Today, I have the pleasure of visiting Gloria McGrath
who lives in Pennant Hills in Sydney's north west.
93 years young,
Gloria has tended her large, leafy garden in the 'burbs for decades.
How important is having a garden?
Nothing, nothing is more important than that.
And, once upon a time,
I was able to work at a pretty good state and I can do things.
Just because I've lost the ability
to do the big things,
there were still little things that could be done.
And I unashamedly spend a lot of time out here
in my deck, and love doing it.
Oh, hello.
And I'm not the only person to pop in today.
Gloria's being visited by the Easy Care Gardening volunteer crew,
a not-for-profit organisation that helps older people maintain
and take care of their gardens.
The volunteer crew are going to get Gloria's garden into shape.
What sort of work do they do for you?
Everything that seems to be out of place
or just getting too big for me.
And there's always miles of leaves down there.
I know I need what they're doing very much.
In my old age, I'm trying to do it all by myself and I know I can't,
so I'm very dependent upon them.
Larissa Hansen is one of the coordinators
with Easy Care Gardening, and a horticulturist.
We rely on our volunteers to get this work done.
And I think that really does show probably in our efforts.
It's a very special garden, this one, and we love coming here.
There's something nice about raking.
It's really satisfying, you can see what you're doing.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Here in this garden, there's a lot of ground covers.
We had a really wet summer season,
so everything has got quite overgrown since our last visit.
There's some pathways to be found, so I think for Gloria
that's definitely number one,
and that she can still be here and appreciate her beautiful home.
This is one of my favourite spots
because of all the sandstone that's under that.
Yeah. It's beautiful, it's beautiful sandstone,
and you'll see it's going to come really nicely,
and we'll have a lovely path down here.
Be lovely.
I'm a nurse, so I think that, actually,
keeping people in their homes is hugely important,
and I think it must be very difficult for people
if they look at their garden
and they can't actually get out there and do their own thing.
Actually, that must be really hard for people.
I think that the mostly what I enjoy is company of my colleagues.
How are you doing, Kaz?
I'm done.
I was 40 years sitting behind a computer,
so a bit of physical work in the garden is great.
I'm not doing only that, but I'm doing three others.
Oh, really? Yes.
What's your take on Gloria?
WOMAN: Oh, she's lovely.
You hear all these interesting stories from the owners
of the houses.
You know, they've had a great, great life,
most of them, yes, and it's really inspiring.
Hugh Hamlyn-Harris has been involved with the organisation
for many years.
Easy Care Gardening started 32 years ago,
with a group of people that thought it was a worthy cause.
From 32 years to now, we've grown enormously,
and we're active over four districts in Sydney.
We care for over a thousand people remaining at home.
We have at the moment around about 350 volunteers.
Out the back, it's a shady oasis,
thanks to a towering Canary Island date palm.
But it needs a haircut.
It's stuck.
The spiky fronds have become a bit of a hazard and Wayne is on the job.
We have to pull the loose fronds down so they don't hit the clients
in the head 'cause this is the dangerous part
for the people, the heavy bit, and all the spikes.
And because we have to bundle it up to put it out for the Council
to clean up, where the spikes are,
we've actually got to just nip those off.
It's a great tip because they're like hypodermic needles,
and if they go in, they really cause bad infection.
They are bad.
Do you like volunteering?
Oh, yeah, it's good.
There's lots of interesting people you meet,
there are other volunteers,
and you actually get to see lots of things.
I've never come across one of these before I did volunteering,
and now I know this, I'd never plant one.
How's Gloria?
Oh, she's good. Good afternoon tea here.
Classic stories of where something's gone wrong
or you've chopped something out?
Yeah. And you can't put it back.
Yes, yes.
Gloria? Yes.
Do you enjoy this part of the visit?
My friends nearby just made me a beautiful cup of coffee,
so I'm enjoying it, and I love having so many people on my deck.
I feel that I'm part of the whole community still
because when you know you're letting things go
or you're not able to cope,
it's a very disappointing feeling that you've got.
And I love my garden, I don't mind telling everybody that.
And once we were given the choice of living in our own homes
instead of going into care, the garden became more important.
It's all about independence, isn't it?
Oh, yes.
The team only visit these gardens a couple of times a year,
so anything to reduce maintenance is valuable.
In this case, we're putting down newspaper under the mulch,
and that'll control the weeds.
Anywhere from five to 10 sheets down.
And that will smother any weeds and weed seeds that are there.
And then we're putting mulch on the top of that.
Hey, Gloria, it's coming along well.
Yes. Look at the mulch.
Yeah, and I listened to the lesson you were giving people
when you told them what to do.
Oh, did you? Yeah!
Not going to miss out on anything.
It's come a long way in a few hours.
Oh, absolutely.
And a whole lot of people are going to hear about that.
They're quite a crew, aren't they? They certainly are.
It is totally fantastic.