2017 Garden Contest winners

Congratulations to the winners of the Mayor’s 2017 Garden Contest, presented with a Grand Prize from JetBlue and media support provided by the Boston Herald.  Now in its 21^st year, the contest recognizes gardeners who have landscaped, planted flowers, trees, and shrubs, and, in the process, helped beautify Boston’s neighborhoods.

First place winners received the coveted “Golden Trowel” award from Mayor Walsh and prize packages from the Parks Department, Mahoney’s Garden Centers, and other sponsors at an awards ceremony in August in the Public Garden.  First place winners were also entered in a drawing for a JetBlue Grand Prize consisting of roundtrip flights for two to any nonstop destination from Boston.  

A team of distinguished judges viewed the finalists’ gardens over a two-day period.  Judges included members of the Garden Contest Hall of Fame, Boston Parks and Recreation Department staff, and local open space advocates.

This year’s winners were:

1. First Place:  D Coal Pot, Hyde Park
2. Second Place:  Loring Greenough House, Jamaica Plain
3. Third Place:  Ripples of Hope Volunteers and Pine Street Inn Tenants, South End

1. First Place:  Tom Keller, Fenway
2. Second Place:  Marguerite Sharkey and Alison Moppett, Fenway
3. Third Place:  Carmen Musto, Roslindale

1. First Place:  Aspasia Bakolas, Roslindale
2. Second Place:  The Fenway Victory Gardens, Fenway
3. Third Place:  Kristen Mobilia, Fenway

1. First Place:  Ric Cirace, Beacon Hill
2. Second Place:  Kathryn Cantrell, South End
3. Third Place:  Maria Lopez, Dorchester

1. First Place: John Govoni and Dorothy Giarla, Roslindale
2. Second Place: Diane Spears, Jamaica Plain
3. Third Place: Tom and Barbara Van Dyke, West Roxbury

1. First Place:  Ngaio Schiff, Roslindale
2. Second Place:  Courtenay Loiselle, East Boston
3. Third Place:  Christine Langhoff, Dorchester

1. First Place:  Rick Kuethe, Dorchester
2. Second Place:  Art’ Gill, Jamaica Plain
3. Third Place:  Edward Gugliotti, South End

1. First Place:  Judy Ulman, West Roxbury
2. Second Place:  Nasim Parveen, West Roxbury
3. Third Place:  Amanda Blicharz, Charlestown

1. First Place:  Jim Anderson, Dorchester 
2. Second Place:  Carolyn Becker, Jamaica Plain
3. Third Place:  Daryl Johnson and Rick Smith, Dorchester

Gardeners who won three or more times were automatically entered into the Hall of Fame and recognized at the awards ceremony.  These distinguished Hall-of-Famers are ineligible to enter as contestants but welcome to return as judges.  The 2017 Hall of Fame Inductees are Marie Fukuda and Tim Horn of the Fenway, Daphne Georges of Jamaica Plain, Ronald H. Dion of the Fenway, and Martin Grealish​ of West Roxbury​.