How to spend $1200 and be happy about it!

Excuses for my garden looking ragged:
1.  It has been raining solidly for about 4 months, interspersed with hot sunny days so everything grows
2.  I work full time
3.  I am over 50(!)
4.  I am going to get a new hip in August and the old one is very sore

So when I heard that the brother of the man who mows my nature strip had been retrenched from his job at the Harbour I asked if he would like to come and help me for a couple of days.
This is the result:

Everything has been clipped and weeded........

And the path down the side is now visible for the first time in about 6 years!

The possum scarer I paid $80 for has done it's job and I even have a passionfruit.....

He worked for 11 hours over two days and took away 5 huge bags of rubbish in his ute so I think that $500 is quite reasonable.

 And the balance of the spending ($700) went on a new back fence which is looking very raw but will be rather nice in a few months when I get some more soil and plant some trees along it.

So I'm on bread and water rations for a while but will enjoy walking around the garden eating an apple!!!