"You can go anywhere and have a cuppa and feel like you're somewhere else."
- Judy Sens
Judy and Paul Sens will be raising funds for the Mandurang Hall when they open their vast gardens next weekend.
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The six acre property is adorned with two and a half acres of beautifully designed gardens and will open to the public once again.
There are 31 separate spaces in all, including the oriental garden, gold garden and silver garden, among others.
"I'd do anything to encourage people to garden," an enthusiastic Ms Sens said.
The gardens have been a work in progress for 15 years, with this the third open garden at Itchy Palms, named after Judy's love of palm trees.
A space renowned for being economical, the garden is filled with donated plants or those destined for the bin.
"A lot of the things I've propagated from a seed or cutting. That's the joy, not buying a plant and having a ready made garden," Ms Sens said.
The gardens all took on separate names, to help Judy and Paul find one another when they embark on their morning and evening meals.
"We come out for breakfast and dinner every night and sit in different gardens," Ms Sens said.
"You can go anywhere and have a cuppa and feel like you're somewhere else."
The Sens' have raised more than $2,000 for the Mandurang Hall in their two previous open gardens.
The gardens also serve as a reminder to the community that they shouldn't be shy of getting their hands dirty and picking up a shovel to start a garden of their own, irrespective of the size of their backyard.
"We started out with not much and now we've got so many birds and even a resident lizard," Ms Sens said.
Being a green thumb is in Ms Sens' blood, with her grandfather a horticulturalist and her parents maintaining a large garden.
It was when Judy and Peter settled at their Mandurang property that their passions for gardening blossomed.
The garden features a variety of plants, with December chosen to give the plants time to recover from the cold winter temperatures.
Itchy Palms Gardens is located at 26 Kenean Crt, Mandurang.
The gardens will be open from 9am until 4pm on Saturday, December 14 and Sunday, December 15.
Tea and coffee and plant and pottery sales will be available on both days.
For more information, visit Itchy Palms Gardens on Facebook or itchypalmsgardens.weebly.com