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David Suzuki Digs My Garden--Photo Contest

Picking finalists wasn’t easy - especially when every entry deserved to win just by virtue of making their lawns and gardens pesticide-free.

100% Organic Cotton T-Shirt with vegetable based dyes Visitors to our website voted in an on-line poll, and chose these fantastic winners, each of whom will receive a "David Suzuki Dig's My Garden" T-Shirt and $30 Gift Certificate for heritage seeds from Salt Spring Seeds.

We’ve had people from India to New Zealand (no kidding) asking how they can get a "David Suzuki Digs My Garden" T-shirt for for themselves, or as a gift for a friend. Click here to order.

Be sure to enter the 2008 contest in the spring!

Voluminous Vegetables--Winner 2007

This is one of the many harvests out of my half acre plot located in Boundary Bay. Right down the street from the ocean; there is the same amount of sand in my back yard as the beach. Years of adding leaves, seaweed, straw, chicken manure, compost and endless cover crops has resulted in highly fertile soil with amazing drainage, allowing me to supply family and friends year-round. From asparagus to zucchini even cut flowers there is something for everyone and of course everything is organically grown. But the job is never done there is always more to do in order to help mother nature put healthy food on the table. You reap what you sow and I never stop sowing...
Clayton Houghland - Vancouver, BC

Outstanding Ornamentals--Winner 2007

We bought our home over ten years ago and have never used any herbicides, pesticides or any other chemicals. There were no gardens on the property originally as the condition of the soil was mostly clay - we used mulch, compost and peat moss to improve the existing soil to create the flower beds. I rarely need to do any watering despite having a lush healthy garden. Over the years I have slowly been introducing native Ontario plants which now represent about 25% of the space; perennials make up the majority of the rest of the garden. Our garden is our sanctuary from the busy Toronto environment but I also believe the birds, butterflies and chipmunks use it as theirs too.
Sheelagh Hysenaj - Toronto, ON

Luscious Lawns--Winner 2007

Luscious Lawns

This picture does not show my garden as nicely as it is (most of the flowers died off now) but I wanted to show the comparisons in the back ground. That is how my “lawn” looked before I spent years getting it to grow the way it is today. I live in Iqaluit, Nunavut. I have collected many specimens of wildflowers and transplanted them. Each year I put rocks on the barer area to collect the seeds from the air and also put up a string around it to keep people off my prized area! Everything is natural here and there is no need to compete or to waste water or to have to keep up with the Joneses! It is a different life here but we can still have our own form of a tundra lawn!
Susan Gardener - Iqaluit, Nunavut

Here are the contest finalists

Luscious Lawns

Voluminous Vegetables

Outstanding Ornamentals

Contest Entries: Luscious Lawns

Luscious Lawns
Photo # 1

Luscious Lawns

Our project this spring was to get rid of our grass. First we covered it with layers of newspaper, overlapping all sides, which smothers the grass and weeds so they won't grow though the mulch. Wet the paper as you go to keep it in place and speed up the composting process. Then cover with river rock and mulch (3 inches deep). If we want to add one more drought-resistant scrub we’ll just move a bit of mulch aside where we want to plant it. Only upkeep is to top up with one inch of mulch every 2 years.
Patti Foley, Bolton ON

Luscious Lawns
Photo # 2

I think the lawn is a functional part of the home, an area to play with kids and pets and just relax maybe. But once the “want” of a lawn becomes more important than the “need” for clean-air or the green of a lawn becomes more important to their families and communities health that’s where I think we are getting into trouble. The lawn has a very long history as a show of discretionary income and status. We need to change that basic social attitude and it all starts with education. I use only a manual-push mower on my lawn and the rest is all beautiful wild flowers.
Marc Leach

Luscious Lawns--Winner
Photo # 3

Luscious Lawns
Photo # 4

I am chemically sensitive and pesticides trigger severe reactions. I must eat organic food. I have also surrounded my home, a pond and a moist areas with Saskatchewan native species. Many butterflies are now occurring, including home-raised Monarchs this year! Over the twenty years of my illness, working in my vegetable and native wildflowers garden provided me with a lot of healing. Leaves are composted on site in low-maintenance flower beds. I dig weeds, use corn gluten and fertilize with manure, home-grown compost, alfalfa and seaweed emulsion. Row covers exclude pests from my vegetables, and I hand-pick slugs. The front yard is a flower bed with native wildflowers, and strawberries in the middle. In 2006, SNAP organized tours of organic yards and gardens in Regina. My yard and community garden were important stops.
Paule Hjertaas - Regina, SK

Luscious Lawns
Photo # 5

We moved into our rented house because the backyard looked like the perfect place for our kids to play. A few months after we moved in, I was horrified when I saw the gardeners spraying pesticides on the lawn. I immediately phoned our landlord and asked that she no longer use pesticides. Although she was reluctant at first, after thinking about it overnight, she changed her mind. Now I feel so happy that my kids can frolic in the backyard, free of toxic chemicals. We were lucky. I still worry about the kids who don't have the choice, or don't even know they are playing in poison.
Annabelle Dickson, Port Moody, BC

Contest Entries: Voluminous Vegetables

Voluminous Vegetables
Photo # 1

This cold frame was built so we could move the seeds from our baby's east facing bedroom to a warm(ish) place outside in the spring. It reflects our organic and sustainable values... It was built from 100% recycled or scrounged parts - a futon frame found in an alley, glass given to us by the community garden next door, old hinges and brackets to keep it together and some weather stripping to hold in the glass. We grow organic fruits and vegetables in about 20 square metres of dirt and some basil, peppers and melon in the cold frame. For months we eat out of our yard and our daughter gets to experience the complete cycle of life right outside our back door. It's wild, unmanicured and very very abundant. Kind of like a reflection of our lives.

