Recently, we
ran a competition to win a Garden Gift Card on our Facebook page. In just over
a week, we received more than 300 entries. We would like to congratulate the winner, Samala
Franklyn. You can see her entry below.
The competition was ridiculously hard to judge, and there were so many great gardening plans and generous intentions. We short listed them on the Friday and then spent the weekend debating whether it should go to someone who was planning to develop their own garden, help someone else improve theirs, or help their community. We wanted to share with you some of our favourite responses. We hope that all of you continue to do what you can to fulfill your garden dreams.
"Go to my Grandmas and build a big raised vege garden for her like shes been wanting for ages. Then she'll be able to have fresh veges all the time. She is such a giving person and it would be great to be able to do this for her! Thank you. :-)" - Samala Franklyn (Winner)
"To start with I would purchase another blood orange. We look after the empty section out the back, mow it and are planting fruit/nut trees and vege's to hopefully share with our street. The mad neighbor lady got upset with us a few months a...go. So to extract her revenge she dug up our cabbages and silver beets. Then she tied a rope to our year old (since planting) blood orange tree. She managed to skid on the grass until the graft snapped and our blood orange was no more..... just a weedy root stock. So a blood orange would be my first purchase. The rest would either go on fruit trees, edibles, watering system, trace elements and blood and bone." - David Whyte
"Create more storage so my newly learnt job of growing seedlings can move out of the spare bedroom. And lots more vege plants so I can continue hiding them in unsuspecting kids food." - Kim Henderson
"Put back the lawn my dog got rid of druing the winter running back and forth chasing the planes as they went overhead - latest border collie game..." - Vanessa Crabb
"I am building a memory garden, a special place to remember those we have lost over the years. Full of colour, with an 'In Loving Memory' rose as centrepiece. Something to keep memories of those we love alive." - Karley Johns
"Get some more native plants to encourage native birds to visit my garden." - Sandra Van Kempen
"I would share it with our local college, Fiordland College who are establishing a community garden and could do with a bit of a hand to get some more resources for the students to use. It is a fantastic asset for the community, young and old. It is great to see the older generation in the community coming along to share their knowledge with the students, and it is even better to see the students so enthusiastic about gardening." - Andrew Cudby
"I would scare all the neighbors with my prolific abundance of potted produce..." - Magdalena Jeffries
"I would encourage the budding young 8 year old gardener in our household, by allowing him to choose how to spend the $250. I would ask him to design a plan for his garden, work out what companion plants would be needed and what sort of tools for the plants he would like. Then, shopping time!" - Tara Ginsberg
"Grow a mini orchard out the back to feast on! will go well with my plans to teach to perserve next year to my local mums and save strangers getting door knocks asking if i can have their fruit!" - Jade Temepara
"At the side of our house, is a sad looking area. That hubby thinks he will cover with scoria. I totally dislike that shocking idea! 'Sit back and relax hon, here have a beer. I promise to sort something out for that spot'...While privately thinking 'I'm going to need a lot!'..." - Vicky Marshall
"I would get product to help with our new chicken coop. My 1 and 3 year old girls are getting a chicken each for Christmas to help teach them about looking after animals and we will also get lovely fresh eggs everyday :-) " - Andrew McLachlan
"I would buy an earthmaker compost bin so that we can make use of our food scraps and stop throwing them in the rubbish or insinkerator where they just end up in the landfill. with the new recycling options coming in next year our family of six should be creating very little rubbish if we can compost efficiently." - Patricia Mockett
"Let me dream for just a moment... With $250 to spend JUST ON MY garden... hmmmm. I would make the most of all the vitamin D that would be gained by creating my own little oasis in a corner of the garden just for me, no children, no in-laws, ...a sacred space just for me to fide away in.(my shrink would approve of this!) There would have to be a Deciduous Azalea, as the colours are so vibrant and inspiring. A couple of climbing roses, heavily scented. A little bit of garden art, a seat and perhaps a couple of large outside cushions. Obviously, there would also be a Lemon tree, to go perfectly with the G&T! ahhh. thanks for the dream." - Roz Willmott-Dalton
"I would create a sensory garden, a lot of friends have autistic children and i have seen the delight they get from the colours, smells and touch of plants." - Anita Marija Erceg
"If i won a would get alot of stuff to do up the garden where we just moved into, i would love to grow some fresh herbs and what not and i saw off Jamie Oliver how he put his plants/seeds into the shape of his kiddies names to encourage them to grow stuff in the garden and eat greens so I wanna do that i will spell riley for my 7mnth old boy and my name and my partners name jeremy to encourage him and I'd love to grow some purple beans, baby carrots and get some tools for gardening." - Esta Woon
"I would buy a good bottle of wine, the best cheese and sit out on our deck in the sunshine listening to the Tui, Fantails and Keruru in our garden - oh bliss!" - Dawn Marshall
Special thanks to the Nursery & Garden Industry Association (NGIA) for providing the Garden Gift Card .
