End of 2017/18 Season

Frosty Flats web

With the conclusion of the Summer/Autumn openings, the third season of Open Gardens SA has come to a close… a season in which over 40 private gardens were open to the public … well over half of them for the first time.

Since our inaugural season in 2015/16, after the demise of the national scheme, there has been fantastic support from garden owners and the public with just over 68,000 visits across the three seasons. Many of those visitors have taken advantage of the concession entry price that has been offered since our first season.  This has helped maintain good access to Open Gardens for the older demographic profile.

 This season alone over $80,000 has been returned to garden owners for distribution to their many and varied charities.  A further $60,000 was raised for charity by add-on events during the openings  … plant sales, afternoon teas, sausage sizzles and the like.

Open Gardens SA also presents a number of garden related events … from smaller workshops such as the making of succulent wreaths … through to our major joint venture of a Play in a Garden with Blue Sky Theatre. This year’s event in January and February saw nearly 2000 tickets sold across the 10 performances of ‘School for Scandal’.  Planning for a third event is well under way.

With a very strong volunteer effort, prudent management practices, and some very welcome initial sponsorship in areas such as photocopying, legal and IT services we believe that Open Gardens SA has now consolidated a firm base for the future. We are getting ourselves into a position that ensures that the opening of private gardens to the public can continue well into the future and where we can begin to look at some assistance to garden related projects that will benefit the community.  As a first step in this area OGSA, through the Playford Trust, is providing three $2000 scholarships to students studying Horticulture or Conservation and Land Management.

The process of selecting gardens for the 2018 Winter/Spring season is well underway and should be posted on this website in late July.

 

 

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