A DURRINGTON woman who was unable to sort out her scruffy garden because of a bad knee returned from a trip away to discover that her neighbours had done a surprise Ground Force-style renovation.

Ellen Hider, of Ch arles Road, has battled with knee problems since 1980 that have prevented her working in her garden.

She went away for two weeks with her boyfriend, Tony Brown, of Swindon, who, unbeknown to Ellen, knew all about the garden transformation that was taking place while they were away and contributed towards the cost.

Ellen said: "Tony never keeps secrets but he kept this one."

The idea to do up Ellen's garden was the brainchild of her neighbour Lucy Howland.

Ellen had been planning to do up the garden when her knee improved and had visited garden centres with Lucy to plan ideas to put into action in the future.

Lucy had offered to help build a patio while Ellen was away, but instead, with the help of other friends, neighbours and local businesses - including CB Skips and Bits and Pieces - did up the whole garden. Lucy said: "Ellen is one of these people who is willing to help everyone.

"She was down about the garden but physically couldn't do anything about it and I thought it was time to do something."

On her return, Ellen was greeted by Lucy, who said that she had burst a water main in the garden and took her out to have a look.

Champagne corks popped as Ellen, a single mum who lives with her two children, Hazel (15) and Simon (11), walked into the new-look garden filled with all the people who had helped.

"I was blown away," she said.

"I walked into the garden and saw that it had been transformed from a dump into a lovely garden.

"The children are over the moon, too.

"It just shows that there are some really wonderful people in the world."