SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - In the world of lush, green lawns and colourful, intricate floral arrangements, five residents and one business are the best of the best in the 11th annual Yellowknife lawn and landscaping competition.

Marshall and Company won the commercial category in the 11th annual Yellowknife lawn and landscaping competition. Margaret Marshall, the green thumb behind the winning entry said it takes a little work each day to keep things looking good. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

With over two-dozen candidates in five categories, residents and businesses clipped, groomed and mowed their lawns, gardens and greenhouses into esthetically-pleasing and visually-appealing works of natural art.

The five categories voted on by city officials from the department of community services were lawn, garden, residential lawn and landscape, commercial and greenhouse. The lawn category was won by Katherine Roy, garden by Lenore Dejong, residential lawn and landscape went to Laura Bouchard, commercial by Marshall & Company and the greenhouse category by Ron and Becky Messier.

Margaret Marshall, the dedicated green thumb behind commercial winner Marshall & Company said work on their rosebushes, flowers and shrubs is a daily routine, especially removing dead roses from their rosebushes, she has grown to love.

"We do yearly springtime maintenance," she said. "We do some fairly significant tree pruning as well."

She said she had never thought about entering the company in the contest. But after numerous compliments this year, she decided it was a good idea to enter it.

Marshall said the regular maintenance is the largest challenge to keeping the area looking good.

"It's not a lot every day or anything, but it's enough," she said. "I think the visual effects certainly are rewarding. It looks nice when you look after it.

"I think it helps to have something looking nice. The nicer the town looks the better people will treat it."

Andrea Hyde, special events coordinator for the city and one of the organizers for the competition, said entrants were judged on a series of sub-categories.

"They were judged on use of space, creativity, color and quality," Hyde said.

Brian Kelln, programs manager for community services and one of the judges for the competition said every entry in the competition has a serious green thumb to be proud of.

"Everything looked really nice," Kelln said. "They had nice lawns and great creativity with landscaping. I've done other years and I'd say it's right up there. It was a hard decision and it was close in all the categories."

Kelln, a four-time judge in the competition, said garden winner Lenore Dejong had a large garden and very healthy plants to set her above the rest.

"Everything was well-groomed and there were no weeds between the plants," Kelln said. "The rows were very nice and straight and the plants were healthy and bountiful. She had a great crop of potatoes and corn."

Kelln said the number of competitors were about average. He said last year was down to about 22 entrants, but this year was actually up to what the average usually is.

"We usually get 25 entries each year," Kelln said, adding they are hoping to include a patio and deck category next year.

"We're always looking at ways to improve numbers each year."