Lawn mowing and garden care in Geelong.

Start with what is under the lawn. Most of inner Geelong sits on a lighter topsoil over heavy basalt clay. That clay blocks drainage, so low spots stay soggy through winter and beds can waterlog. Come summer the same clay dries out and sets hard, and in places it shrinks enough to open cracks. It is workable soil once you know it. Gypsum loosens some of these clays, compost keeps the topsoil open, and raised beds fix the drainage where nothing else will.

Geelong is also one of the drier corners of Victoria. The local weather station averages a touch over 500 mm of rain a year, with late summer the driest stretch and October usually the wettest month. February and March might bring only a handful of days with real rain. So the calendar matters here. Mulch the beds before summer, plant in autumn or spring, and water anything new deeply while it settles in. Barwon Water's permanent water saving rules apply all year round: watering systems may only run between 6pm and 10am, and hoses need a trigger nozzle. Hand watering with a hose, can or bucket is fine at any time.

The inner suburbs are established garden country. Newtown and Geelong West hold some of Geelong's oldest homes, and with them come long hedge runs, mature trees and leafy streets. Street trees shed bark, twigs and gum litter through summer, which means more raking, fuller gutters and more green waste than a new estate ever sees. For planting, the local natives handle the clay and the dry: yellow gum, drooping sheoke, silver banksia, kangaroo grass and tussock grass all do well. Acid-loving plants struggle. Azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons and blueberries sulk in the district's limey soil and show yellow leaves. And kikuyu is the standing battle. It runs into beds and under paths, and only deep edging and repeat follow-up hold it back.

One rule is worth knowing before any big tree work. Since September 2025 the Greater Geelong planning scheme has required a permit to remove or lop a canopy tree on most residential land. That means a tree over 5 metres tall, with a trunk more than half a metre around and a canopy at least 4 metres wide. Heritage and vegetation overlays can add their own permit triggers on top, and street trees may only be removed by the council's own arborists. So check with the City of Greater Geelong before you cut, and if I quote a job that needs a permit first, I will tell you.