Volunteers from QBE joined us for Brush with Kindness today in the Blue Mountains to help home partner, Judy clean up her garden.
Judy, 75 has lived in her home for over 40 years and raised her family here. Her husband passed away seven years ago and her children live far away. Judy herself, has had a number of health problems over the years and as a result, she hasn’t been able to take care of her garden on her own.
Despite, her health problems Judy keeps herself busy and still runs a crochet and book keeping business. Judy told us the garden was once “prize winning” and and used to have over 1,000 species of plants and flowers. Her husband was an avid gardener and also kept orchids, which Judy still maintains. But being such a large garden and as a result of her illness, Judy struggles to maintain everything on her own.
Over the years the garden has become very overgrown. Vines, shrubs and weeds have taken over the backyard – so much so that Judy’s pergola collapsed and she has been unable to reach her clothes line in six months.
“I had people come in who were specialists in overgrown gardens, but after a half hour they walked away.” said Judy, “I’m very grateful to Habitat and the volunteers for their help today.”
With such a large space to get through, our volunteers from QBE had their work cut out for them. It took a lot of muscle to clear the area, prune back bushes and pull out weeds and vines that we were firmly rooted into the garden. Thanks to their hard work and effort, in a small amount of time, the team were able to clear so much scrub that Judy is now able to access the back of her garden and even see her lily pond again.
“We’re grateful to be able to give Judy back her beautiful garden that she loves,” said volunteer, Megan. “It’s great not to be sitting behind a desk today and to be able to get out and do something that feels good.”
Habitat will be back at Judy’s house in the coming weeks to further help with the clean up and repairs. A big thank you to the team for QBE for their hard work and accomplishing so much in a day’s work.
Before: Volunteers work hard to remove scrub from the overgrown garden
Judy spent the day working alongside volunteers to clear the garden
Some of our hard working volunteers
The team were able to make such a difference in such a small amount of time. More after photos come.
