Garden maintenance, clearance and design across SE22. Family-run, 12+ years in South East London, free quotes within 24 hours.
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East Dulwich gardens have two things going on that you will not find written about anywhere else locally, and both change what makes sense to do with them.
SE22 is one of the busiest family extension markets in south London. Street after street of bay-fronted Victorian and Edwardian terraces, most with the classic side return, and a very high proportion have had the side-return-and-rear wrap built.
That extension is usually the right call for the house. It is rarely kind to the garden. You end up with a plot that is meaningfully shorter than it was, overlooked by a large glazed rear elevation, and often shaded down one side by the neighbour's extension going up at the same time. Access to the rear is now through a new kitchen that nobody wants a wheelbarrow going through.
So the gardens we work on in East Dulwich tend to be small, visible from inside the whole time, and awkward to get materials into. All three of those change the job, and all three change what a sensible design looks like.
A small garden that you look at from the kitchen every day of the year is not a lawn-and-borders garden. It is closer to an outdoor room, where structure and year-round interest matter far more than they would on a plot you only see in July.
Dulwich sits on heavy shrinkable London Clay. That clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and mature trees drawing water out of it in a hot summer accelerate the shrinkage. On a Victorian terrace with shallow Victorian foundations, that is how subsidence claims start.
It is a live local issue rather than a theoretical one. The Dulwich Society monitors insurers' requests for tree removal on subsidence grounds and challenges the ones that are not justified, which tells you how often it comes up.
What this means practically:
The other clay consequence is the ordinary one: water sitting on lawns through winter, ground cracking in August, fence posts working loose as the ground moves through the year. Our guide on poor drainage in South East London gardens covers the options.
Call us on 07760800457 or email office@urbangardeners.co.uk for a free quote within 24 hours.
This is the one that catches East Dulwich homeowners out, and it is worth two minutes of your time before you order anything.
Part of the Dulwich area is covered by the Dulwich Estate Scheme of Management, a private consent system that sits alongside council planning rather than replacing it. Where it applies, it requires the Estate's own approval for boundary changes including walls, hedges, fences, railings and gates, for hardstanding in front gardens, and for any work to trees.
Two things people get wrong about it:
It is a separate process. The Estate runs its own timetable and charges its own fee, and it does not talk to Southwark. Southwark saying yes does not mean the Estate has, and permitted development rights do not override a private scheme.
It does not cover all of SE22. Core East Dulwich terraces around Lordship Lane are generally outside it. Properties toward the SE21 fringe and closer to the Village are more likely to be inside. The name "East Dulwich" tells you nothing either way, which is exactly why people assume wrongly in both directions.
Check your own address rather than assuming. If you are not sure, the Estate can confirm whether your property carries a consent requirement, and it is worth doing before a fence arrives on a lorry.
Southwark is the planning authority for SE22, and separately, some East Dulwich streets fall within a conservation area while most do not. That is a third thing to check and it is also address-specific.
We flag all of this at the quote stage rather than after. If your job needs Estate consent or council notice, you will hear it from us before we start. Our guide on garden fence height rules in London covers the national permitted development limits, which are the baseline before any local scheme applies. [Update this link once the fence height post is live with its final slug.]
Planning fencing or tree work in East Dulwich? Send us photos and your address and we will tell you what is likely to need consent before you commit to anything. Get a free quote.
Small gardens need less time per visit, which makes regular maintenance unusually good value in SE22.
A post-extension East Dulwich garden is often an hour of work. That is enough to mow, edge, cut back, weed the borders and clear up. Left for three months instead, the same garden takes three hours, because everything has to be cut back hard rather than trimmed and the borders need rescuing rather than tidying.
The other reason regular visits suit these gardens: you look at yours constantly through a large glazed rear elevation. A garden that is only presentable in June is a poor deal when it is in your eyeline every day from January onward.
£83 for the first hour, £65 for each hour after, no minimum charge. The no-minimum part matters here, because plenty of SE22 gardens genuinely are a one-hour job and we will not pretend otherwise to hit a threshold.
See our garden maintenance service page and the maintenance cost guide.
Small overlooked gardens are where design earns its money, and East Dulwich is full of them.
On a large plot you can get away with an average layout because there is room to absorb it. On a 25-foot post-extension garden, every decision shows. Where the paving stops, how the boundary is treated, what you see from the sofa in February, whether the storage is designed in or dumped in the corner.
The things that reliably work on plots this size:
Projects range from around £1,200 for a light refresh to £18,000 for a full transformation, though most SE22 terrace gardens sit at the lower end of that simply because of the size. Free survey, written quote within 3 business days.
See the landscaping and design service page and the landscaping cost guide.
Before/after of a landscaping project with Urban Gardeners.
Two situations bring us out to SE22 for clearance.
Post-building work. Extensions leave gardens wrecked. Rubble trodden into the soil, subsoil spread over the topsoil, a dead lawn under where the materials were stacked, and offcuts everywhere. It is a specific kind of clearance and it usually needs the ground genuinely rehabilitating rather than just tidying.
New owners. SE22 turns over a lot of family housing, and gardens tend not to be the previous owner's priority in the year they are selling.
