The Australian Open Garden Scheme aims to promote the knowledge and pleasure of gardens and gardening by opening Australia's most inspiring private gardens to the public.

All of the gardens included are first visited by our selectors who are experienced gardeners themselves. To be included in the Scheme, the gardens must be good examples of their type, interesting and well-maintained.

What happens to the entry fees?

 The owners who so generously open their gardens to the public charge a nominal fee (the standard fee is $5). All the Scheme's income is derived from these entry fees – it receives no other financial support.

35 per cent of the entry fee is returned to the garden owner or to the charity of their choice.

Our garden owners donate around $325,000 annually to charities and local causes. Total donations since the Scheme's inception in 1987 are around $4 million.

65 per cent is returned to the Scheme. After operating costs, surplus funds are distributed to the community as grants to garden-related projects.

Since 1987 around $870,000 has been given to community garden projects by Australia's Open Garden Scheme. In addition, the Scheme has substantially funded its own national expansion.

To find out more about this program or to find out who else is hosting an open garden, just follow the link...

www.opengarden.org.au/

Delicious morning and afternoon tea will be provided by the Variety Club of Albany for a small fee.

VARIETY CLUB

Variety, The Children's Charity is dedicated to transforming the lives of children with special needs.

Variety provides grants to individuals and organisations for a great number of items such as special wheelchairs, vocal output speech devices, prosthetic limbs, special play equipment and liberty swings.

We give grants to hospitals, we provide Sunshine Coaches to special schools and organisations so that kids can get out and about in the sunshine and experience life and we also provide children special experiences such as parties and adventure camps to give them opportunities that able bodied kids may take for granted.

for more information on Variety club, please click www.varietyaustralia.org.au