Ground Force - First Episode

Here we are, fatsias ... they're related to the castor oil plant, but unlike their cousins, they’re not poisonous and they're a lovely tropical-looking plant.

– Gardener Karen Jackson shops at the garden centre for plants for Brent's backyard

While Mike and Karen mark out the new garden, the rest of us are left to pull the old one apart — remembering of course that interesting curves are in and anything remotely dull is out.

– Presenter Ginette McDonald on the landscaping team's progress

I do love flowers ... but I'd have to have a well-oiled young man out there doing all the work for me. I never really saw myself on hands and knees in the soil.

– Ginette McDonald on her role as presenter for Firth Ground Force, Sunday Star Times, 4 October 1998

While Brent's gone off fishing, the Ground Force team are moving in, and we've got a garden out the back that can be described in one word — boring! And we’ve got two days and a modest budget of three and a half thousand dollars to make it very unboring.

– Presenter Ginette McDonald

The show's concept, borrowed from a series of the same name in England, is simple but catchy. Get a SWAT landscaping team in to redesign someone's backyard over a 48-hour period, then watch for expressions of horror and hopefully joy on the owner's face when they return and discover the results.

– Sunday Star-Times writer Ian Pryor on Ground Force, Sunday Star-Times, 4 October 1998

I'm not much of a gardener or builder, but I am learning a lot from working on the show . . . it offers an amazing perspective on how to jazz up an area and achieve it cost-effectively.

– Ginette McDonald, in the press release for the launch of Ground Force