KEEN gardeners know the secret, and all the region’s 2020 garden converts have a hot tip-off here, too: Seawinds Nursery have fantastic sales every spring.

Even better, the sales provide a great fundraiser for the not-for-profit business which provides supported employment for people with a disability in association with Kyeema Support Services.

Seawinds’ plant sale begins at 9.30am today and will end at 2pm this Saturday as an alternative to the Saturday sale held annually at Kyeema’s Lalor St base: the Kyeema Spring Sale was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

Seawinds staff have worked harder than ever throughout the year, however, according to support worker Felicity Beal.

Many people had plants die during summer, so customers have been seeking to replace them with more heat-tolerant plants, and others have been asking about koala-friendly vegetation following the deaths of dozens of koalas at nearby Cape Bridgewater earlier this year.

People wanting to become more self-sufficient and dedicate more time at home to growing then topped off their busy times, she said.

In addition, clean-ups had been carried out around the site to make it more presentable and safer.

“With supplies becoming virtually non-existent at times we’ve really had a focus on propagating out own plants.”

Mrs Beal said she was proud of how well the staff, volunteers and patient customers had adapted to the circumstances and was full of praise for the nursery’s recently-appointed manager Tegan Prentice.

“It’s been a great year – to see the way the changes have happened,” she said.

Seawinds is at 191 Wellington Rd in South Portland and is open 9.30am to 4.30pm from today until Friday and 10am to 2pm on Saturday.