Insights · Body corporate & strata
The short answer. Strata garden maintenance is the scheduled care of everything green on common property: lawns, beds, hedges, trees and the entrances that set the tone for the whole complex. Done well it runs quietly in the background on a fixed fee and a set frequency. Done badly it becomes the most visible failure on the property, because every resident walks past it twice a day.
What strata garden maintenance actually covers
Common property is everything outside the private lots: driveways and their edges, shared lawns, garden beds at entrances and between units, hedges along fences and paths, and street frontage. A maintenance program covers mowing and edging, garden bed care and weed control, hedge trimming on a species appropriate schedule, seasonal pruning, and removal of green waste the same visit. On larger complexes it extends to irrigation checks and reporting problems the committee cannot see from a quarterly walkabout, from failing trees to trip hazards lifting along paths.
How strata work differs from residential gardening
The garden is the same. The accountability is not. A residential gardener answers to one household. A strata contractor answers to a committee, a manager and every resident who pays levies, which means the job includes the paperwork and the communication as much as the mowing. Insurance evidence, a certificate of currency on request, a clear scope the committee can hold the contractor to, and a liaison arrangement so residents have somewhere to send requests other than the committee chair. The complexes that look consistently good are almost never the ones spending the most. They are the ones where scope, frequency and standard are written down.
What a good agreement specifies
Visits per year rather than vague regularity. A scope list naming the lawns, edges, beds and hedges, including target heights. Green waste removal included, not left in a corner. The response arrangement for between visit requests. Public liability cover, with $20M the common benchmark for commercial and strata work. And a single point of contact who actually does the work or directly manages it, because problems reported to a call centre have a way of dying there. Our guide to what body corporate gardening costs in Melbourne sets out the market ranges and what moves them.
The problems committees actually report
Contractor churn, where every year brings a new crew and the standard resets to zero. Patchy scope, where the lawns are cut but the beds go feral because nobody wrote them in. Invisible service, where the committee cannot tell if the contractor attended last week. The fixes are structural, not heroic: a written scope, a set frequency, photo reporting if the committee wants evidence, and one operator who owns the standard. If the complex is coming off a bad run, the body corporate gardening page sets out how a takeover works, including the first ninety days process that documents the property before changing anything.
Hedges, trees and the seasonal work
Hedges are the most visible planting on most complexes and the most commonly botched. Species set the schedule: fast growers need four to six trims a year, buxus two or three, and natives should never be cut into bare wood. The full species timing is in our hedge trimming guide. Trees on common property can be protected by local council rules, so significant pruning or removal may need a permit before anyone starts a saw, and a maintenance contractor should flag that rather than discover it.
Strata garden maintenance questions
What is strata garden maintenance?
Scheduled care of the gardens and grounds on common property in a strata or body corporate scheme: lawns, garden beds, hedges, trees under a set height, paths and entrances. It is arranged by the owners corporation and paid from the maintenance budget, and it runs to a program rather than being called in job by job.
Who pays for garden maintenance in a body corporate?
The owners corporation pays for work on common property out of levies. Gardens inside a private lot are the owner's responsibility. The line between the two is the plan of subdivision, and a good contractor learns that boundary at the walkthrough so the committee is never billed for private work.
How often should common property gardens be maintained?
Most Melbourne complexes present well on a fortnightly cycle through the growing season and monthly through winter, with hedges and pruning worked in seasonally. The right frequency follows growth and the standard the committee wants, and it should be written into the agreement as visits per year.
What should a strata gardening quote include?
A fixed fee, the visit frequency, a scope list naming lawns, edges, beds, hedges and green waste removal, the liaison arrangement for resident requests, and proof of insurance including public liability. If a quote is a single number with no scope, the committee cannot hold anyone to it.
Can an owners corporation change gardening contractors?
Yes. Most maintenance agreements run month to month or annually with a notice period. The practical work is the handover: documenting the scope, the standard and the known problem areas so the new contractor starts ahead of the complaints rather than behind them.
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