Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 14/99) - Along with joy of summer gardening and the necessary lawn-cutting comes hotly-anticipated beautification contests.

This year, avid gardeners can work off stress while they create thriving bushy conversation pieces and help enhance Yellowknife's reputation as a beautiful tourist spot.

"It would really help out the tourist trade," city facilities manager Tony Burge said of the national Communities in Bloom contest.

"The more exposure and the more recognition we get the more likely (tourists) are to want to visit."

Burge said the national contest groups cities of similar population and then grades them with a score between one to five blooms.

"If we do quite well we could get a national award but most of all (the contest) is to get people involved," Burge said.

"If we can get one person beautifying their yard, hopefully it will start a chain reaction with the neighbours beautifying theirs."

Southern judges are set to fly in Aug. 2 to judge everything from lawns to sports fields to how clean the streets are.

In addition to the national contest, the city of Yellowknife is sponsoring its own contest with seven categories where winners will get a plaque along with bragging rights.

The categories are similar to the city's Christmas lights decorating contest and include the best residential lawn, residential landscape, business garden, vegetable garden, senior's garden, balcony garden and overall neighbourhood.

Contestants for the city's contest were supposed to send in their applications by June 15 but Burge said the deadline is flexible.

"I don't think people would complain if we accepted late entries," he said.

"The goal is to beautify our city so why would we discourage people from participating."

For Kevin Johnston, winning a contest is not at all why he spends hours in his 46th Street frontyard garden.

"Sometimes I get out there at 5 a.m. intending to do a couple hours of gardening and I don't get back in until 10 a.m.," he said.

He called the work caring for his dahlias, petunias and marigolds "stress relief."

His large garden is big enough for vegetables such as tomatoes, cabbage and carrots and he laughed after saying he has never been raided by neighbourhood kids.