Hillside sections
The western hills of Lower Hutt — Korokoro and Harbour View above Petone, Maungaraki and Normandale above the city, Tirohanga, Belmont and Kelson further north — were mostly subdivided from the 1960s to the 1980s on steep ground. Sections are terraced, with retaining walls, banks and steps; the lawn is often a series of flat patches linked by slopes rather than one open area; and the house may be well above or below the street. Some driveways are steep enough that the gear comes up by hand.
Mowing here is slower, more physical work than on the flats, and we quote it for what it is. In return you get a crew that's used to the terrain and doesn't cut corners on the banks and edges that make a hillside section look tidy.
Wind and exposure
The hills catch the northerly straight up the harbour. Exposed sites in Maungaraki and Korokoro can lose a fortnight's growth of leaf litter in a night, and shelter planting works hard. Lawns on the sunny, exposed side dry out quicker in summer than the valley floor; the shaded gullies between stay damp. Hedges and shelter belts want to be kept dense from the base — a big part of our hedge and tree trimming up here — and banks need regular weedeating before the grass and weeds get long enough to be dangerous to work on.
Keeping banks and retaining walls clear
Long grass, ivy, agapanthus and self-seeded natives on banks and against retaining walls are the recurring maintenance job on the western hills. Left alone they hide the wall, hold moisture against it and, on steeper banks, become genuinely hard to clear. Regular garden maintenance visits keep them in check; where a property has been let go, a one-off cleanup gets it back to a baseline. Many western-hills homes are rentals or owned by people who've moved on to easier ground; we look after rental grounds here with photos after each visit.
Getting a quote on the hills
We always look at a hillside section before quoting it — slope, access and the amount of bank work matter far more than the square metres of lawn. Quotes are free, there's no obligation, and we reply within one working day.
