Western Garden Design Awards for the year 2000 - Brief Article

Sunset, Jan, 2000

enter our professional landscape competition

* Sunset's Western Garden Design Awards is a professionally juried, biennial program that recognizes the best of residential Western garden design. It is open to both landscape architects and landscape designers who earn most or all of their income designing gardens. Winners will be published in a spring 2001 issue of Sunset Magazine. This year, we are looking for submissions in seven categories.

Categories

1. Small gardens feature innovative design and interesting plants in an area of 1,500 square feet or less.

2. Gardens for outdoor living and entertaining make the best use of space and design to optimize outdoor living. They can include kitchens, fireplaces, play areas, or other spaces landscaped for outdoor activities.

3. Budget gardens ($15,000 and under) combine hardscaping and plant material in innovative and attractive ways while restricting costs.

4. Regional gardens use materials and plants most appropriate for the climate and terrain of a particular region.

5. Renovated gardens take advantage of existing features or plants while updating or replacing elements that are dated, in poor repair, or unhealthy. At least one major original feature must have been retained. "Before" photos are encouraged.

6. Colorful beds and borders combine compatible foliage and flowering plants in harmonious colors.

7. Garden details include arbors, fences, spas, trellises, water features, or other finishing touches used to make a garden special.

Eligibility

Designers and their projects must be located in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming. Only residential projects completed between January 1, 1995, and January 1, 1999, will be considered. Sunset accepts all entries with the understanding that the owner has given prior approval to publish the project, and that no restricting copyright or prior agreement limits publication of an award-winning project. Sunset retains the right not to publish gardens that have appeared in other major magazines.