Contests » Grow it Forward Heirloom Seed Contest

Grow it Forward for the benefit of future generations

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Contest 101
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Top 25 Heirloom Gardens - Voting is now concluded!

The "Seed", "Plant", "Tend" and "Harvest" themed portions of the contest have finished, and all the votes are in. It's been great to see all the fruitful heirloom gardens!

Below are the Top 25 heirloom gardens with the most member votes from among the many gardens across the US and Canada helping to preserve the legacy and diversity of these time-honored plants. Join us in the Forum for a post-contest wrap!

Congrats to the Grow it Forward Lottery prizewinners:

Grand Prize Winner: toppenish family organic garden in Toppenish, WA

Runner Up: Paula's New House in Glen Burnie, MD

East Texas Linden, TX

By RoriTx

We grow,can or freeze 90% of all the vegetables we eat. I've decided to start saving our own seeds so this year we will plant as many heirloom varieties as we can.Breaking News:...

0314

toppenish family organic garden Toppenish, WA

By JMTKMS

We started this garden in 2010 and could not believe the harvest!!! We expanded in 2011 and now we are exhausted because the harvest was so much more. We are completely organi...

0300

Ramos' Disorganized Garden Floresville, TX

By Clenram

The success of our gardening has been great, with some disappointments due to the learning curve. We are learning what we can do when we have 4 months of temperatures over 100 a...

0193

Stone Cottage Farm Garden 2012 Mayville, MI

By StoneCottageFarm

Hi! I'm the Stone Cottage Farm Garden 2012! I was brand new two years ago when Farmer Dave and Farmer Christina broke new ground in what used to be the back farm yard. I'm hopin...

0169

My Escape Upper Sandusky, OH

By PYehl

My 30'x70' piece of paradise. Nothing makes me happier than to work in my garden and get lots of dirt under my fingernails. I spend almost every day in the cold Ohio winters d...

0166

Prince Snow Farm Mattapoisett, MA

By PrinceSnow

Our garden is a true extension of our desire to grow healthy food for our family and friends without the use of chemicals. And this year, NO GMO's! Wahoo!!!!

0163

Sweet Heirlooms Hastings, MN

By SweetDomesticity

A Grow It Forward heirloom garden

0146

The Heirloom Garden of Eatin' Tacoma, WA

By Queen_of_Green

I redesigned my vegetable garden last year at Franklin Park Community Garden with the Vegetable Garden Planner on Mother Earth News. I am implementing the full plan this season ...

0144

Bohemian Garden Monroe, MI

By Liz

My vegetable garden is getting a makeover this year! Not only will I be growing more heirlooms, but the area where they will be growing will have a Bohemian flair.....colorful,...

0142

Veebee's Kitchen Garden Davenport, NY

By veebee

This year 2012 will be the third season of my organically grown 20'x25' fenced kitchen garden. My garden grows primarily in raised beds and along vertical trellising, all surro...

0140

Tallulah's Veggie Patch Columbia, KY

By tallulahshines

A community garden veggie patch, at the hands of an inexperienced city dweller!

0104

Oscar & Mabel's playground Fort Payne, AL

By vanna516

I love trying new varieties & since I'm relatively "new" to gardening that is easy. It is also easy to learn from your mistakes. I named the garden after 2 of my kitties (...

0067

Cypress Lake Ranch Bonham, TX

By sreece

This is my 4th year of gardening commercially. I use natural pest controls and organic fertilizer in my raised beds. This year I am trying out the Mittleider method of gardening...

0063

Millie's Heirloom Junction City, KS

By milliesgarden

Update: We just moved into a new farmhouse. I'm hoping to make it a grand scale garden escape with fruit trees, vineyards, berry patches and flowers! Can't wait to play in my ...

0062

Spy Garden Glencoe, MO

By amaranth3

Our garden was planted in 2010 (and was much smaller then!). My son named the garden in 2012. The plan was to plant tall plants on the outside so he could "spy" out of it! The n...

