Announcing the winners of the 2008 Go Gardening contest!

As you probably know, several months ago we launched a contest to get entries, reviews and images posted in Go Gardening. The original thread is here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/822644/

Since then, here are the numbers:

A total of 672 members contributed to Go Gardening during the contest.

Total Entries: 19,286, entered during contest: 1,633 (8.5%)
Total Reviews: 2,883, entered during contest: 944 (32.7%)
Total Images: 594, entered during contest: 594 (100%)

So, as you can see, the contest was extremely effective in increasing the value of Go Gardening for all of us, especially in the area of reviews, which in my opinion is the most important aspect of this feature.

Everybody who contributed to Go Gardening had a part in making this contest successful, and I wish I could just assign everyone a winner, but I didn't have the budget for that ^_^ so, with that in mind, here are the 5 winners!

First place:
Calif_Sue, who created 81 entries, posted 55 reviews, and uploaded 197 photos. Her photos were brilliant and the reviews were concise but informative. Our friends at Dynamite Plant Food will be giving Calif_Sue a $250 gift certificate to her choice of any Garden Watchdog top 30 company.

The rest of the winners are all getting a $100 gift certification to the top 30 company of their choice. This prize was also contributed by our friends at Dynamite.

Second place:
sedum37, who created 40 entries, posted 50 reviews, and uploaded 53 photos. The photos uploaded captured very well the places reviewed, and the reviews posted were detailed and very informative. Well done!

Third place:
kikisdad, who posted 52 entries, 14 reviews and 20 images. The entries created are the more common sense kinds of places, like where to haul your garden refuse and how to get local mulch and things like that. Gardeners helping gardeners with local resources is a huge part of what the spirit of DG is all about, and kikisdad has demonstrated that quite well with his reviews.

Selecting the fourth and fifth place winners was an extremely difficult task for our secret panel, but after much back and forth, they finally did arrive at a consensus.

The 4th place win goes to Kell. She posted 8 reviews (all of them very well-thought out, balanced and informative) and she submitted 73 images. Her images did an outstanding job capturing the essence of the subject matter.

The final winner at 5th place is angele. She create 33 entries, uploaded 30 images and posted 7 reviews. Her reviews were also well-thought out, helpful and informative, and her beautiful photos contributed greatly to the value of each entry.

Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you to everyone who contributed to Go Gardening during this contest. When people come and enter their zipcode, you are helping them find the best local resources and that was the entire point of this feature.

I'd also like to say another thank you to our good friends at Dynamite Plant Food for contributing these excellent prizes!!

Dave

Congratulations, all of you!!!! ^_^

Oh I am so excited!!
I have been running out of plant mula since my job cut so I thought this was the perfect thing for me since I enjoy visiting nurseries, parks, gardens and taking lots of pictures anyways. Thanks DG and Dynamite for your generosity!

This message was edited Jun 3, 2008 4:28 PM

Congratulations, everyone. I posted lots of entries - mostly CSA's, but was previously unaware most of these places existed until I started searching them out, so I couldn't comment on my entries.

I did post some garden centers fairly close by that I wasn't aware of before.

To all the winners, Congratulations!!!

And thank you to everyone who contributed.

woohoo, Congratulations to Calif_Sue, sedum37, kikisdad, Kell and me too :-)
A big thank you to Dave, Dave's Garden, the secret panel & Dynamite Plant Food. Can't wait to pick out my new plants and 'go gardening'.
did I mention... woohoo!!!

Congratulations to everyone that contributed to this great project!!! Thanks Dave!!!

Janet

Congratulations everyone! Very well deserved! (and special thanks to Sue & Kell who were adding nurseries in my neck of the woods...now maybe I'll have some new ones to check out that I didn't know about before!)

Congratulations, DGers of California. You all have the prettiest flowers of almost any state with such diversity. I will have to check out where the nurseries are listed. My friend keeps wanting to me to fly to LA to see her son as she finds new plants each time she visits to bring home.

Congratulations Winners!!

Congratulations to the winners - Have fun Shopping!


Thanks also to the folks at Dynamite for offering the Dynamite $Cash$ Prizes!

Congratulations to you all! Some great pix there!

Congratulations to all. Enjoy shopping everyone.

Congratulations everyone - great job!

Excellent job to all!!!

Congrats to all you winners! Calif_Sue, Angele and Kell, I always really enjoy your beautiful pictures.

I just went to a few nurseries around me and I'm so glad that I did. I found some new favorites and I found a Queen of the Night Epi that I've wanted forever for only $5! Thanks for inspiring me to get out there and Go Gardening!

Congratulations to all you winners and thanks Dave and Dynamite.

I really live in the sticks, no good nurseries in this area , have to go at least 100 miles and with gas prices I don't do that too often. For that reason I do wish I lived maybe in Calif, but other than that I am really happy with this area.

Donna S

Wow I am so excited! Thanks and congrats to all the winners and participants! This was a great contest to get me to visit some nurseries I've been meaning to stop by instead of going to the 'old standbys' each spring. Also to check out some of the public gardens in my area.

Thanks DavesGarden and Dynamite Plant Foods for sponsoring the contest!

Congratulations Sue and all the winners. I will have to check out the new entries. Wow Sue, you were really busy!

Kudos to all the winners, and a huge thanks to everyone who added new entries, comments and photos!

Bravo!!!! Congratulations to all the winners!!

Very cool! Congrats to all the winners - well deserved.

And thanks to Dave and the team for deciding to do this contest. In the long run, it'll help all of us by providing us with more information. I used the Go Gardening function in the past and discovered some great local resources I had no idea were there - and now it's an even better feature! Great thinking, y'all!

Congratulations to the winners, well deserved!! Really impressive work folks!
Let us know what you shopped for with your winnings!

Congratulations, winners!

Congrats to the winners.

Congratulations to all the winners!!
Bonnie

Congrats to you all ,job well done .
now get out and SPEND the prize moneys ^_^

I already said congratulations to everyone and I just wanted to add that I was thrilled to see Calif Sue and Kell win. You have both blessed me with all of your photos since I first joined Dave's.

Congratulations to all! Love your photos.

Congratulations to all the winners! Good Job!

Good job guys! We all thank you for your contributions! Cal Sue, way to go! : )

Great Job! Congrats to the winners...

Just now getting to this notice/thread.

Way to go! Ya'll did good!

Congratulations to the winners! Salutations to all other who contributed! This will certainly be a nice contribution to Go Gardening!

Happy Gardening to All!

Shoe

Thank you for the congratulations everybody. I still haven't decided which plants I want to order but it sure is fun looking at all the Watchdog 30 web sites. :-)

Congrats to all the very deserving winners!

Congratulations and Happy Gardening to All of You!!!

Haven't been real active at Dave's lately, so didn't even know about this contest - what a neat idea! Congrats to the winners!

Congratulations, SUE!
You are a great asset to Dave's. Thanks to everyone whom contributed.
Teresa in KY

Thanks all! Only doing what I already love, visiting nurseries, parks and photography!

Congratulations To all winners:))
Great!