Best Garden Selection - 2019 VOTING

VOTE Now for your favourite Gardens or Yards for Residents Choice Best Garden Selection awards
Scroll down to see all the nominations

The MD is again participating in the Communities in Bloom – Best Garden Selection Program! 

This is a fun, casual 
way to recognize the care and attention residents put into having a beautiful yard and garden in harmony with our surroundings and wildlife.

The program provides signs to post in winning yards for the season.

View the Nominees and vote for  “Residents Choice Awards” between July 13-28 

The Winners


Winning gardeners must provide a photo with the sign in their garden before August 15 for use by Scotts and the MD.  

Award signs must be returned to the MD in the fall for reuse the following year.

Best Garden

This year 5 residents have been nominated for recognition; a shared yard in Dead Man's Flats, 2 yards in Exshaw and 1 Harvie Heights yard.

This program is run very informally and is loosely judged by these evaluation categories.

Below are carousels of the submitted photos for each nominee with their nomination information. Look through them all and then VOTE for your Residents Choice between July 13 - 28, 2019. 

Dead Man's Flats Nomination

1. Terri Savitsky and Paul Baumberg

Evaluation Categories for this Nomination: Environmental Action, Floral Displays , Heritage Conservation, Landscape, Native Plants Use, Tidiness, Urban Forestry, Water Conservation

Why nominated:  Environmental Action- our garden is a mixture of native species and perennials and annuals. Care is taken to avoid invasive species and ones that would attract wildlife. Floral Displays - our floral displays are both nature indigenous species and flower arrangements from annuals and perennials. Landscape - We have carefully planned our gardens and we also let Mother Nature start its own arrangements naturally. We are also promoting Fire Smarting with our lush green lawn and deciduous trees. Native Plants Use - We let the native species come in to the garden naturally from fire weed, columbine, clematis .... Tidiness - we always try to keep our garden area well groomed and tidy. Urban Forestry - We do not plant any species that would entice wildlife to be attracted to our gardens. We select trees that are fire smart and clean up around our conifers We do not use mulches as they are against FireSmart principles . We do attempt to reduce watering by the species that we select.

Exshaw Nominations

2. Elaine Butkiewicz, Exshaw

Evaluation Category for this Nomination: Floral Displays

Why nominated: I have tried a new type of flower in the front garden, with hopes of seeing butterflies and humming birds more. I just like to have flowers to make the hamlet of Exshaw look nice. I also think that flowers make a place lived in and that you're happy to call this your place.

3. Bronka and Tony Levstik, Exshaw

Evaluation Categories for this Nomination:
Floral Displays, Landscape, Native Plants Use, Tidiness, Urban Forestry

Why nominated: Branka & Tony work very hard and love the work they do to maintain their property's park-like setting and huge vegetable garden. Branka is always happy to share her knowledge and excess greens with her neighbours. This yard is a pleasure to look at both in the front and along the back alley.

Harvie Heights Nomination

4. Barb Portlock

Evaluation Categories for this Nomination:
Environmental Action, Floral Displays , Heritage Conservation, Landscape, Native Plants Use, Tidiness, Urban Forestry , Water Conservation

Why nominated: 
The garden has a collection of alpine plants growing in rocks and crevices with several alpine trough garden containers to display more of the tiny alpine plants. There are many flowering perennials that attract bees and hummingbirds. The alpine plants have been collected from alpine plant sales and other collectors and are successfully grown in a freely draining soil mix requiring very little if any watering. These plants are hardy and adaptable since they originated in high elevation conditions. The Alpine Trough Gardens are created to display a little piece of the mountain with rock placement to provide water and root runs for ideal container growth. The perennial plants are chosen for flowering color, pollinator attractants and tidy form. The garden includes a number of perennials obtained from the Historical Reader Rock Garden collection of heritage plants. The lawn has not been treated with weed killer, but has been over-seeded with a mix of 5 fescues and white clover to create more of a plant community and the clover being a nitrogen fixer, naturally provides N for the lawn. Keeping the lawn longer in length, conserves water too. The bushes are chosen for their flowering and tidy habit to add some shade and attract pollinators. The garden overall has an impressive floral display in early spring from crocuses poking through the snow to the alpines early show, then the perennials such as poppies, columbines, candytuft and peony’s bloom in profusion and the lilies, flowering bushes, annual flowers take us into the late summer as the garden transitions.

VOTE Now for your favourite Gardens or Yards for Residents Choice Best Garden Selection awards