Growing Engagement 2021

Judging the Growing Engagement competition was done on Thursday evening, July 22, and prizes were awarded Saturday morning, July 24.

The judges were Caroline Fairbrother (Master Gardener/ ICG rental gardener) and Wendy McClosky (event organizer / ICG board member).

Carol Flynn and Julia Hinman attended, as admin support and tie breakers (LOL). Mitko T managed live coverage via our social media platforms.

According to the judges there were many garden beds not in the competition that were spectacular!

Competition Categories

• Most Bountiful
• Most Colourful
• Most Unique Plant
• Overall Visual Appeal
• Best Use of Space

Prizes

• Best in Class
  $25 gift certificates for Inglewood businesses

• Honourable Mentions
  $10 coffee cards

• All other participating gardeners
  Something nice… YTBD

Category Awards

Bed 111 — Thomas S

• Best in Class: Most Bountiful
• Honourable Mention: Overall Visual Appeal
• Honourable Mention: Best Use of Space

Bed 16 — Jill A

• Best in Class: Most Colourful
• Honourable Mention: Most Unique Plant

Bed 85 — Meghan C

• Best in Class: Most Unique Plant
• Honourable Mention: Most Unique Plant

Bed 12 — Chad C

• Best in Class: Overall Visual Appeal
• Honourable Mention: Most Unique Plant

Bed 25 — Lindsay B

• Best in Class: Best Use of Space
• Honourable Mention: Most Colourful

Honourable Mention

Bed 52 — Tanya P

• Honourable Mention: Most Bountiful

Bed 66 — Ashley Y

• Honourable Mention: Most Bountiful

• Due to the late addition of the Junior Assistant Gardener Award we are extending the Garden Competition’s entry deadline to Saturday, July 10.

Notes to Gardeners on submitting Junior Assistant Gardener nominees and New Entrants

• IF you have NOT submitted a Growing Engagement entry and only want to nominate your Junior Assistant Gardener(s) you can enter their name(s) on the Growing Engagement Form.

• IF you have already submitted a Growing Engagement entry and wish to enter your Junior Assistant Gardener(s), again, please use the Growing Engagement Form.

• IF you have already submitted a Growing Engagement entry we will maintain your previous category selections — unless — you specifically choose to change them on the Growing Engagement Form.

It was great to “finally” start the 2021 gardening season on Tuesday, May 11, and see our gardeners so enthusiastic about preparing their beds!

Next step is planting.

With that in mind, and social events currently restricted — for the foreseeable future — we thought it might be fun to have a bit of a gardening competition this year.

Because COVID does not get to win! Love always gets to win… in this case, our love of plants!

Normally our garden would have a couple of BBQ’s throughout the summer. We still hope that at the very, very, very least, we will be able to hold our season end celebration with a BBQ, garlic and honey sale, hops picking, and BEER from one of our “hops partners”.

Our present hope is that this little contest will make us all feel a bit more connected to our gardening colleagues even though our restricted numbers will limit “real interaction” for the near future.

There will be a prize for each category winner and of course bragging rights to your friends and family!

• Open to any gardeners with a bed in the ICG.
• Board members and “acknowledged expert gardeners” are prohibited.
• Entries will be anonymous and only the category winners’ names will be published.

• Most bountiful
• Most colourful
• Most unique plant
• Overall visual appeal
• Best use of space — how much produce can you squeeze out of a raised bed?

• Entries open immediately … BUT …
• Last day to throw your hat into the ring will be — Saturday, July 10.
• Judgement Day — Saturday, July 24.

• Please click on this link to make an entry: Growing Engagement Form