When a young landscaping company takes on a behemoth

When it comes to landscaping, the requirements for many projects often revolve around a single feature – be it a hedge fence, a garden feature, or even a pool.

For these kinds of jobs, it’s beneficial to engage a landscaping business that specialises in that singular feature. But if a particularly big project calls for a host of different landscaping specialties, it’s best to look up a landscaper that acts as a one-stop-shop.

From conventional residential gardens to carpentry, stonework, and horticulture, landscapers that can ‘do it all’ are ideal choices for larger-scale residential projects, and commercial ones.

One company that falls into this category is Murphy Landscapes. Started in 2019 and led by director Blake Knight and his business partner Brad Murphy, over the years the company has gradually increased the scope and scale of its work to encapsulate almost every facet of modern landscaping – so that if a client wants a specific thing done, no matter how niche, Murphy can step in.

And of the hundreds of projects that the company has worked on in those three years, there’s a particular one that stands out that encapsulates Murphy’s total breadth of service: the landscaping work of Ngākōroa School in the small South Auckland township of Drury. 

Requiring the company’s expertise in stonework, horticulture, soft landscaping and carpentry, the project is by far Murphy’s biggest yet, taking approximately nine months to complete.

“There were so many elements to the job, all of them working beautifully together to create a special environment for children to learn and enjoy themselves in,” says Knight. “One of the most noticeable elements was the curved seating in the courtyard near the school playground, which obviously requires a lot of carpentry skill. 

"The seating pods have multiple 1000 litre native trees planted inside them, with carefully selected plants from the landscape architects that work together to create the beautiful finished product. There were multiple of each as well, all using rosewood decking – and it took around eight weeks to complete.”

Knight’s and Murphy's team needed to ensure they were meticulous in their woodwork for the seating features – especially when it came to the curves.

“It was quite technical, but really satisfying and fulfilling when we finished,” Knight says. “We had to make sure we were very precise to get the exact right angle of each curve. It was a bit of a process at the start, but once we got into the swing of it, it came together relatively quickly.”

The soft landscaping was a huge part of the process, Knight says. Thousands of plants were carefully selected, and the larger trees were craned into place. 

“That part of the job was awesome,” says Knight. “For one thing, there was a serious amount of plants. We brought in a tremendous amount of garden mix and soil into this project for the plants to thrive in.

"We worked with multiple nurseries to gather all the required species of plants, ensuring we picked the highest quality plants in stock," says Knight. "All the nurseries were amazing to work with through this process."

Then there was the stonework enveloping the gardens at the school entrance. Completed by expert stoneworkers from the Murphy team, it was just one part of a wider network of stone structures and features around the school. 

Another key area for the stonework was the space surrounding the front driveway and car park, where three irregularly shaped planter pits were installed surrounded by small stone walls.

Nearby, a large, eye-catching landscaping feature sits in the middle of the car park roundabout, displaying small oioi plants destined to grow much larger with time.

“We love that area – both in terms of our work and how it looks as well,” he says. “I think the stone walls built there were some of our best work, they look amazing. It’s a pretty epic entrance to a school.”

The sheer scale of the project was a definite challenge, Knight says – but it’s also what made the entire ordeal so enjoyable.

“It was bigger than anything we’d ever done, so working out the process of working to a much larger scale was a challenge. But once we figured that out, we were golden – and in the end, we killed it.”

Learn more about Murphy Landscapes, its offerings and previous projects.