If you haven’t seen him (“the Gnome”) yet, you will soon enough! The Gnome and Streetscape Mississauga’s expert judges have been visiting various residential gardens all over the city in search of that winning garden. Here is an inside scoop of what the gnome and judges consider to be a potential winning garden.
Judges tend to favour more complex gardens with a mix of evergreens, shrubs, perennials and annuals, but there are always exceptions to every rule. Judges also look for gardens that are unique in some way that make it stand out from the rest.
As the judges come and visit your garden, you can simply avoid losing points by taking a couple of simple steps such as:
- Using artificial plant materials in the garden or in planters.
- Lack of maintenance such as uncut grass, no weeding and deadheading, poor pruning techniques, clutter or garbage left in the garden.
You also have to keep in mind that there is no such thing as a perfect garden because gardening is always changing. To manage pets, diesase, and better environmental friendly practices, chemical products used in the past are no longer considered to be an option. More gardeners today are incorporating environmental methods into their garden maintenance e.g. leaving grass clippings on the lawn; leaving seedheads on plants as a wildlife food source etc. In recognition of these issues, Streetscape judges will be more lenient when judging general maintenance, in the following ways:
- Gardens will not be penalised for spent flowers, fruit or leaves on the ground, unless they are diseased, as these are part of the natural garden cycle.
- So long as a lawn is generally healthy, some lawn weeds are acceptable. Weeds in flower beds are not.
- Spent flowers and seedheads may be left on plants if they have a decorative quality or if they provide a food source for wildlife. General deadheading will still be required.
What we are expecting is that you use judgement and common sense in maintaining your garden, without necessarily striving for a pristine appearance so Good luck and Good Gardening!!
For more information on Streetscape Mississauga, you can visi them here. For other advice on landscaping, please contact us and we will be more than happy to help you out.
