Hamilton Monarch Awards 2019: For gardens that nature loves, by gardeners who love nature!
Hamilton has a unique garden award program that recognizes function as well as good looks. 
The Monarch Awards (since 2016) showcase and champion gardeners who create nature-friendly spaces full of native plant diversity, pollinator habitat, healthy soil, and sustainable, ecologically sound approaches to garden care. In 2018, the Monarch Awards added a new category for beginners who have just begun their “gardening for nature” journey. The Caterpillar Award recognizes those gardeners who are on their way to becoming mature Monarchs.

***NEW in 2019***
Changes to the 2019 Monarch Awards include the following:
*A move away from the competition aspect of the awards in favour of offering an inclusive opportunity to celebrate more of the work being done by nature gardeners across Hamilton. 
*No longer a contest, the Monarch Awards will become a standard of excellence. 
Instead of looking for “the best” gardens we’ll be looking for all the really good ones, made by gardeners who are consciously and knowledgeably creating places where nature can thrive. 
*Entrants can look forward to more garden visits next year. Visits include feedback, encouragement, and suggestions from the judges. 
The six categories (soil, water, plants, materials/hardscaping, cultural practices, and aesthetics) remain the same and judges will be looking for achievements in each of these areas.

Apply today to one of these programs. It’s free!
Entry deadline is midnight Sunday on June 30, 2019. Judges’ site visits are scheduled for mid-July.
Questions? Send us an email [email protected]
For more information visit http://monarchawardshamilton.org/ 

The Monarch Awards is a collaborative program of the Hamilton Pollinator Paradise Project (Environment Hamilton and the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club), the Crown Point Garden Club and the Royal Botanical Gardens. The City of Hamilton takes a great interest in this program and supports our efforts yearly by hosting the Awards celebration at City Council Chambers.

Lime and Limestone company, Carmeuse has planted pollinator gardens at their Dundas and Beachville sites. Carmeuse’s management team looked to Ingrid Hengemuhle, Area Quality Control Manager for Canada, to develop the pollinator gardens. 
According to Hengemuhle, “With the support and encouragement of Carmeuse management, our employees and members of the community worked hard to create the pollinator garden that has become a functional beautification at our plant.”
The 600 square foot, two-tiered Dundas garden was created in the fall of 2018. The design was in-house: “We have the heavy equipment, the armor stone and the staff.  Staff volunteers will maintain the garden,” John Tennant, Carmeuse Site Operations Manager at Dundas, said. “This is a beautiful result of combined efforts to work together on something that has a sustainable impact.”