0061

Little House In Midtown Sacramento, CA

By Katrina

In 2008 we moved to our home in the middle of one of Sacramento's oldest neighborhood. The backyard was overgrown and unkempt. We began the slow process of removing old dying tr...

0046

Willowwacks Faerie Garden Rogue River, OR

By puckamok

When I moved here there was a small organic garden but most of the topsoil was washed away by gold mining and logging. I'm creating a food forest and learning permaculture pract...

0045

The Back Quarter Riverton, UT

By Gene

1/4 acre plot with fruit trees and a large garden with seven 10x4ft beds and 150+ spots for melons, squash and other large plants. I focus rather heavily on tomatoes, sweet pepp...

0042

Paula's New House Glen Burnie, MD

By jupiter

I bought my first home in January of this year. I am so excited to grow all the things I was limited to in pots. I have had 4 raised beds built and am trying my hand at really ...

0039

LOKAvore House Chicago, IL

By lgolanty

Just moved into a house! The last owners had spectacular roses, but we'll be taking most of them out in favor of edibles. If anyone has advice on rose-tending in the midwest, we...

0027

Melissa Clark's Garden Oasis Oakdale, CT

By Midnightmw

I have been playing in the dirt for as long as I canremember. My first experience was aMcDonald Happy Meal (see they aren’t all bad) that included marigold seeds anda buck...

0025

Snow White's Cottage Garden Mogadore, OH

By UnusualFarmChick

Gardening is always on my mind. When I can't be in it, I'm thinking of it. Heirloom seeds with a story make me weak in the knees as well as old garden tools. We moved to our lil...

0024

Growing Hope Brush Prairie, WA

By Hilleriffic

Growing Hope is a local teaching garden that is dedicated to raising food for local homeless shelters and food banks. We are located in Brush Prarie, Wa. Our supporters are volu...

0023

Blue Barn Acres Merced, CA

By KellyB

We're trying to grow as much of our own food as we can. It's year 1 on this property. After an almost rainless winter, our small continuous harvest feels gratifying. But it's on...

0023

slip sliding away Arroyo Grande, CA

By Nellilein

My garden is on a SW facing slope and quite a challenge. Sometimes I feel being part billy goat would help getting up and down the garden. We have stairs and a path planned, b...

0021

See all Grow it Forward Heirloom Gardens »

Contest 101 - About the Contest

Here's a quick overview to get you started. For more details, just click the "Official Rules" tab above.

Eligibility

To participate in the contest, you must: 1) live and garden in the U.S. or Canada, and 2) be a registered Member of YourGardenShow.com

In order to join us and Grow it Forward you need to make sure you have done the following:

Great, now you are ready to Grow it Forward! There are two phases to the contest: the first spans the growing season of your heirloom plants and the second involves encouraging your friends, family and fellow gardeners to vote on your hard work.

PHASE ONE: Commenting

Phase One spans seed to harvest, with prizes and lottery tickets awarded for the most commented Glogs (garden logs) at the end of each of the four themes (Seed, Plant, Tend, and Harvest).

Phase One: Glog commenting counter

A counter will appear on your heirloom garden and will tally how many comments you receive on your garden’s glog activities.

Heirloom_Queen’s comment on Fruit of the Heirloom’s journal entry would get them one comment closer to prizes and lottery tickets.

Your heirloom garden’s comment counter

Phase One: Lottery Tickets

The top 25 in each planting theme will be awarded lottery tickets, while the top 3 will also be awarded prizes.

The prizes will be provided by YourGardenShow, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, National Gardening Association, Timber Press, Storey Publishing, and Green Deals, so you know the items will complement a gardener's lifestyle.