£85 per hour with a two-person team, tools included. Waste charged separately at £10 per 150-litre bag or £40 per bulk bag.
Access is the thing to mention when you get in touch. If everything has to come through a new kitchen we will bring floor protection and plan the route properly. See the clearance cost guide or the clearance service page.
Call us on 07760800457 or email office@urbangardeners.co.uk for a free quote within 24 hours.
Before/after of a garden clearance with Urban Gardeners.
Before/after of a artificial grass project with Urban Gardeners.
Natural turf £15 to £28 per sqm including turf, labour and topsoil. Artificial grass £60 to £90 per sqm including excavation, sub-base, membrane and grass. We will be honest about whether a small, shaded, heavily used SE22 lawn is worth laying at all, because plenty of them are not, and artificial or paving with planting often serves better. See the turfing cost guide and our natural vs artificial grass comparison.
On small plots the fence is most of what you see, so it is worth doing properly. Closeboard panels £260 each, standard panel fencing £230 to £280, including materials, labour, post installation and concrete setting. Storm damage repairs £150 to £300 per section. Check the Estate consent position for your address first, as set out above. See the fencing cost guide, or what to do about a blown down fence.
Before/after of a jet washing cleaning with Urban Gardeners.
Most post-extension SE22 gardens are largely paved, which makes cleaning a regular job rather than an occasional one, particularly on the shaded side, for £4/m², £120 minimum. Before booking anything, our guide on patio cleaning costs covers pricing and which surfaces cope with a jet wash.
Lawn mowing with Urban Gardeners.
Same hourly rate as maintenance. On small shaded SE22 lawns the honest conversation is often about whether to keep the lawn at all rather than how to feed it.
For what every service costs, see our prices page, or browse the project portfolio.
Before/after of a decking project with Urban Gardeners.
Softwood, hardwood and composite. A small softwood deck up to 12m² starts around £960 to £1,920, which covers most SE22 terrace gardens. Decking works well where an extension has left a level change to resolve. See the decking cost guide.
What we handle: pruning and shaping within reach, hedge reduction, small trees and saplings, clearing growth around established trees, and advice on species that will not cause you a problem on clay.
What we do not: felling, major crown work on mature trees, anything requiring climbing or rigging, and anything connected to a subsidence claim. That is tree surgeon and structural engineer territory.
Remember that in the Estate area, work to any tree needs Estate consent regardless of what we or you think is sensible, and separately some SE22 trees are protected by council TPO or conservation area status.
Our guide on when to call a gardener versus a tree surgeon covers the difference and the cost gap, and how to identify the signs of a dying tree is a sensible first read.
Urban Gardeners is a family-run gardening team serving East Dulwich SE22 and South East London, trusted by local homeowners for reliable, no-fuss garden work done properly.
Small, overlooked, post-extension. That needs a different approach from a hundred-foot plot, and we will not sell you a scaled-down version of a big garden.
Species choice near buildings, why removal is not always the answer, and when to tell you this needs someone other than a gardener.
Estate scheme, conservation area, TPO. Flagged at the quote stage, not after the posts are in.
Floor protection as standard where there is no side access, which in SE22 is most of the time.
We cover all of SE22 and the surrounding areas. If you're just outside Dulwich, we're likely already working near you.
Visit our full South East London service area page.
Heavy shrinkable London Clay. It swells when wet and shrinks when dry, which means water sitting on lawns in winter, ground cracking in summer, and fence posts working loose as the ground moves through the year. It also means tree species and planting positions near buildings matter more here than in most of London.
No, and we would be cautious about anyone who says yes without proper assessment. Removing a mature tree from shrinkable clay can cause heave as the ground rehydrates, which is its own structural problem. That situation needs an arboriculturalist and usually a structural engineer, not a gardener. We are happy to talk through what we are seeing, but the decision needs qualified input.
£83 for the first hour and £65 for each hour after, with no minimum charge. Many SE22 terrace gardens are genuinely a one-hour job once they are under control, and the no-minimum policy means you pay for what you need rather than a fixed block.
Yes, and in East Dulwich that is the usual situation, particularly after a side-return extension. We bring floor protection and plan the route through the house. Mention it when you send photos so the quote reflects the extra time.
Often not, and we will say so. A small lawn that is shaded, heavily used and looked at all year tends to be worn and patchy for most of it. Paving with generous planting, or artificial grass, usually gives a better result for less upkeep. A free survey will tell you which suits your garden.
Yes, and it is one of our more common SE22 jobs. Post-build clearance usually means removing rubble and builder's spoil, dealing with compacted ground, and rehabilitating soil rather than simply tidying. £85 per hour with a two-person team, waste charged separately.
Photo-based quotes within 24 hours for most services. Larger jobs like landscaping, turfing, fencing and decking get a free on-site survey with a written quote within 3 business days. Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
We're a fully insured, family-run team and we treat every garden we work on as if it were our own. If you're in East Dulwich SE22 or anywhere nearby and need gardening help - whether it's a single afternoon clearance or a full redesign - get in touch and we'll get back to you fast.
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