he Andover Garden Club is excited to announce the winners of the Beautification of Andover – A Garden Competition. In early summer of this year, a call went out to Andover businesses, residences, and organizations inviting them all to join in a new Garden Club Annual Awards Program.

Entrants were asked to select their garden category – container, neighborhood, native, raised beds, or any other type of garden that they had created and/or developed. Entry forms were collected and the competition began! The weather made for a challenging summer to create and maintain gardens, but like all good gardeners, contestants rallied and rose to the occasion!

Judging took place in late September with a panel of three judges: Tressa Gaffney, Services by Tressa; JoAnn Hicks, Garden Club Beautification Committee member and former landscaper; and Mary Lou McCrave, Garden Club chairperson. The judges visited the gardens on a beautiful fall day in late September and evaluated the gardens against established standards. 

And the winners are: Alan and Minke Greenwood for Best Garden Overall; Frank, Justine, and Pat Puliafico for Best Raised Bed Garden; and Joanne Andrews-Stevens for Best Natural Garden. Contestant and winner Joanne Andrews-Stevens said, “I so love that garden, and if it were not for the contest, I’d probably have stopped with just the fallen pine this year.”

A note about our winners – they are all recently relocated to Andover and enthusiastic about their new gardens and properties. This is the Greenwood’s first year full-time on Highland Lake, having recently moved from Massachusetts; the Puliaficos moved from California recently and this is their very first garden – ever; and Joanne Stevens, also a relative newcomer to Andover, created a unique and whimsical garden from a large fallen pine tree on her property that includes a beautiful curved stone retaining wall. Congratulations to these dedicated and spirited gardeners!

Awards were presented at the Club’s Annual Meeting held on October 22, and contestants were presented with monogrammed Professional Hori Hori Garden Knives. A plaque in their honor will also be hung at the Andover Community Hub.

Watch for information next spring about the Second Annual Horticultural Award Program and request your entry form!