Official Rules - Grow It Forward Heirloom Seed Contest

To provide a fair and equal chance of winning to all YourGardenShow.com members, the following are the official rules for the contest. If you have questions about the rules of this contest, please contact us: contest@yourgardenshow.com

YourGardenShow.com Glossary of Terms

Member of YourGardenShow.com: Any person who completes the YourGardenShow.com user registration process and complies with the YourGardenShow.com Terms of Service and Privacy Guarantee.

Glog (garden log): A feature of YourGardenShow.com that allows you to post online comments, observations, photos, videos and more about your real-life garden. Moreover, it's a blog for your garden. Also, through interactive features, gardeners can track garden progress and real-time observations, helping Citizen Science efforts that build accurate baselines on the health of the planet.

Heirloom gardener: A YourGardenShow Member who has created a new heirloom garden/Glog (or tagged a current garden as heirloom) and has planted at least 3 heirloom varieties to share in the Grow it Forward contest.

Heirloom garden: An online garden/Glog created on YourGardenShow.com that is tagged as “heirloom” and has at least 3 “planted” heirloom varieties.

Phase One: The first part of the contest is broken down into four themes (Seed, Plant, Tend, and Harvest). Phase One begins on March 1, 2012 and ends on July 31, 2012 at noon U.S. Pacific Time. Contest winners during this portion of Grow it Forward are determined by comments received.

Phase Two: The second part of the contest is the final stretch of Grow it Forward. Phase Two begins on August 1, 2012 and ends on August 31, 2012 at noon U.S. Pacific Time. Contest winners during this portion of Grow it Forward are determined by votes received.

Top 25 Heirloom gardens leader board page: This is a feature of YourGardenShow.com that shows the top 25 heirloom gardens with the most Comments or Votes.

Participation

The primary purpose of Grow it Forward is twofold:

1. To jointly collect growth data across North America for all 1,400 of Baker Creek's heirloom varieties and that of other providers to be used by current and future gardeners as a rich resource of information and;

2. To incentivize YourGardenShow.com Members to use their Glog feature to share content, and thereby inspire community interactions in the form of Comments and Votes.

The premise of the contest is simple:

1. The top 3 Heirloom Gardens with the most Glog comments in each of the four initial contest periods (Seeds, Planting, Cultivation, and Harvest) will be prize winners in Phase One.

2. The Heirloom Garden with the most earned lottery tickets (through Phase One comment activity and Phase Two popular vote) will have a higher statistical chance to be the “Grand Prize" winner.

Note: Each of the four Phase One comment totals is valid for only one time period (either Seed, Plant, Tend, or Harvest) - at the start of each successive themed contest phase, the comment count will return to "zero" for all eligible heirloom gardens.

Prizes

Multiple prizes provided by YourGardenShow.com, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, National Gardening Association, Timber Press, Storey Publishing, Green Deals and others will be awarded during Phase One (March 1st to April 15th, April 16th to May 31st, June, July); a Grand Prize winner will be determined through a live lottery drawing on the September 1, 2012 Ask Ian episode.

During each award period the top 25 gardeners will be issued lottery tickets for the Grand Prize drawing. The heirloom gardener lottery winner selected at random on September 1, 2012 will be the Grand Prize winner of two roundtrip flights from a destination in the U.S. or Canada to San Francisco to attend the 2nd Annual National Heirloom Expo (Santa Rosa, CA); local hotel accommodations (one hotel room) from the night of September 10th to the morning of September 14th will be included along with a rental car stipend for that same time period.

Eligibility

To participate in the contest, you must:

1. live and garden in the U.S. or Canada

2. be a registered Member of YourGardenShow.com

3. have created an heirloom Glog

4. have planted at least three varieties of heirloom seeds for sharing on your Glog.

5. agree with the YourGardenShow.com website Terms of Service and Privacy Guarantee.

Members must create and maintain an heirloom Glog in order to be eligible to participate. Each heirloom Glog's comment and vote totals will be automatically tracked and displayed in real-time on the heirloom Glog under the Garden Slideshow Carousel. The top 25 gardens with the most comments/votes will be displayed and updated in real-time on the Grow it Forward Top Glog page.