James--British Columbia

Voluminous Vegetables
Photo # 2

This is a photo of part of a one day harvest from my home garden and my 2 community garden plots (1800 ft2) to reflect the diversity of crops. I am chemically sensitive and pesticides trigger severe reactions. I must eat organic food. I have also surrounded my home, a pond and a moist areas with Saskatchewan native species. Many butterflies are now occurring, including home-raised Monarchs this year! Over the twenty years of my illness, working in my vegetable and native wildflowers garden provided me with a lot of healing. Leaves are composted on site in low-maintenance flower beds. I dig weeds, use corn gluten and fertilize with manure, home-grown compost, alfalfa and seaweed emulsion. Row covers exclude pests from my vegetables, and I hand-pick slugs.
Paule Hjertaas - Regina, SK

Voluminous Vegetables
Photo # 3

This year we joined a community shared garden for the first time. I know that the produce we are eating is not only the freshest and tastiest produce, but also has not contributed to polluting the earth. Going to the local farm to pick up our share of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers is quite a treat since there is always ice cream at Mapleton's Organic where the CSA is located. My experience so far has inspired me and although my part is small, supporting local organic farmers is important to me and we will continue share our stories.
Miranda Nelson

Voluminous Vegetables
Photo # 4

(we received 11 photos from this group, and we chose this photo to represent them)

Our garden is located in Penetanguishene, Ontario. Our gardening program from the Rehabilitation Services Department aims at providing vocational training from our patients. We are a psychiatric hospital. Everything we do in this hospital is articulated around the environment. There is now an ecological development plan being implemented on the grounds of the hospital, where water runoffs are now filtered naturally before reaching Georgian Bay, thousands of trees are being planted, there is a team responsible for promoting and implementing green initiatives in the workplace, and compost and recycling collection on every floor of the hospital. We use the rich and generous compost from the hospital in our gardens. We use cayenne pepper on the cabbages to limit mite infestation, and weeds are pulled out manually every day. We sell our vegetables at the local farmers market where our patients are given an opportunity to hone their customer service skills. We are getting great reviews from our customers for our delicious and incomparable produce.
11 Patients from the Mental Health Centre--Penetanguishene, Ontario

Voluminous Vegetables
Photo # 5

Contest Entries: Outstanding Ornamentals

Outstanding Ornamentals
Photo # 1

We stopped using pesticides when our daughter was born. We wanted our yard to be safe for her to walk barefoot on the grass and smell the roses. And there’s a certain joy in watching a fuzzy bumblebee heavy with pollen tumble out of a blossom that we wanted to share with our child. Now, we share the roses with the occasional caterpillar. When insects threaten my roses too much, we rely on the “pick and squish” method. It seems to work just fine.
Garner Haines

Outstanding Ornamentals
Photo # 2

Outstanding Ornamentals
Photo # 3

From water wasteful to wildlife worthy, this year I am transforming our inground swimming pool into a pesticide-free inspirational garden. Inspired by my love of wildlife and the four elements, our “pool” now requires far less energy, chemicals, and water! Two years ago I planted 36 native prairie wildflowers from seed in the front yard, so I allowed myself to diversify my selections in the pool garden. I use manure and compost for soil health, hand weed, mulch, and will add a rain barrel next year to spot water. I love the new flurry of activity from my winged visitors!
Jan Kindred - White City, SK

Outstanding Ornamentals
Photo # 4

This is my garden, it's chemical free
There are trees, there are shrubs
There are birds, there are bees
Roses and poppies and peonies too
Hostas and lilies to name just a few
Native plants grow as do travelling vines
Along with parsley and sage, rosemary and thyme
If you stand by my pond, behold with your eyes
All the frogs, little critters and dragonflies
Be warmed by the sun and see tall grasses sway
Or rest in the shade and watch butterflies play
A place for all creatures great and small
My precious garden - it welcomes all.
Angie Rohrbacher

Outstanding Ornamentals
Photo # 5

Many people do not realize the toxic chemicals that are used on flowers to preserve them and keep them blemish-free. Pesticide use in the cut flower industry remains largely unregulated and rampant. I grow a variety of annual cut flowers using the same organic methods I use with my vegetables: hand-weeding, compost-spreading and crop rotation. When they visit the farm each week to pick up their vegetables, my customers are free to visit the flower garden and cut a bouquet of fresh, safe flowers to take home for their families to enjoy.