City of St. Albert's Cultivate Your Front Yard winners were announced Tuesday at a special garden party held in their honour at the Hole's Enjoy Centre.
This is the second year for the contest, which has already grown in scope. Last year there were 150 entries but this year 200 gardens were nominated, and it seemed as if most of the entrants, as well as their neighbours and family members attended the awards night.
“I want to thank you all. Each of you was nominated by a friend or by your neighbours or by people driving by. We have 20,000 households in St. Albert and 200 of you were nominated. You provide leadership to make our community beautiful,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse.
The winners in the Cultivate Your Front Yard were awarded with a large rock plaque to place in their gardens. The sponsors for the contest included A1 Heating, Art Gallery of St. Albert, Alberta Irrigation Supply, City of St. Albert, Rockland Landscaping Supplies and the St. Albert Gazette.
The winners are:
Best Winter Front Yard 2012: Corry Wood, 48 Fawcett Crescent. Last winter Wood decorated his front yard with a number of ice sculptures.
Best Edible Front Yard: Monica and Tom Robertson, 10 Grantham Place. Monica is the main gardener in this yard designed with circular vegetable beds. She grows her vegetables in the front yard because the back yard is too shady. Throughout the summer there's lots to eat here, from herbs to squash. Large dill plants wave in the wind, and their seed heads provide a graceful backdrop to Robertson's landscape theme that combines roses with tomatoes in a decorative, pleasing arrangement.
Best Natural Front Yard: The Wooding Family at 10 Whitehall Crescent. Their yard features natural aesthetics using native plants, limited pesticides and herbicides and reduced water use.
Best Art in the Front Yard: Arlene and Murray Barker, 4 Salina Drive. The Barkers put their heads together to create this landscape that includes a variety of artworks, including their own favourites, an Easter Island-like sculpture along with a fountain.
Best Business Front Yard: Sarasota Homes at 25 Carleton Drive. This business yard boasts a diverse mix of flowers and art in a creative landscape.
Best Overall Front Yard: Judy and Rick Mikalonis at 16 Portman Place. Judy and neighbour Penny Reidford have designed their two yards as mirror images of each other. “Last year their yard won first place,” Judy Mikalonis said, as she explained that the yards have developed together over 25 years. The Mikalonis' yard is filled with perennials so that something is always in bloom.
Since there were so many entries this year, the top residence in each neighbourhood was also honoured at the event.
The neighbourhood winners are: the Flannery family, 12 Wentworth Crescent; the Barker family, 4 Salina Drive; the Dendy family, 13 Fair Oaks Drive; the Holland family, 7 Grandin Place; the Young family, 31 Hampton Cr.; the Profetta-Magrath family, 15 Bocock Place; the Silver family, 34 Acorn Cr.; the Mason family, 55 Montcalm Cr.; the Wolinsky family, 72 Lancaster Cr.; the Antoniuk family, 71 Deer Ridge Drive, the Raven family, 8 Escallier Pl.; the Thompson family, 107 Otter Cr.; the Mikalonis family, 16 Portman Pl. and the Gillard family, 4 Kelso Court.
Additional recognition was also given to the residents of Fair Oaks Drive because 16 yards on that street were nominated in the Cultivate Your Front Yard contest. The house numbers of those nominees are: 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 32, 33, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 53, and 66 Fair Oaks Drive.
