Planned Around Your Block.
Outdoor space in Armadale is hard won, so it gets used hard. Rear yards behind the period terraces are tight, and owners here are clawing room back with courtyards, side returns and gardens built over the top of a garage, which means a small patch of lawn carries all of the entertaining a bigger block would spread around. Under most of these gardens the loam gives way to clay, so water gets through the top and then stops. Levelled and drained properly, that lawn stays firm underfoot after rain instead of turning to mud exactly where everyone stands. Under the plane trees and the older canopies we choose grass for the light it actually gets, and in the side returns that never see sun we lay artificial turf instead of fighting a losing battle. On the wider blocks toward the Toorak boundary we build natural lawn that handles kids, dogs and a set of stumps, in a suburb that has watched cricket at Toorak Park since 1893. We also lay turf across Toorak and Malvern.
