community beautification award winners
ABOUT THE COMMUNITY BEAUTIFICATION AWARDS
The Garden Club of Kent's annual Community Beautification Awards recognize aesthetics, creativity, maintenance and sound environmental practices in home gardens.
Congratulations to The Garden Club of Kent's 2025 winners! There are some pretty spectacular gardens in our midst as judges discovered. They spent several weeks looking for winners of this year's Community Beautification Awards. The winners below were announced at the Feb. 23, 2026, monthly members meeting.
2025 WINNER: Best Front Yard Garden
Patricia & Albert Grimes, Kent
Working in limited space and within the rules of their condominium association, Patricia and Albert have designed a beautiful and welcoming front yard garden. The couple says it’s a team effort: she’s the brains and he’s the brawn in this operation. Favoring native plants, this pollinator-friendly garden effectively combines textures and joyful bursts of colors with dramatic rock and stone arrangements. A progression of plant height draws the eye along the garden path to the front porch, where they maintain container plants. Weed and disease management is excellent. This is a well-thought-out and maintained garden that undoubtedly delights the whole neighborhood.
2025 WINNER: Best Backyard Garden
Jil Morgan, Kent
Jil’s backyard is not only visually pleasing, but also a highly functional social space for her friends, her dogs and her nephew, a college student who likes to bring his friends to her house to hang. With a little imagination, you might think you’re somewhere in Margaritaville. It’s easy to see the winning gardener’s 40+ years of experience as a landscaper. She effectively combines hardscape such as pavers, gravel, arbors and fencing with artful arrangements of container and in-ground plants to create visual interest and practical functionality. And a selection of native plants welcomes the pollinators.
2025 WINNER: Best Small Space Garden (tie)
Shelly Sinclair, Kent
Shelly lives in a condominium community and has a small backyard with a pond near her back porch. On top of that, she’s working in partial shade. Her solution: a generous number of pots to expand her ground space and a concentration of shade-happy plants and groundcover. Shelly combines flowering plants such as pansies with the beefy-leafy plants, such as hostas, that provide gradations of green and texture. Shelly’s garden is happiest in spring.
2025 WINNER: Best Small Space Garden (tie)
Patricia Decano
Like two of our other winners, Patricia lives in a condominium community with limited outdoor space for planting and limitations on what the HOA allows. In her small space, she focuses on the path leading to her front door. Featuring a combination of spring- and summer-blooming plants, such as coneflower and roses, along with herbs and hostas and other plants with attractive foliage. The effect is a flowery, leafy welcome mat.
2025 WINNER: Best Container Garden
Marilyn and Brian Sessions, Kent
Container gardening is a great solution for otherwise limited space to garden, and Marilyn and Brian have done an artful job of it. Their backyard is mostly shade. As a couple that loves the outdoors and loves to entertain, they’ve created a peaceful, beautiful space on their deck with a great collection of potted plants. Growing in their combination of traditional and whimsical containers are shade-friendly plants such as hostas, ferns, ivies, small trees and grasses, accented by shade-friendly flowering annuals. And they move the perennials inside to winter over, protecting both pots and plants while continuing to enjoy their company.
2025 WINNER: Best Youth Garden / Home Vegetable Garden
Anonymous, Kent
Our two teen gardeners' parents introduced them to gardening at a young age. Several years later, one of them found some old seeds and started exploring. They took over the family vegetable garden when they were respectively 13 and 11 years old. The elder daughter is the intrepid “captain” and her younger sister is a very responsible “second officer.” They try to grow a little of everything -- tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, potatoes, green beans, garlic, onions, asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, herbs and flowers. Their favorites are potatoes and tomatoes -- two of the beloved basics of home vegetable gardening.
2025 WINNER: Best Overall Garden
Melissa & Gerald Sink, Kent
Judges awarded this garden the highest points in all categories, including uniqueness, curb appeal, effective design, creativity, pollinator and wildlife friendliness; and overall impact. One of the judges described it as a “destination garden.”
Located on the property of a recognized historical residence, this is a garden that works at both macro and micro levels. As a grand design, the open spaces are defined by the tasteful use of formal garden elements; statuary; water features; a greenhouse; inviting seating areas; topiary; moss paths; and even a tea room. Upcycled materials are fashioned into unique design elements.
These details alone make Melissa and Gerald’s space a success. But when you start peering into the fine details, another fantastic world emerges: It’s also an endlessly enchanting fairy garden. Small, delightful tableaux are located throughout. One judge said she felt like she had entered the story of Alice in Wonderland – in a good way!
At the heart of the garden is a beautiful selection of well-tended plants: colorful flowers such as lupine, foxglove, trillium, bee balm, roses and zinnias. Foliage including ferns, ivy, hostas, grasses creates texture and beautiful gradations of green throughout.
