Best landscapers in Albany & the Great Southern (2026)
Table of Contents
These are the best-rated landscapers working Albany and the Great Southern, from the Middleton Beach and Emu Point coast around Princess Royal Harbour and Oyster Harbour, up through Yakamia, McKail and Bayonet Head, and out to Denmark, Mount Barker and the Porongurup and Stirling Range hills. They’re ranked on real Google reviews, not on who paid us. Albany is a smaller regional market than Perth, so this is a short, honest list of genuine review-bearing crews rather than a padded top 10. Below the ranking you’ll find what turf, a courtyard makeover, reticulation, a granite or block retaining wall, paving, a windbreak or a full garden rebuild actually costs down here in 2026, the red flags that tell you to keep your deposit in your pocket, and a quick checklist to run before anyone starts digging, whether it’s exposed coastal sand off the Sound or heavy granite ground up on the hills.
Featured landscapers
These spots are for Albany-area landscapers who want to stand out on this page. None are taken yet, so the full review-ranked list is right below. That ranking is earned off Google reviews and never for sale. Are you a local landscaper around Albany, Denmark, Mount Barker or the Great Southern? Featured spots start at $50 a year.
Get a Featured spot ▸How we ranked these
- Google reviews do the ranking. We start with every landscaper’s live Google star rating and the number of reviews behind it, pulled fresh from Google Maps across Albany, Denmark, Mount Barker and the surrounding Great Southern towns.
- Rating, weighted by volume. A 5.0 from a handful of jobs isn’t proof yet, so we weight the score by review count. A proven rating from more customers isn’t beaten by a perfect score from a few. All four crews below hold a clean 5.0, so the order simply follows who has the deepest review base.
- A genuinely small, tightly matched field. Albany is a regional city, not a dense metro, and only a handful of dedicated landscapers here carry a real review base. The four below are the ones with enough reviews to rank honestly, and because they all sit on a perfect 5.0 their weighted scores are within a whisker of each other, so treat them as a close group rather than a firm one-to-four pecking order. We only list real, review-bearing landscapers and never pad the list to hit a number.
- Some landscaping work needs a licensed trade. Landscaping itself isn’t a licensed trade in WA, but the bits attached to it are. A retaining wall over 500mm generally needs a building permit and engineering, garden lighting and pump wiring must be done by a licensed electrician, and anything plumbed into mains, bore, tank or rainwater needs the right backflow and a licensed plumber. A good landscaper organises all of that. We show you how to check in the checklist.
- Maintenance crews and clearing outfits sit in their own lane. The Great Southern has plenty of good mowing, lawn-care and garden-maintenance outfits, some doing genuinely nice work, like Where’s Wallace Property Services (5.0 across 20). Google files those under garden and lawn maintenance rather than landscape construction, so they’re named below rather than ranked against the crews who design and build gardens. Land-clearing and forestry outfits such as Wild Earth Contracting (5.0 across 20) are likewise a different job from building a garden, so they’re named rather than ranked here.
- Supply yards and other trades left out. Soil, mulch, turf and stone suppliers (Designer Dirt, Albany Allsoils Landscape Supplies, Oyster Harbour Landscape Supplies, Great Southern Sands) show up under these searches, and Albany Landscapes Supplies trades from a highway yard on Albany Highway despite carrying a landscaper tag. They’re real businesses, but they’re not the contractor you book to build the garden, so we’ve kept them off this list along with any listing carrying only a review or two.
- Paid spots are labelled, and never jump the queue. When a business pays for a “Featured” spot it’s marked as such. The review-based order below does not change to favour a payer. Right now, no spots are sold.
Better Gardens Albany
A clean 5.0 across 13 reviews is the deepest genuinely landscaping-focused record on this page, and the volume weighting nudges them clearly ahead of the smaller-base crews below. Google lists them under landscaping and they offer online estimates, so you can get the ball rolling without waiting on a site visit for the smaller jobs. Thirteen five-star jobs is a solid book for a market this size and points to a crew that handles the full run of work, garden makeovers, planting and general property tidy-ups, and finishes what it starts. If you want the strongest all-round track record on this list, this is a good first call.
View listing & contact ▸Great Southern Turf & Landscaping
A perfect 5.0 across 12 reviews puts them a hair behind the leader on the weighted score, and it’s a deep, proven base for a town this size. Google files them as a landscape designer, so they’re set up for a garden that’s planned and built rather than just mowed, and the name points to strength on the turf and lawn side, laying and establishing new lawn on Albany’s mix of exposed sand and heavier ground. A strong all-rounder if you want design, turf and construction under one roof. Ask to see recent local jobs like yours when you call.
