GARDENERS Invited To Enter Annual Inverclyde Contest

THE search is on to find Inverclyde’s great gardeners in this year’s Cardwell Gardenfest competition.

Gardeners will be able to showcase their green-fingered skills and how they have turned their gardens into a magnificent myriad of flowers and plants.

As well as a trophy, a £50 gift voucher is up for grabs in each of the four categories in Cardwell Garden Centre’s Gardenfest 2021.

Like last year, the competition for gardeners living in Inverclyde will be hosted online and entrants are being asked to submit a maximum of three photographs of their garden.

Photos can be submitted in various ways:

— By email to cardwellgardenfest@gmail.com

— By adding them on the comments box of the Facebook Page post about the Gardenfest competition at www.facebook.com/CardwellGardenCentre

— By handing photographs in at Cardwell’s information desk

— BY posting them to Cardwell Gardenfest, Cardwell Garden Centre, Lunderston Bay, Inverclyde PA19 1BB.

The categories this year are:

General Garden -– can be front or rear garden and images should include a wide view;

Hanging Baskets –- with no maximum number of baskets in the photo;

Pots or Containers –- again no maximum number in the photo;

Junior Gardener -– anything in the garden looked after anyone under 16 or any arts and crafts project that is garden related.

Closing date for entries is Monday 16 August and judging will be carried out by local expert George Irvine and Cardwell’s director, Kieran Gallagher.

Kieran said: “We’ve been involved in Gardenfest for many years and even although there are still some coronavirus restrictions in place, we wanted to make sure the competition went ahead again this year.

“There are many skilled gardeners living in Inverclyde and this is a great way of them showing how well their gardens grow.

“And we also want to encourage the next generation of gardeners and that’s why we have a Junior Gardener category to encourage young people to get involved in gardening.

“We can’t wait to see the photographs of people’s gardens.”