What to Plant in Sydney - Month by Month
Sydney's warm temperate climate is generous: mild winters, humid summers, decent rain in most years. Almost everything grows here, which is exactly why timing matters, the difference between a hedge that races away and one that sulks is usually the month it was planted. This calendar opens on the current month automatically, so you're always reading this week's advice.
Every plant mentioned links to live stock delivered across Sydney. For boundary projects, the hedge calculator prices your exact metres in every pot size.
January humid heat, water hard
January planting works if you commit to water. Tropical-look growers, palms and slender weavers bamboo enjoy the humidity; fine-leafed Mediterranean plants don't. Better January jobs: deep mulching, feeding hedges after their Christmas flush, and planning autumn projects through the garden ideas pages while demand for installers is quiet.
February late summer patience
February is Sydney's stickiest month. Plant only what loves humidity, lilly pillies handle it, photinia would rather wait for March. It's a good month for repairs after summer storms and for ordering ahead: autumn is the year's best planting window and stock of popular hedging sizes moves fast once March hits. A quote saved in the garden pricer holds your plan ready.
March the autumn window opens
March is the start of Sydney's best season. Warm soil, cooling air, reliable dew: evergreens planted now establish almost without stress. Hedges and screens lead the list, Resilience at 50cm centres for dense walls, sweet viburnum for fast height on a budget. Feature trees at 100L planted in March carry spring like established trees.
April plant everything now
April is the single best planting month in Sydney. Everything from natives to citrus to formal hedging goes in with minimal shock and months of mild weather ahead. If you've been putting off the whole-garden project, this is the month to run it through the garden pricer and get it in the ground. Camellias for winter flowers plant now too.
May last call for warm soil
May soil still holds summer's warmth, and roots keep moving long after the air cools. Evergreen screens, murraya, pittosporum and viburnum all establish well. Deciduous trees begin their bare-root season late this month. Water in well and then let autumn rain do the rest.
June winter structure
June is for structure: deciduous trees, roses and fruit trees planted dormant, evergreen hedges planted quiet. Sydney winters are mild enough that lilly pillies and photinia keep rooting slowly all season, so a June hedge is an established hedge by November. It's also the clearest month to see gaps in screening, fix them while the neighbours' windows are visible.
July bare-root bargains, quiet roots
July is peak bare-root season for fruit trees, roses and ornamental deciduous trees, maximum plant for minimum money. Evergreens still plant fine near the coast. Prune, feed nothing yet, and plan: spring booking pressure starts in August, and July orders get first pick of advanced sizes.
August the pre-spring move
August rewards the organised. Soil is at its coldest but days lengthen fast, and anything planted now breaks into spring growth ahead of September plantings. Hedges, citrus in frost-free suburbs, natives, all go. Wind is August's enemy: stake tall stock and water when westerlies blow. Price boundary work in the calculator before the spring rush inflates your patience.
September spring, obviously
September is the month everyone plants, and it works: warming soil, spring rain, visible weekly growth. Everything is a candidate. The instant garden packs shine now, one delivery, whole look, roaring establishment. Watch for a late cold snap on the fringes, otherwise go hard.
October growth on tap
October may be Sydney's prettiest month and it's a superb planting one: warm, not yet brutal, with the whole growing season ahead. Murraya planted now perfumes Christmas. Tropical-look planting starts in earnest, palms, birds of paradise, lush screens. Book installation early, the trades calendar fills before summer.
November early summer hustle
November planting succeeds with water and mulch. It suits heat lovers: bamboo, palms, westringia and coastal natives on sandy soils. If a screen must happen before Christmas entertaining, advanced screening stock delivers privacy in a day rather than a season. Everything else can wait for autumn's kinder window.
December hold, water, enjoy
December is for enjoying the garden more than expanding it. Plant only tough tropicals and emergency screening, water everything young twice a week, and mulch bare soil before real heat. The smartest December job is planning: browse the garden ideas, save a pricer quote and be first in the autumn queue.
Know your month? Price the plan. The hedge calculator prices any boundary by the metre in every size we grow, and the garden pricer prices a whole garden in minutes.
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