Reverse Amish: the front yard blitz

If you're over 30 or you like old films, you might remember the 1985 thriller "Witness". One of the main characters, played by Harrison Ford, is hiding out in an Amish community. In one memorable scene the community comes together to build a barn for someone in a day. We've just had an experience of that kind, although it was mainly about taking things away not building them!

Our garden has been suffering from neglect, stretching back over three years to when Jen first had rheumatoid arthritis. Just before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in September, she started doing some weeding out the front, and of course since then nothing else has been done. Jen has been wanting to plant some flowers to enjoy this year, but it was overwhelming to contemplate the preparatory work. My father and I had put a brick path in the kitchen garden, which has made it more beautiful, but the weeds remained.

So my idea was to get some friends together to do the work quickly, so Jen would have something to enjoy rather than being depressed by the garden. Our first plan was for February 6th, Black Saturday, but as it was going to be 45 C we cancelled. So last Saturday March 21st afternoon we invited some of our Melbourne friends to help us. In the end about 35 people came, so at times it had the feel of that scene from Witness. The men's group from church had at least ten people who were tasked firstly with removing three trees along the driveway fence. They did it with enthusiasm and managed not to take out the power line or the house.

We hired an 8 cubic metre skip that was eventually filled with green waste. We also had five and a half cubic metres of mulch (border bark), a good part of which was put around the south side of the house after weeding, to stop weeds coming back there. The whole of the front garden was weeded and dug over with manure. The roses were expertly pruned, and a troublesome mistletoe bush was painstakingly dug out. Others weeded the kitchen garden, moved green waste, stacked wood or helped with afternoon tea.

The effect has been a great transformation. I can't put up photos with people in them for reasons of privacy, so there are a few "after" pictures so you can see the achievement.

Almost everything we planned has been done, which is amazing for three hours - on our own it would have taken six months of weekends, and realistically would not have happened at all. To finish off the trees, friends have paid for someone to come and grind the stumps away, which happened today.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and contributed, from the two year olds to the seventy-two year olds. We are overwhelmed by your hard work, and your care for us. The word "community" is overused today to refer to any loose grouping of people, but from our friends and especially our church connections, there has been a great outpouring of practical support. I hope to take some follow-up photos to show you the further progress in the garden as the year progresses.