Neighborhood Garden Contest: To Gnome or Not to Gnome?

If you're "fortunate" to live in a neighborhood that holds an annual, quarterly, or monthly neighborhood garden contest, you may "live to compete" or wonder what all the fuss is about. Well, some people are just naturally competitive and some neighbors could use a little incentive to keep their yards neater. Either way, a neighborhood garden contest can be fun and a great way to meet some more of your neighbors. If your neighborhood holds a garden contest and you're feeling that competitive edge, you'll probably have to do a little more than just mow the yard. Here are some tips for winning that coveted "best neighborhood garden" award.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 1 - First Things First

While you might be competing for an award this month, the people that are judging your yard probably know what it looks like EVERY month. Just as in business, it's difficult to erase a bad first impression. So if you decide to mow your yard for the first time in, um, weeks, don't expect an award. Be a good neighbor and keep the yard mowed on a regular basis. It sets the perfect stage for adding plantings or decorations for winning the neighborhood garden contest.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No.2 - Do I Really Have to Mention This?!

Before you even begin to think about your yard, is the outside of your actual house looking spiffy? If it isn't, no garden upgrade in the world is going to save you. Pressure wash the siding, fix the loose gutter, take down the Christmas decorations (especially if it's August), and pick up the beer cans - I don't care who threw them there. Seriously.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 3 - Focus, Focus, Focus

Take a walk by the front of your home. What do you notice first? The first door, usually. Next will probably be the mailbox, front walk, post lamp planting area, or driveway entrance. The focal points you notice are the ones you should focus on for the neighborhood garden contest. If your home focal areas are bare, upgrading any or all of them with new flowers and shrubbery is sure to get you noticed for the neighborhood garden contest. Plus you'll get an instant uplift when you pull in your driveway each day after work.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 4 - Don't Overdo It

When you get motivated to enter your neighborhood garden contest, don't go overboard. If you do, you're more likely to end up with a mishmash of plants that will look good for a week or two, or too many plants that you can't possibly maintain. Take time to pick a color scheme and make a simple plan. You'd hate to do all that work and then lose the garden contest this month to the "Martha Stewart" down the street, wouldn't you? Pace yourself.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 5 - A Little Martha Stewart is a Good Thing

Be like Martha and pay attention to color. The flowers you select should coordinate with your home colors. Stop by the bookstore, grab a cappuccino, and look at a few garden magazines. Pick some colors and then visit the owner of the local garden store and have him fill in the blanks for you. Tell him you'll let him advertise in your yard - AFTER you win the neighborhood garden contest. You might get a discount.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 6 - Pick Your Month Carefully

If you are really serious about winning the neighborhood garden contest and you are a newbie, carefully pick your month to shine. If you have several "green thumbs" in your neighborhood who seem to win the majority of the time, don't try to compete against them in the neighborhood garden contest during the spring months, the experienced competitors will beat you every time. Go for a month without a major holiday (too much competition), a month that's not too hot and dry (those months are only for the most die-hard competitors), or a month when no one else is likely to have much blooming.

Try for a low-key month or season of the year that allows you to provide a welcome surprise. Say, for instance, February (but you must plan a surprise attack by planting February-blooming crocus and hyacinth bulbs in the fall). Late winter flowers blooming in the snow will defrost the most hardened garden contest judge's heart in your favor.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 7 - Ignore the Advice in Tip No. 6

If you are a hopeless gardener but are determined to win the neighborhood garden contest, let your faults become your assets. Set your sights high and aim directly for winning the neighborhood garden contest in the highly competitive month of October. Dead tree in your yard? Festoon it with ghostly sheets and focus a strobe light on it. Haven't replaced the brown shrubbery from your failed gardening attempt of three years ago? Nab some fake tombstones at the craft store and fashion up a scary graveyard. Haven't raked the leaves yet? Way to go - that's perfect. Dress up as a zombie for Halloween and give out the best candy and dollar bills.

Note: You might have to spend some significant bucks to purchase copious amounts of mums, pumpkins, and hay bales to accentuate the spots of dead grass and impress the neighborhood garden contest committee. But, with a yard like yours, this may be your one shot at greatness so it's worth it.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 8 - The Secret

Your judges in the neighborhood garden contest are trying to be fair. Really. But there's one secret they probably haven't revealed. More than likely they've divided up the subdivision into areas so that one garden wins in each area of the neighborhood. Watch for a few months and you'll see a pattern. Use "the secret" to spruce up the garden areas in your yard when no one else in your "area" of the subdivision is working on theirs. You're sure to win a neighborhood garden contest award!

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 9 - Know Your Enemy (Garden Contest Judge)

To get serious about winning the neighborhood garden contest, make sure you always drop by to see the winning yards in your neighborhood garden contest. Do you notice any similarities among previous winners? Do they all have gardenscape lighting? Well, then you'll have to splurge on that, too. Obviously the judges in your neighborhood garden contest must love landscape lighting. Or be different and do something equally as beautiful. What about a water garden?

Talk to the contest winners. Ask them what they feel was their winning edge in receiving the neighborhood garden contest award. Use their tips and make some new friends at the same time. If you're really nice they might even divide and share some of their plants with you.

Neighborhood Garden Contest Tip No. 10 - To Gnome or Not to Gnome

Those Gnomes! You either love 'em or hate 'em. That goes double for the deer, flamingos, and all other yard "art." If you love "yard art," and if you are totally serious about winning your neighborhood garden contest you will have to know if your judges love "yard art," too. If no one with "yard art" has been rewarded in the past, chances are your garden full of gnomes won't be rewarded, either.

It may be time to take a stand. If you love your gnomes, then you should be able to show your creativity. Tastefully, of course. Who could resist a cute little gnome peeking out from under a large hosta? Or, go ahead and go full-out with the gnomes. If you don't win, wait until the contest judge goes on a week-long vacation and sneak those gnomes into the her yard as payback.