At the sole discretion of YourGardenShow.com management, any member who attempts to manipulate the contest in any way to give themselves an unfair advantage will be disqualified and their garden removed.

YourGardenShow reserves the right to disqualify any participant.

Your Garden Show, Inc., Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., Petaluma Seed Bank, and Comstock, Ferre & Co. employees are not eligible to enter the contest.

There is no purchase necessary to participate.

Timeline

The Contest begins on Thursday, March 1, 2012 and ends on Wednesday, August 31, 2012 at noon (US Pacific time).

Commenting on Contest Gardens (for Phase One - March to July 2012): Signed-in YourGardenShow members can comment on an unlimited number of gardens each day, the more commenting activity a gardener generates the higher chance or reciprocity.

Voting on Contest Gardens (for Phase Two - August 2012): Signed-in YourGardenShow members can vote on an unlimited number of gardens each day, but they can only place one vote each per garden per day;

The clock then resets every 24 hours at midnight US Pacific time, whereupon members may vote again for gardens they have already voted for;

For contest entrants, the more they encourage others to make return visits to vote every 24 hours, the more opportunity they will have to increase their vote count on their gardens.

Awarding of Prizes

YourGardenShow.com heirloom Glog Comments (Phase One) and Votes (Phase Two) will be totaled instantaneously by a tracking feature and displayed on each heirloom Glog of those gardens officially entered in the Contest.

Phase One winners will be announced the day after the end of each theme period (April 16th, June 1st, July 1st, August 1st), or on or before September 1st, 2012.

Grand Prize winner will be determined by a live lottery drawing on Ask Ian, YourGardenShow.com’s LIVE question and answer online program, on Saturday, September 1st, 2012 at 9am (US Pacific time).

Each contest winner will be contacted via the Email address used for that winner’s YourGardenShow.com member account.

To ensure that you can be contacted in the case of winning, be sure your Email address in your Account settings is up-to-date.

Contest winners will be asked to provide a valid physical mailing address to which YourGardenshow.com, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co, or one of the contest sponsors can directly mail their prize.

Receiving your prize via mail may take up to 30 days from the date of the announcement of the winners.

If a contest winner decides to forfeit his/her prize or does not respond to the winner email by September 31, 2012, then that prize will be awarded to the next eligible heirloom gardener.

The winner, by acceptance of any prize, acknowledges compliance with the Grow It Forward Heirloom Seed Contest Official Rules and agrees to release Your Garden Show, Inc. from and against any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the Grow It Forward Heirloom Seed Contest or the receipt, redemption, or use of any prize, including any injuries or damages of any kind sustained in connection with the use, acceptance, possession, or awarding of any prize.

Limitation of Liability

If, for any reason, the Grow It Forward Heirloom Seed Contest is not capable of running as planned, Your Garden Show, Inc. reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any entry or entrant and/or to cancel, modify, or suspend the Grow It Forward Heirloom Seed Contest.

Prizes

This year, gardeners from across the US and Canada are coming together to grow over 1,400 heirloom plant varieties and participate in a growing movement to preserve the legacy and diversity of these time-honored plants. Share your heirloom adventures on YourGardenShow.com and qualify for a chance to win some great prizes.

If your Grow it Forward heirloom garden is one of the top 3 most commented on Glogs during the Seed, Plant, Tend, or Harvest time periods, you'll be eligible for a prize that may include gardening tools, Baker Creek swag, gardening books, or other "green" gifts.

Our grand prize winner will receive accommodations and air travel to attend The National Heirloom Expo this September in California.

Thanks to our Grow it Forward sponsors: Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, National Gardening Association, Timber Press, Storey Publishing, Green Deals, Corona Tools, and YourGardenShow.com. Lots of handy items to complement a gardener's lifestyle!