By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A KOOWEERUP woman will again open her perfumed, trailing garden to the public for a cause close to her heart.
Suzanne de Pelsenaire is welcoming nature lovers to spend a weekend in her bird-filled garden oasis to raise money for Cochlear Implant and Chronic Pain Management Research at the Bionics Institute in Melbourne.
“I am now celebrating seven years since I myself received the gift of hearing again with a cochlear implant, which has transformed my life. My gratitude is boundless – my indebtedness never-ending,” she said.
“Government funding for such research has become even harder to secure, which means that people who could potentially be helped, are having to suffer longer due to lack of funding. I want to raise as much money as I can, to try in my own small way to improve this situation.”
Suzanne said there was plenty to see at the year-round colourful and perfumed garden she has been working on since shifting to Kooweerup nine years ago.
Spotted throughout her Salmon Street property, two-thirds of which is garden, are a range of delights including roses, peony roses, iris, clematis and fuchsias to name a few.
Her traipsing garden, “Serendipity”, was also opened to the public last year to help raise money for medical research.
Suzanne said her garden tended to attract more than just those looking to admire nature.
“It is here that I enjoy a coffee and a good book, and watch with great pleasure the endangered southern brown bandicoots skittering busily around me, searching for any crumbs I have dropped,” Suzanne said.
Parrots, kookaburras, sparrows, blue wrens and blackbirds are also often spotted within her leafy garden.
The garden, at 23 Salmon Street, Kooweerup, will be open from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 25 October from 10am-5pm. Entry costs $5.
For details contact Suzanne on 5997 1211.
