Garden of the Week returning for nine weeks

After two seasons of following a strictly online process, the Garden of the Week contest is back in its original format.

Members of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Horticultural Society will be judging those nominated, front gardens only, says contest coordinator Susan Dodd, and then returning to take photographs of the weekly winners.

The horticultural society is partnering with the town’s Communities in Bloom committee, says Dodd, and nominations — from owners who wish to nominate their garden, or others who admire one they’ve passed by, as long as they know the address — can be submitted on the town’s website:

• Go to www.jointheconversationnotl.org/garden-of-the-week
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the 2022 Garden of the Week Contest Nomination Form under "Surveys & Forms" for the week in which you are nominating

The deadline for each week’s nominations is Monday evening. Three judges will do their rounds Wednesday mornings, beginning July 6, and continuing for nine weeks, with the winning garden featured in the following edition of The Local. Horticultural society member Marla Percy will pick one interesting and beautiful plant from each chosen garden, and write about it for The Local, so readers, including gardeners who admire the contest winners, can learn something about what makes it a winner.

Each of the nine contest winners will receive a prize of Miracle Gro products, a bottle of wine from Konzelman Estate Winery and a gift certificate from Sunset Grill on Queen Street.

“This is the Year of the Garden,” says Dodd, “and showcasing front gardens of residents through Garden of the Week is just one of the initiatives of the town to celebrate it.”