When he saw a messy yard being criticised on social media, Stephen Jalland grabbed his trimmer and decided to help. An overgrown garden, he discovered, often hides an overwhelmed owner

“I really don’t think you understand how much difference you make to people,” Thursby tells him, bringing coffee amid moldering vegetation and a thick fug of petrol fumes from his trimmer. “Demons have been going in my head over this,” she adds, gazing at the partly cleared space. “Instantly, the weight is gone off my shoulders.”