View listing & contact ▸Coastal Habitats Landscaping
A perfect 5.0 held over 5 reviews is a clean early record rather than a deep one, so weigh the base accordingly, but the name is a good fit for the local brief. Coastal and native landscaping is exactly what Albany’s exposed, salt-and-wind-battered blocks call for, tough foreshore-hardy planting and windbreaks that actually survive off the Sound rather than soft inland stock that burns off in a season. Well worth a quote if your block cops the wind and salt and you want a garden built to handle it. Ask to see recent coastal jobs given the thinner review base.
View listing & contact ▸A note on the ranking: this is a small field, and all four crews above hold a perfect 5.0, so they sit within a few hundredths of each other on the weighted score. Read them as a close group. Better Gardens Albany leads on the deepest base (5.0 across 13), Great Southern Turf & Landscaping is right on its shoulder (5.0 across 12), and Coastal Habitats Landscaping and Striking Plants follow on smaller but still perfect records. We list only real, review-bearing landscapers and never pad the list. Albany Landscapes Supplies carries a landscaper tag and a 4.3 across 13, but it trades from a yard on Albany Highway and reads as a supplies operation rather than a garden-building crew, so it’s named here rather than ranked. Earlybird Landscaping (4.2 across 5) sits just under our rating threshold. Emerging crews with only a review or two, such as Triple L Landscapes and Dingo Works and the new Drift Landscape Studio, are worth watching but don’t yet carry the base to rank. Good mowing and garden-maintenance outfits like Where’s Wallace Property Services (5.0 across 20), and land-clearing crews like Wild Earth Contracting (5.0 across 20), sit in their own lanes rather than against the garden builders.
What landscaping actually costs in Albany & the Great Southern (2026)
Nobody likes ringing a landscaper blind on price. These are honest ballpark ranges for the common jobs from Albany through Emu Point, McKail, Denmark and Mount Barker, GST and standard labour included. They’re a guide to keep you from being overcharged, not a quote. Pricing here swings on ground conditions (exposed, free-draining coastal sand near the beaches and harbours versus heavy granite gravel, loam and clay on the hills and inland), how much wind and salt the block cops, whether it’s a compact town block or semi-rural acreage, how much has to be dug, drained or blasted out of granite, and council rules through the City of Albany, the Shire of Denmark and the Shire of Plantagenet, so always get the job priced in writing before work starts.
| Job | Typical range | What pushes it up |
|---|---|---|
| Lay natural turf (rolled lawn, supply & lay) | $12-$22 / m² | Soil prep and wetting agent on hydrophobic coastal sand, levelling on sloping hill blocks, cartage to Denmark and outer towns |
| Artificial turf (supply & install) | $70-$120 / m² | Pile quality, base build-up on soft sand or over rock, cuts around beds and paths, small courtyards and new-estate yards |
| Reticulation, new system (per station/zone) | $180-$350 | Scheme vs bore, rainwater or tank source, number of zones, controller, trenching through hard granite ground |
| Windbreak / screening planting (per lineal m) | $40-$120 | Plant size and spacing, staking and tree guards on exposed sites, salt- and wind-hardy species, temporary shade-cloth screening |
| Retaining wall, granite, limestone or block (per m² face) | $350-$800 | Height, engineering & permit over 500mm, rock excavation, drainage behind the wall, stone vs block finish, sloping sites |
| Paving (supply & lay, per m²) | $80-$180 | Paver type, patterns, cuts, base and compaction over reactive clay, driveway crossovers, access on steep blocks |
| Site clearing / earthworks (per day) | $1,000-$2,000 | Tree and stump clearing (karri, jarrah, marri), granite outcrops, tip fees, machine access and cart-away on rural Kalgan and hill blocks |
| Winter drainage / soakwells on wet blocks | $1,200-$5,000 | Albany’s high winter rainfall and low, slow-draining ground, number and size of soakwells, connecting downpipes and surface runoff |
| Coastal & wind-hardy garden bed (per m²) | $45-$95 | Plant size and choice, garden mix, salt- and wind-tolerant species near the Sound and the harbours, frost-hardy stock on inland blocks |
| Garden design / landscape plan | $500-$2,500 | Concept vs full documented plan, site survey, 3D render, larger rural and hill sites |
| Full garden makeover (standard block) | $15,000-$45,000+ | Retaining, paving, turf, retic, windbreaks, planting and lighting combined, plus rock excavation or drainage premium on hard or wet blocks |
Albany and the Great Southern run a few different jobs side by side, and the wind, the water and the granite are the reasons why. The defining factor down here is wind: strong, cold, salt-laden southerlies come straight off the Southern Ocean and King George Sound year-round, so on exposed blocks near Middleton Beach, Emu Point and the harbours a garden lives or dies on windbreaks, staking and genuinely salt- and wind-hardy planting, plus galvanised or stainless retic fittings that don’t corrode in the salt air. Near the coast you’re often on deep, free-draining pale sand that drains fast but repels water once it dries out, so garden mix and a wetting agent are non-negotiable. Push up onto the hills around Mount Melville, Mount Clarence and Yakamia, or inland toward Kalgan, Mount Barker and the Porongurups, and you hit heavier granite gravel, loam and clay, often with granite outcrops close to the surface, so rock excavation, access on sloping blocks and cart-away drive the cost, and inland frost means frost-hardy stock. On top of all of it, Albany is the wettest, coolest patch of mainland WA, so the flatter, lower blocks stay soggy through a long winter and proper drainage, soakwells and surface grading are a headline job, not an afterthought. A good operator should give you a fixed price or a not-to-exceed figure, in writing, before starting. If they can’t, that’s a red flag (see below).
