Local garden club judges PHS contest
Gardens judged on distinct criteria, ranging from ordinary maintenance to imaginative ideas
Recently two teams of members from Twin Valleys Garden Club served as volunteer judges in the 2017 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gardening and Greening Contest. This annual PHS contest is an opportunity to “celebrate all gardeners,” including individuals, garden clubs, businesses and municipalities within Philadelphia and in surrounding counties.
Contestants choose from many garden categories both flower and vegetable in which to enter. One TVGC team of judges, CarolHeilner of Glenmoore, Team Leader, with TVGC members Gerallyn Duke of West Chester, and Trish St. Georges of Glenmoore, toured gardens in West Chester, Chadds Ford and Kennett Square. One garden in the Garden Block Main Street class was entered as a community effort to beautify a local town.
Another was a Children’s Vegetable Community Garden which is being tended throughout the summer months by families at Patton Middle School in Kennett Square. The bounty of this garden is being shared with a local food bank. Another benefit of this school garden reported by the teacher in charge and parents involved in the gardening is that participating children are not only eating their favorite vegetables but also tasting new ones.
The second TVGC team of judges with Debbie Kuhn, Team Leader, and Susan Aggarwal, both of Malvern, and Associate member Dot Alloway of Downingtown, visited three gardens in southwestern Chester County and one in Lancaster County. These gardens were a variety of flower gardens, combinations of vegetables and flowers, and one farm with gardens and animals.
The gardens were judged on distinct criteria, ranging from ordinary maintenance to imaginative ideas to the total visual effect. Judges for PHS were required to take photos of the gardens which included close-ups of flowers and vegetables, water features, sculpture, unusual plant material and the gardeners themselves.
“Visiting the gardens and speaking to their owners as they shared their enthusiasm was a rewarding ex- perience [because we met] so many passionate gardeners,” said TVGC judge Carol Heilner. “Some were seasoned gardeners who entered previous years. This year one was a ten year old who simply loved planting and tending to his flowers, herbs and vegetables. He has so much fun gardening that he wants to become a horticulturalist someday.”
An awards reception will be held by PHS later in the year.