The old lady next door to us used to have a group of people come and do her massive back garden for her. From what we can work out it must be some sort of community service programme. Does anyone know about this or how I can contact them for her?

What area are you in?
It might have been a group of volunteers from the Uni conservation group - or another conservation group - BTCV?

hi missmode
i use to work for sheffield community punishment unit, who carry out garden work for elderly people within the Sheffield area. All the work is carried out free of charge, and the offenders are supervised (up to 6) by a CP Supervisor on site.
I know there is quite a waiting list, and this seems to increase during the sumer months, one drawback though is the disposal of garden waste. For many years the cp unit had free access to tipping onto the council owned tips, because of the nature of our work and the benefiting of many individuals and community groups from this, but since all the tips became privatised, we were having to be charged as trade waste, as they would not recognise the benefits of our work. So many of the larger type gardens, could not be undrtaken without this charge being made to the beneficiary. But they will carry out the work if deemed suitable.
The contact number for the service is 0114 2725058
Hope this helps.