This page is for Open Garden owners (or those considering it).
The 2026 festival garden selection is finalised, however if you’ve put in the hard yards and want to share your garden with other avid gardeners and nature lovers in the future, we’d love to hear from you.
Opening every second year in late October / early November (even years), featuring an average of 20 gardens, the Festival has more than 15,000 garden visits.
The festival showcases grand country gardens, historic gardens, verge gardens, sculpture gardens and town gardens of many varieties. To be considered, your garden must be located in the Mount Alexander Shire.
For reference, in 2026 the festival will run from Saturday 24th October through to Tuesday 3rd November (Melbourne Cup Day), with all gardens closed on Wednesday 28th October. 10 days of open garden gloriousness!
Ideally, gardens will open each day, however organisers recognise this may not be possible for every garden.
Expressions of interest for the 2028 Festival of Gardens
will open mid-2027.
That may seem a long lead time, but the process of garden assessment and selection, as well as putting together the souvenir program and a comprehensive promotional campaign requires twelve months for the volunteer committee. This also provides gardeners with plenty of planning and preparation time.
To register your interest and request an application form, please email festivalofgardens@gmail.com
THE PROCESS
During the November preceding the festival, each prospective garden will be visited by independent assessors from outside the Mt Alexander Shire. Once assessed for suitability under the Festival of Gardens guidelines, successful applicants will be notified, giving them around 12 months to prepare their gardens for the Festival.
Our gardeners find the experience of opening their gardens to be rewarding and it creates a strong community of kindred spirits. Our garden visitors love it and many come back every festival to enjoy both the old and the new gardens in Shire.