Spring Garden Competition
WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
Click on the category below to view the list of winners and photos:
Front Garden Winners
1st Place: Robin Catalano
2nd Place: Sue Kennedy
3rd Place: Sarnav Karimi
Back Garden Winners
1st Place: Rae Roy
2nd Place: Helen Russell
3rd Place: Erica Goldfinch
Edible Garden Winners
1st Place: Erica Goldfinch
2nd Place: Andrew Heyes
3rd Place: John Princi
Native and Habitat Winners
1st Place: Frances Reddacliff
2nd Place: Keri Gallagher
3rd Place: Deirdre and Peter Mahoney
Courtyard and Balcony Winners
1st Place: Sue Kennedy
2nd Place: Julie Broadhead
3rd Place: Margaret Feltham
Commercial Garden Winner
1st Place: First Place - Living Choice - Joel Perez
Preschool Garden Winner
1st Place: North Ryde Community Preschool
School Garden Winners
1st Place: West Ryde Public School
2nd Place: Kent Road Public School
Community Garden Winners
1st Place: The Habitat
2nd Place: CSIRO
Bushcare Regeneration Winners
1st Place: Kitty's Creek
2nd Place: Martin Reserve
3rd Place: Pellisier Road
Special Judges Awards
Challenging Balcony Award - Katharine Lam
Innovators Award - Tao Li and Rui Zuo
Best PH Award - Lena Fuggico
Edible Garden Award - Denis Chen
Champion Gardens
Champion Garden - Angela Thomas
Champion Garden - Rae Roy
About the Competition
The City of Ryde has a long and proudly history of conducting the Spring Garden Competition. This established community event has been held annually for more than thirty years. The City of Ryde is one of the few local councils still organising and providing a garden competition for its local residents and local community.
The City of Ryde’s Spring Garden Competition is back again! This very popular community event has a unique ‘hands on’ quality and an ‘active’ nature to it. It provides the community with a chance to better our gardens and use it as a time to keep active, keep creative and establish a space of relaxation. This competition aims to showcase these amazing spaces that have brought encouragement and joy to many.
Categories
- Front gardens: a garden area adjacent to the street which may include an entry gate or pathway leading to the front of the residence.
- Back gardens: a garden area, away from the front of the residence, which may include a swimming pool, children's play area and a deck or terrace for relaxation or entertaining.
- Courtyard or balcony gardens: private residential garden using pots, planter boxes, ornaments, walled gardens etc.
- Edible gardens: vegetable gardens, fruit gardens, permaculture gardens etc.
- Native and habitat-friendly gardens: gardens which feature Australian native plants and include habitat elements to encourage native fauna such as birds, lizards, possums and insects.
- Local school gardens: gardens within local primary schools, high schools and pre-schools where students and teachers have worked together.
- Community gardens: garden projects where the local community, groups or community organisations have worked together.
- Commercial gardens: gardens within local businesses and commercial organisations eg. hotels, retirement villages, commercial premises, small and large businesses, universities etc.
- Bushcare sites: for an outstanding contribution made by a group of volunteers at a recognised Bushcare site.
- Children’s seed growing competition*: Children can enter in the following age brackets: 3 – 7 years and 8 - 12 years. The seeds to be grown are Dwarf Sunflowers. Free seeds, pot and growing instructions will be available for collection from Eden Gardens from Tuesday 1 August 2023.
Note: We encourage entries in the Children’s Seed Growing category to be made before Thursday 31 August to allow for maximum seed growing time.
Judging of Entries and Judging Criteria
All entries will be personally judged by a panel of appointed garden judges and horticulture professionals. The City of Ryde will contact entrants to confirm their allocated judging time slot for the judging panel to view each entry. Wherever possible judging will take place during the months of September/October 2023.
It is preferable that Spring Garden Competition entrants are present at their allocated judging timeslot and during the judging of their entry. Judging generally takes between 20 – 45 minutes depending on the size and nature of the entry.
Judging will be based on three main factors, with extra focus on enthusiasm and how families and communities created/maintained the garden.
- Maintenance - the lack of elements such as dead and diseased plants, well presented lawns and clipped shrubs, considered water usage and overall attention to detail.
- Design - aspects such as layout, colour, use of line, form and texture, plant use and once again attention to detail within this context.
- Intent - the active participation of the entrant, level of knowledge and enthusiasm and extent of third party assistance.
All entrants will be invited to attend a Gala Presentation Evening for the announcement of the 2023 Spring Garden Competition winners.
Key Dates
- 1 July 2023: Entries open.
- 31 August 2023: Entries close.
- Mid – September 2023: City of Ryde council officer will contact entrants to confirm their allocated time and date for judging.
- September/October 2023: Garden judges accompanied by a City of Ryde council officer will visit and judge all Spring Garden Competition entries on the allocated date at the allocated time slot.
- Wednesday 25 October 2023: Announcement of the 2023 Spring Garden Competition winners and place getters held at Eden Gardens.
NOTE: please visit the Children’s Seed Growing Competition page for more information about this competition and key dates.
Past entries
Click here to get some inspiration and view photos from some entries from previous Spring Garden Competition events.
More Information
For further enquiries call City of Ryde’s Customer Service Centre on 9952 8222.