Landmark gardens

Green Options mulch

Landmark’s award winning gardens

Green Options COVID-19 Safety Plan

Arborists on the job!

Many thanks to the arborists for removing the 20 Jan 20 storm damaged branches – and the feeding King Parrots didn’t budge through the whole noisy process!   Meanwhile the lawn looks like autumn with the now dry leaves on it.

Landmark is a unique Canberra apartment complex, defined by the generous 2.16 hectares of the property set aside for its immaculately maintained gardens.   These gardens continue to provide unparalleled improved value to all owners and a highly desirable amenity to all residents.   Landmark was fortunate to have had a highly dedicated and skilled garden maintenance team, headed by Anthony Dalle, and the result of their labours is clearly evident.   Green Options now attends to Landmark’s magnificent gardens.

Landmark’s changing garden views

In the latter half of 2017, significant work was carried out on the Central Oval in order to overcome a drainage problem that had, for many years, rendered one end of the oval area unusable, due to excess water causing the lawn to be wet and spongy.   The grade of the path area was redirected to divert water away, new stone crazy paving was laid on a concrete base, the lawn area was reconfigured and a new garden, featuring water-tolerant plants was constructed.   New concrete steps and a path area were added, making the entire area more user-friendly.   The attractive result has been used by residents on a number of community occasions and has received much favourable comment.

In November 2017, the Executive Committee agreed to the implementation of a number of garden works that were implemented at Landmark throughout last year.   These works were undertaken after a careful and thorough audit of all areas of landscaping of Landmark by Anthony Dalle and Virginia Berger, the Garden Sub-Committee.   Works undertaken in 2018 include:

• The mulching of a quarter of Landmark per year.   After four years this process will start again and will be on-going.

The removal of all 140 fan lawn sprinklers and pop-up lawn sprinklers. These have now been replaced with pressure regulated fan pop-up lawn sprinklers and pressure regulated pop-up lawn sprinklers, thereby reducing water consumption by up to 15%. This was quite an expensive undertaking but will pay for itself in lower water consumption.

• A number of hedges at Landmark had reached their used-by date. Some of them (particularly the pittosporum hedges) had been affected by the growth of nearby trees. Plants that like sun were struggling to grow in shade. These are gradually being replaced by more appropriate plantings. For example, the long pittosporum hedge along the garage wall at 7 Bowen Drive was replaced with Camellia Sasanqua plants, and the pittosporum hedge along the back of the swan lawn was replaced with Camellia Japonica plants. In due course, other under-performing hedges will also be replaced.
• A number of bare garden patches throughout Landmark have been filled with camellias. These have been chosen as they are hardy plants, flower in winter when most other plants are dormant and are generally disease resistant and low maintenance.
• The two small lawns at the front of 41 and 47 Blackall Street were not replaced at the time of all other Landmark lawns.   This was because the sprinkler system watering those lawns also watered the Blackall St nature strip (not owned by Landmark) and a lot of water would have been wasted during the growing period. The sprinkler system for the 41 and 47 lawns has now been isolated and rejuvenation of these lawns has occurred.
• An independent arborist has been retained by the EC.   A full tree inventory for Landmark was completed and subsequently acted upon.

Residents may not be aware that Landmark’s gardens are subject to an NCA approved plan since their development in 2003/2004 and, as such, permission to remove or replace any trees must be approved by the NCA and the ACT Government. Landmark does have a tree care policy which was passed in 2012 and can be provided upon request.   Any attempt by residents to poison or prune trees will not be tolerated.

Any issues requiring rectification, such as malfunctioning sprinklers, fallen trees or outages of path lighting, should be reported during business hours to the Landmark Building Manager, Natalie Wilde: 6161 0280, Mob: 0406 376 661, or Landmark@rhcfact.com.au    Please refer to the Landmark Apartments welcome pack for contact details should you encounter an out of hours emergency associated with our gardens.

Our new lawns (April 2016)