Open garden scheme closure a 'crying shame'

Open Gardens’ chief executive Liz White said the decision was ‘‘tremendously sad for all of us’’.

‘‘While we are a not-for-profit organisation with a large team of dedicated volunteers, we do still have to cover operating costs,’’ she told members. 

‘‘Like many small businesses in  Australia today we have not been immune to the economic downturn and we have experienced increasing costs and falling revenue.’’

She said the final season would finish on June 30, 2015, and that they would go out with a bang.

‘‘We are determined to make this season a celebration of the past 27 years and all that we have achieved,’’ she said. 

‘‘And having opened close to 20,000 gardens and raised over $6million for charities and local communities, we feel immensely proud that we have achieved an awful lot.’’

Owner of acreage garden Woodgreen at Bilpin, Peta Trahar, said that she had been involved with Open Gardens for 25 years.

‘‘I’m very sad about it, it’s a crying shame,’’ she told the Gazette.

‘‘The ordinary gardener wouldn’t normally be able to open [their homes] without the support of Open Gardens in promotion and insurance,’’ she said.

‘‘It was also prestigious to have your garden in it.’’

She said some local gardens would still open occasionally  in a venture similar to next month’s opening of Perfick at Bilpin in conjunction with the Bilpin Flower Show to raise money for the local primary school.

Bilpin garden owner John Bryant said he was sad about the end of OGA. 

‘‘It is the end of a fantastic era.’’