'The Finch Farmlet': Come and visit Christine and Warwick's garden

Initially, the couple didn't know what it was for.

"It was the strangest thing," Mrs Finch said. "We literally thought - who would put a plug in the middle of the garage?"

It wasn't until a wet and stormy event that the Finchs discovered why the plug was there. Their four-bedroom property, which sits on a slope, would flood.

"It used to flood regularly down there and then we found that there must have been this problem before because of the plug and when you pulled it the water went down and disappeared," she said.

Over the years, the pair has worked to transform their property into a retirement haven, "The Finch Farmlet", with "the best environmental management practices".

The couple's property has chickens, fruit trees, vegetable patches, a worm farm, pond and composting area on their 900 square-metre block.

Mr Finch said the slope of the property meant when it rained, the water would travel to the front of the property and destroy the nature strip. He said gravel and dirt would wash down onto the road and into the drain.

The pair applied for a grant from H20K, a government healthy waterways initiative. They have installed a rainwater tank and an irrigation system with funding.

The property will be made available to the public as part of an open gardens event held across the ACT and surrounding regions to demonstrate the best practice solutions for managing and treating stormwater and minimising contaminated run-off.

Lyndsey Day, H20K project officer, said the program was showcasing 15 urban and rural residential owners in the ACT and surrounding region who applied and were given grants to implement innovative, best practice stormwater management practices on their block.

"It's basically an education program to kind of clean up the ACT and surrounding regions waterways," Ms Day said.

"It's about getting the community involved to find out what sorts of things they can do to keep our waterways healthy really."

Ms Day said the project, which has been running for 18 months, had 60 applicants apply, but only 15 received grants.

"People basically had to show that they were doing something on their block to help manage stormwater and if they could tell us what they wanted to do, we would give them funding to do it," she said.

"People who have received the grants have done all sorts of things, some have installed some downpipe diversion, others have used the money to basically build irrigation systems into their blocks as well as putting rainwater tanks."

She said urban blocks could access up to $3000 in funding and rural blocks $7500.

The Finch Farmlet will be open to the public on Sunday, June 17.

For more information on the healthy waterways initiative visit: www.environment.act.gov.au