Palm fronds as far as the eye could see in Surfers Paradise

I'm in Surfers Paradise, and I'll be honest: I put this off for far too long. We'd paid for a big garden makeover: hedges cut back, the back corner cleared, two dead trees taken down. The gardener did a great job but didn't take the cuttings.

The pile was taller than me and had started to compost at the bottom. Our green bin is a joke for that kind of volume. You'd need about forty bin days.

Surfers Paradise is a dense high-rise beachside centre where most homes are apartments and short-stay units, and getting things out isn't always simple. Metered street frontage is limited along Cavill Avenue and the Esplanade, so we usually load from basement car parks or side service lanes.

I sent a couple of photos and got a call back within the hour. They gave me a rough idea on the phone but said they'd confirm a fixed price when they saw it in person.

They parked so the back of the truck lined up with the side gate, put a drop sheet down at the door and asked me to show them anything that was staying.

There was a fair bit of old wire mesh wound through the lantana. They pulled it out separately so the rest could go to mulch, which I didn't even think about.

By the time I'd made them a coffee, it was nearly finished. The price didn't change, and they even took a couple of extra bits I'd forgotten about without charging more.

I'd tried to do it myself twice before. Next time I'm just ringing straight away.