They comprise three immaculate town gardens and five bigger country gardens, said committee member and horticulturist Courtney Whipp.

The garden locations include town gardens Claydon House, Cummins Garden, Atfield Garden, and country gardens - Lachlands, Casa della Pace, Binda Mill, Hill Crest and Markdale.  

“Two gardens have featured previously, but gardens are all maturing and changing,” Mrs Whipp said.

“The big draw card is Markdale.” (Pictured).

Transformed in 1947 by garden designer Edna Walling, the famous landscape went from being sparsely planted to a grand two-hectare estate garden.

The gardens are all semi-established, with big specimen trees, layers; ground cover, shrubbery and a bit of height The dry season had caused things to flower earlier than usual, she said.

“The roses will be out by then, perennials are doing their thing, and all the trees have nice new leaves, they are in full leaf by that time.”

The gardens range from the century-old to modern. The Cummins’ only began their transformation three years ago.

“I have noticed a bit of art in most of the gardens,” she said.

Claydon House used an old timber ladder to create a quirky trellis for clematis on the garage wall, and a piece of rough-sawn sandstone from the family farm in Biala, that forms a plinth for a feature pot set.

Lachlands added a Zen garden, landscaped with pebbles and planted with Japanese maples and wisteria, and granite rock.

The Garden Festival is held on November 10 and 11.

Horticulturist Mrs Whipp said that now is the time to plant your summer garden.

“Put in veggie seedlings, summer veggie seedlings, tomato, zucchini and cucumber.

“It’s a good time to get them going, because of the wind and dry weather.

“It is important to mulch, keep the water up, but important to mulch as mulch looks in the moisture.

“Anything actively growing can be fertilised now with a good organic general purpose fertilizer, anything high in nitrogen is good for this time of year.

It's also a good time pop in petunias, and its past the peak season for pansys, dianthus, sweet williams, she added.

Garden Festival entry ticket is $20 to visit all the gardens, or $5 at the gate for individual gardens.