Remember back in January when I announced my first JPGD Gardener O’ the Month, Rachel Mathews? Well, Rachel’s been kicking up some dust over on her site, Successful Garden Design, with a conversation about what makes a garden great, and it’s not necessarily because you hired someone to do it! To that end, she has thrown down the gauntlet with The Great Garden Challenge, and the premise is quite simple: a contest to see who can create the best garden. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pro or a newbie, you do it alone or you get help, because Rachel is convinced that great gardens come from all different sources.
I’m taking the challenge with my wee 150 sq. ft. balcony garden, and I want to encourage all of you reading to do the same. Not with my garden, of course, with your own! Take a minute to go to Rachel’s site and read up on the particulars–but really, do it! I think this will be a fascinating challenge to all of us who love gardens and love a good throw-down. Here’s my story: I lost most of my plants to the scorching summer of ’09 and the rest of them to the deep freeze winter that followed. So it’s an opportunity for me to totally redo that space into something spectacular, along the lines of, oh, say, a New Orleans jazz courtyard. Seriously, I can do it, I know I can! Now, scamper off, all of you, and go sign up. Rise to the Challenge, or prepare to be defeated!
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What a cool idea! I signed up to get the guide when it’s ready. Will I be considered a cheater if I get advice from you?
Nope, no cheating isn’t possible in this scenario! You can get all the help you want–I’m actually going to have a group of Austin garden bloggers come over in April and give me some of their ideas. Although, in an effort to win this challenge myself, what if I gave you bad advice? LIke, on purpose?
Nah, I wouldn’t do that….
Thanks Jenny – really great to see fellow designers supporting this.
Julie, Jenny is right, it won’t be cheating to have help! The aim is to get people transforming their outdoor spaces and creating wonderful gardens. Some folks will want a designer to do everything, some may want to do it themselves or have some professional guidance.
They’ll be prizes for the best transformations – looks like we might have to have a special category for all these Austin garden bloggers.
The Great Garden Roadmap will be coming along soon.
Fun idea! I like the idea of creating a huge transformation…