Don’t get ripped off: red flags
- A big deposit up front, then they vanish. Landscaping is the classic trade for a dodgy operator to take a fat deposit for “materials” and never come back, or drift off mid-job. In a smaller market like Albany word gets around, but that’s cold comfort once your money’s gone. Keep the deposit modest, tie payments to stages you can see finished, and never pay the lot before the work is done.
- No plan for wind and salt on an exposed block. Albany cops strong, cold, salt-laden wind straight off the Southern Ocean, and a garden planted with soft inland stock and no windbreak will burn off and lean over inside a season. If your block is near the coast or up on an exposed rise and the quote doesn’t mention windbreaks, staking, tree guards or salt- and wind-hardy planting, they haven’t thought about the one thing that decides whether the garden survives.
- No soil prep on hydrophobic coastal sand. Laying turf or a garden straight onto dry builder’s sand with no garden mix or wetting agent looks fine for a month, then the water runs straight through and the lot dries off and dies. Near the beaches and harbours the prep under the green stuff is half the job. Ask exactly what goes in and how they’ll get sand to hold water.
- No drainage plan on a low, wet block. Albany is the wettest, coolest part of mainland WA, so the flatter, lower blocks stay waterlogged through a long winter. Skip the soakwells, surface grading and drainage and you get pooling paving, boggy beds and lawn that rots off. If your block sits low and gets wet, a landscaper who hasn’t mentioned drainage hasn’t looked properly.
- A retaining wall over knee height with no permit or engineering, especially over granite. In WA a retaining wall over 500mm generally needs a building permit and an engineer’s design, and one holding up a neighbour’s land, a driveway or a sloping hill block almost always does. “We’ll just stack the blocks” on a serious wall, or one keyed into shifting granite ground, gets you something that bulges, cracks or fails, and a fight over who pays to fix it.
- No plan for rock, access and clearing on a hill or rural block. On the Albany hills and out at Kalgan and toward the Porongurups, granite outcrops, big trees and getting machinery onto a sloping block are real costs. An operator who hasn’t walked the block and has just pulled a number out of the air is likely to hit “unforeseen” rock and access costs the moment the digger starts.
- Reticulation or lighting done without the right trade. Anything wired for garden lights or a pump needs a licensed electrician, and anything plumbed into mains, bore, tank or rainwater needs the right backflow prevention and a licensed plumber. A cheap quote that quietly skips this leaves you to sort it, or leaves it done wrong.
Before you hire: quick checklist
- Right trades for the attached work. Confirm a licensed electrician does any garden lighting or pump wiring and a licensed plumber handles any mains, bore, tank or rainwater connection and backflow. For a retaining wall over 500mm, ask about the building permit and engineering with your council (City of Albany, Shire of Denmark or Shire of Plantagenet).
- Wind, salt and planting spelled out. On exposed and coastal blocks confirm the windbreak plan, staking, tree guards and salt- and wind-hardy species; on inland and hill blocks confirm frost-hardy stock. This is the single biggest factor in whether an Albany garden lives.
- Soil and drainage sorted. On the coastal sand confirm the garden mix and wetting agent; on the low, wet blocks confirm the winter drainage, soakwells and surface grading; on the hills confirm how they’ll handle granite and rock.
- Access and site conditions sorted before day one. On hill or rural acreage around Kalgan, Mount Barker or the Porongurups, agree how machinery gets in, how rock and clearing are handled, and what happens if there’s more of either than expected, so it’s priced in rather than sprung on you.
