About the Contest

We love seeing so many gardeners in the Okanagan who are also budding photographers! On this page, we’ll explain what the categories are and what the appropriate photos are for each category. Over the years, we’ve added and split these categories to allow for lots of different opportunities to enter. Please look through and choose the best fit!

Winners announced!

See winners

Important Dates

  • Sept 18: Contest opens for submissions
  • Nov 1: Last day for submissions
  • Nov 9: Voting starts
  • Nov 23: Voting ends
  • Dec 7: Winners announced

Please note: all events mentioned above occur at Noon on each date.

Important Rules

  • Photos must belong to the individual submitting. No borrowing photos from social media or other resources, please.
  • Photos must be of your own garden.
  • Photos should be from the current growing season only.
  • This is an online photo contest and we will be accepting photos through our online upload page only.
    Please do not submit your photos by post or by email. Thank you!

Categories

You may submit up to 13 photos total. Photos may be all in one category or spread across multiple categories.

Two winners will be chosen per category: one by public vote and one by The Greenery Family. There are some great prizes to be won, including gardening surprises and gift certificates!

Best Annual Flower Bed

Bring on the colour! Annual flower beds display the richest hues that Mother Nature has to offer. We're looking for thoughtfully composed flowerbeds that provide a contrast of plant types.

Best Perennial Flower Bed

A great perennial garden doesn't require all the bright colours as annual flower beds do in order to make you go "Wow!" Creative organization of high and low plants and lush foliage make for excellent voting material.

Best Flowering Planter

If you can put a plant in it, it's a planter! Whether it's your classic round pot or an overflowing bathtub of flowers, almost everything goes with this category. We've seen creative entries like wine crates, boats, and even motorcycles used as planters! You don't have to be weird and wacky to take home the trophy for this category either—we're looking for play in various textures and colours in your planter as well.

Best Flowering Hanging Basket

When all you can see is a cascade of flowers and leaves floating in mid-air—no sign of the "hanging basket" part in sight—you know you're doing it right! Big blooms and excellent composition of plants are key to making a winning hanging basket.

Best Fruit & Vegetable Harvest

Are you enjoying the fruits or veggies of your labour? Before you take a bite—show us your bounty! Previously the "Best Fall Fair Vegetables", we've expanded this category to include fruits so that all your tomato photos can be included as well ;) Go ahead: make us jealous over your melons!

Best Fruit & Vegetable Garden

Edible garden growers unite... to duke it out and take home the prize for this category! Whether you’re a fruit whisperer or a veggie wrangler, we’re looking for where all the magic happens. Let’s see your playground! Patio container gardens count too.

Best Flower Close-up

This is your chance to get up close and personal with your flourishing flowery friends. This is arguably our most popular category so it's well worth it to take extra care in your photos! Note: If you're focusing on a critter-crawly in your close-up, please enter it in the "Best Insects & Plants" category instead. The Flower Close-up category is for your flowers to shine, not the bugs!

Best Kids in the Garden

There is an old saying, "Teach a kid how to garden and they might get really addicted..." (is that how it goes?!) This is the category to show off your blossoming little gardeners hard at work. Submit photos of them harvesting, interacting, and caring for the family's garden!

Best Pets & Plants

Let’s be honest, your garden brings joy to more than just you. All of your furry, feathery friends love it too—whether you want them to or not! Be it the innocent looking puppy with dirt stained paws or the stubborn feline who’s picked her resting place for the season, share them with us.

Best Wildlife & Plants

One of the great joys of nurturing a garden is seeing all of unexpected critters, both big and small, who stop by to enjoy the work you’ve created. Show us the creatures who’ve either inhabited your garden this season or stopped by for a surprise visit.

Best Insects & Plants

A wonderful thing about gardening is that we have no problem getting down and dirty with our multi-legged/no-legged creatures. If you've got a busy bee buzzing around or ladybug diligently tending your garden, snap a shot!

Best Succulent & Cactus Planter / Hanging Basket

Succulent and cacti lovers: here’s your chance! With the incredible number of varieties, it’s so easy to make creative arrangements without the use of traditional flowering plants. Not to mention the funky and unusual containers they can be planted in!

Best Foliage & Tropical Planter / Hanging Basket

Your planter, wallbag, or hanging basket doesn't need to have big blooms to be beautiful. This foliage-focused category is for those who enjoy a more leafy arrangement of plants—tropical or not. Note: some flowers are okay (even foliage plants have to bloom at times) but the majority of the plants need to be foliage.