My neighbours Niven and Joan are an older couple, who aren’t that interested in their front garden. I offered to help them prune back their Bird of Paradise plants, which were getting pretty overcrowded.

I started deadheading some.

They completely neglect these beautiful flowers and they grow like mad, and so big! So I asked them if I could pull out a few for the side of my unit.

They said: “All yours!”

Awesome!

Our gardener Zack was doing the hedges and he got out a pitchfork and separated off a few rhizomes for me. (I have no idea if I expressed that correctly. I mean, he managed to pull some away including the base bits.)

I’m excited! Maybe this is the beginning of my transition from roses — which are such a nightmare to grow here, between everything that attacks them, summer droughts and kangaroos eating them — let’s face it, they are totally the wrong thing for me to grow. I just happen to love them.

I put three Bird of Paradise down the side, they will look like magnificent bird sentinels!

It’s a win-win for everyone. Good result!

Niven and Joan’s plants look better now. Can’t wait till mine look like that!