- Insurance. Ask for current public liability cover. Landscaping moves a lot of soil, machinery and heavy materials around your and your neighbour’s property, so it matters.
- Written quote with a scope. Itemised and in writing, including materials, quantities (m² of turf or paving, wall height and length, lineal metres of windbreak), what’s excluded, and a stage-based payment schedule, before work starts.
- Recent, specific reviews. In a smaller market, look for recent reviews that mention the actual work (retaining, paving, retic, turf, windbreaks, drainage, clearing), not just a star average. A steady stream of detailed jobs beats one old burst.
Frequently asked
How did you rank these landscapers?
By their live Google star rating and the number of reviews behind it, pulled from Google Maps across Albany, Denmark, Mount Barker and the surrounding Great Southern towns. We weight the rating by review volume so a proven score from more customers isn’t leapfrogged by a perfect score from a handful. All four crews here hold a clean 5.0, so the order simply follows who has the deepest base: Better Gardens Albany (5.0 over 13) leads, with Great Southern Turf & Landscaping (5.0 over 12) right behind. All four do real design, build or landscaping work; pure garden maintenance, mowing rounds, land-clearing crews and supply yards are named separately.
Are these paid placements?
No. This list is ordered on Google review data. Businesses can pay for a “Featured” spot at the top, which is clearly labelled, but paying never changes the review-based order below. As of this update, no spots are sold.
Why is the list shorter than the Perth ones?
Because Albany is a smaller regional market. It’s a regional city and its surrounding towns rather than a dense stretch of metro suburbs, so only a handful of dedicated landscapers here carry a real Google review base. Rather than pad the list with names that hold only a review or two, we rank the four genuine, review-bearing landscapers and name the emerging crews, maintenance outfits, clearing crews and supply yards separately. Everyone ranked is a real operator with a verified Google presence. As more local crews build up reviews, we’ll add them.
My block cops the wind off the coast. What should a landscaper do about it?
Wind is the defining challenge in Albany, so it should be front and centre of the plan, not an afterthought. Expect a good landscaper to talk about a windbreak or screening row on the exposed side, staking and tree guards while young plants establish, and a planting palette of genuinely salt- and wind-hardy coastal natives (coastal rosemary, saltbush, coastal banksia, dune species and hardy grasses) rather than soft inland stock that burns off. Near the water they should also spec galvanised or stainless retic fittings, since ordinary steel corrodes fast in salt air. If someone quotes an exposed coastal block without mentioning wind at all, get a second opinion.
My block gets waterlogged in winter. What should a landscaper do about drainage?
Albany is the wettest, coolest part of mainland WA, so the low, flat blocks stay soggy through a long winter and drainage is part of the job, not an extra. Expect a good landscaper to talk about soakwells sized for your roof and paved areas, raised or free-draining garden beds, and grading the surface so water runs away from the house rather than pooling. On the worst blocks they may bring in a drainage layer or extra sand. If someone quotes a full garden on a low, wet block without mentioning winter drainage at all, get a second opinion before you sign.
Do I need council approval for a retaining wall?
Often, yes. As a rule of thumb in WA a retaining wall over 500mm high, or any wall that holds up a neighbour’s land, a driveway or a sloping hill block, needs a building permit and an engineer’s design, and here that’s the City of Albany, the Shire of Denmark or the Shire of Plantagenet depending on your town. A good landscaper will tell you when a permit is needed and organise the engineering rather than just stacking blocks, which matters even more on the granite hill blocks where a wall keys into shifting ground. Low decorative walls under half a metre usually don’t need approval, but check before you commit.
How much does a full garden makeover cost?
It depends heavily on what’s involved, but a small-to-medium garden combining retaining, paving, turf, reticulation, windbreaks and planting typically lands somewhere from $15,000 to $45,000 and up, with lighting, a courtyard rebuild, a lot of retaining, rock excavation on a granite block or serious drainage on a wet block pushing it higher. The two biggest swings here are how much rock and earthworks a hill block needs, and how much drainage a low, wet block needs. Get the job scoped and priced in stages so you can see where the money goes.
How often is this page updated?
Monthly. Ratings and review counts move, new landscapers earn their spot, and we re-pull the data so the list stays honest and current.
Are you a landscaper in the Great Southern?
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Get featured ▸ Claim your free listingRankings based on Google review data collected 24 July 2026. Ratings change, we re-check monthly. Blue Collar Business · Western Australia’s Trades & Home Services Directory.