runs off the path — not the same rotating cast you met in the quote, but the crew that drew the plan, seeing it through.
Drained behind, the wall holds the slope for decades.
The part you'll never see. Agg-pipe, gravel and a spirit level across every course. The wet winter that finds a cheap wall finds nothing here — we build the back of it as carefully as the face.
In writing, before we start
A handshake is fine. A signed page is better. Five things we put on paper before the first dig.
It looks better at dusk in July than the day we left.
Built to outlast the planting. Level deck flowing onto stone, soft light in settled beds, the lawn holding through the cold. A garden you grow into — not one that quietly comes apart the first season you stop watching.
Gardens built to outlast the people who plant them.
× Thorne & Vale — how it works
This site catches the eye. BackOnTools catches the call you can't: it answers in your voice, books the job, and drops it in your pocket before you've put the tools down.
Your site, built around your jobs — half price when it’s on a BackOnTools number.
The end of the walk
Tell us about the block. We'll come and walk it with you.
Then we send back a plan and a fixed price — no obligation, no sales pressure. The same way every garden here started: someone stood on bare ground and pictured the long view.
A few lines is plenty. We'll reply within two business days.
Before you call the number
We built this garden — name, numbers, photography, all invented — to show what a landscaper's website can be when it's treated like the work itself: designed once, set level, made to last. The craft on the page is real, and it's available to you.
If you build gardens around Melbourne and your site is a quote form on a stock photo, this is the gap we close: one site, built to your trade, that makes the homeowner decide before they call. Tell us your business and we'll show you yours.
