Thanks for all your replies - most helpful!!
Susan - from the very brief spell we have so far spent in Uzumlu (hoping to spend much more time out there when our house is finished!!), it seems to be there are plenty of people out there that would be happy to help. Either British expats I'm sure won't mind keeping an eye on things, or I'm sure there would be plenty of locals happy to do the honours for a very reasonable price - e.g. I know a cleaning lady does 1 day a week at someones house to clean, wash and iron for about 40 - 50 lira for the whole day, so to pay someone for maybe a couple of hours a week to keep on top of it shouldn't be too bad. I wouldn't mind setting up a business looking after peoples gardens, but as we are not planning on moving out for quite a few years yet, think it might be little premature to offer my services!!!