General News
17 May, 2020
Tablelands garden show winner
The Atherton Tablelands Chamber of Commerce and the Tablelands unite page have announced the winners of their on-line garden competition.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, many organisations have been coming up with unique ideas on how to keep locals engaged while in lockdown.
The Atherton Tablelands Chamber of Commerce (TCC) and the Tablelands unite group decided to run an on-line garden competition.
President of the TCC Bree Hargraves said “We wanted to encourage people isolated at home to get out in their gardens and to keep themselves busy.” she said
“Having a purpose and a connection to the community through isolation helps with mental health and wellbeing.”
The #redsoilgardeners competition required participants to take a before and after photo of the project they were working on.
The competition ran from April 26 to May 10 and Bree said there were a number of categories for people to enter, “We had a category for a #redsoilpro for an already established garden that didn’t need much extra work.”
“Also #redsoilsos for the self-confessed plant killers and #redsoilkids for photos of kids helping in the garden.”
The competition was judged by the volunteer moderators of the Tablelands Unite group.
Bree said “We were pleasantly surprised at how many people messaged us to say how the competition motivated them to get out into their gardens and participate in the competition.' she said
“It was open to all residents of the Tablelands, we even had an entry from Mt Surprise. Renee took a trailer load of rich fertile Tablelands red soil out to Mt Surprise to get her raised veggie garden beds going.”
Some before and after photos of Elizabeth Tirrell from Malanda and her award-winning garden.
The overall winner was Elizabeth Tirrell from Malanda who said that although she wasn't in forced lockdown she decided to not go out and instead started working on her garden.
"I was encouraged by my daughter to enter, as we had just started doing renovations.' she said
"Originally the garden was just weeds and our garden renovation just happened to start at the same time as the garden competition."
First Prize was a Garden Bed from Cams Garden beds, a $100 voucher from Bono’s Excavations & Raw Materials, and a $75 Voucher from Little Trix.
Other sponsors included S&K Raw Materials, Wood ‘n’ Play, Walkamin Hay, Tablelands Agricultural Services and Nutrigold Worm Products.
