AAS Names ‘Foodscaping’ Landscape Design Winners

This year All-America Selections challenged the AAS Display Gardens to create a design based on the theme “Foodscaping-Interspersing Edibles in the Ornamental Garden.”

For this challenge, AAS provided the gardens with Winner seed from the last five years. They also had the option to incorporate any older AAS Winners from the past 85 years. Gardens not only had to create and execute a design based on this year’s theme, but also had to generate publicity about the challenge and AAS Winners as well as submit photos documenting their creations. The judges were impressed by the creativity exhibited when combining edibles and ornamentals in each of the participating gardens. Many gardens were so successful growing their edible AAS Winners that they donated their produce to local food banks and food pantries.

Gardens were divided into three categories based on the number of visitors per year:

• Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year
• Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year
• Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year

All-America Selections recognizes and thanks the contest judges who are industry experts in the field of horticulture and landscaping:

• Jeff Gibson, landscape business manager, Ball Horticultural Company
• Bruce Hellerick, director of technical services, BrightView Landscape Services
• Barbara Wise, author and sales and marketing manager, Crescent Garden

The winning gardens are:

Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year

First Place Winner: University of Wisconsin Spooner Ag Research Station (pictured above), Spooner, Wisconsin

Second Place Winner: Master Gardeners Association of Tippecanoe Country (MGATC), Lafayette, Indiana

Third Place Winner: Kenosha County Center AAS Display & Demonstration Garden, Kenosha, Wisconsin

Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year

First Place Winner: Purdue Extension Marion County Demonstration Garden, Indianapolis, Indiana

Second Place Winner: Jardin Daniel A Seguin, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada

Third Place Winner, Tie: Green Bay Botanical Garden, Green Bay, Wisconsin

Third Place Winner, Tie: Shell Park, Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year

First Place Winner: Dow Gardens, Midland, Michigan

Second Place Winner: Norseco at the Botanical Garden of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Third Place Winner: Boerner Botanic Gardens, Hales Corners, Wisconsin

Each of these contest winners are profiled on the AAS website, under “Display Gardens.” A complete collection of photos from all contest entrants can be found on the All-America Selections Flickr and Facebook accounts.