2nd Place Winner in the Green Gardeners Make a Difference Photo Contest

The second place winner of the Metro DC Lawn and Garden blog’s Green Gardeners Make a Difference Photo contest is Gemma Evans of College Park, Maryland.

Gemma’s photo made it into the voting round because it illustrated several eco-friendly principles. Gemma won second place in the contest because her photo received 186 total votes - the second highest number of all entries in the contest.

Here is the information Gemma submitted on her entry form, illustrating how she helps to make a positive difference to the local environment by creating an eco-friendly landscape.

Which eco-friendly practices are represented in this picture?: Eco-friendly plant choices, Water conservation techniques, Elimination of chemicals, Creation of wildlife habitat , Reduction or replacement of lawn areas

How does this photograph illustrate eco-friendly lawn and garden practices?: This photo of my shade garden shows many eco-friendly practices! You can see a wide range of native & shade-loving plants; use of mulch to reduce weeds & the amount of watering needed; plants that attract wildlife (birds, rabbits and insects); and replacement of lawn area (an on-going project).

Plants include ferns, bleeding heart, wood poppy, coral bells, redbud saplings, dwarf crested iris, rudbeckia, turtlehead (white and pink), lambs ear and hostas.

You also can see the base of a beautiful & massive Willow Oak, which provides a great deal of habitat for wildlife of all sorts, as well as plenty of leaves for my compost pile.

What you can’t see in the picture, that I am happy about, is any English ivy – an ongoing project is hand-pulling the darn stuff. You also can’t see the compost that has been included in the bed. I compost at home, and also purchase locally-made compost (and mulch) from the City of College Park.

I feel good using it, knowing that it didn’t travel more than a mile to get to my garden!

Thanks so much to Gemma, Nancy and to all of our other entrants!