Wow! You won first, second, and third place in this category and you deserved it.

That is amazing! Dirt, these are all your gardens, right?

Omg! thank you Zuzu and Bev!

I can't really believe it nor do I really deserve it--but yes, these are my gardens and I am so very flattered!

Your photos are all so beautiful Dirt, you have an artistic eye. And this was no surprise to me. congratulations

Congratulations on your wins!!! I thought all of your submissions were excellent and worthy of an award! Enjoyed all of them!

Thank you Magga and Sheila!

I knew as I saw these photos that they were yours, Dirt, and at least two of them got my vote. Very beautiful, and you deserved the sweep. Congratulations!

This is one of my all time favorite garden photos ... really, really beautiful!

I voted on this as well. I missed the first voting but this was really pleasing to the eye. Thank you for sharing your hard work. I do love color and you made a very nice palette of goodies

Oh wow--Thank you Jeanie and Lin and Esperanza !

I cannot possibly express how much this honor means to me.
And I am still quite shocked to have won
The three pictures are all from the same garden actually, the other two from early in the spring and this one in August. It's kind of a wild thing full of surprises

This picture was my choice as well!

Just a couple of notes on Dirt's gardens (from really a non-gardener):

She plays "plant tetris" in absolutely unimaginable ways. How she packs the x, y, and z axis like she does baffles me.

But the result is what I like to call "fireworks in slow motion". The first blossom last year (foothills of the rockies) was a crocus in January - and thanks to a late fall, we had some viable purplesomethings blooming in December. It's almost a different garden each week...and surely each month. One year, I'm going to take a weekly, fixed shot of one of her gardens and animate it - to show the stop-action fireworks show.

The other thing with the plant packing and plant tetris is that each garden seems like its own little ecosystem. Plants competing for resources - pushing and pushing back - getting snipped and clipped and relocated - it's remarkable to me to watch the lifecycles of the various individual members of the system - and seeing the system work within itself to try to find and maintain equilibriums. I love that so much more than the industrial, box-store-petunias-and-marigolds-in-a-row-and-at-right-angles-at-the-doctor's-office kind of gardening.

She's got both an eye for it and a love for it. And I just get to keep getting amazed by the art that she makes in and with her gardens.

I voted for this picture as well, I love the mix of colors and textures, very different and creative.

This category is the one I the hardest to judge! All of the entries were so beautiful. To win the top three spots is amazing!

Congratulations to @dirtdorphins!

I voted for that one, too.

Wonderful image and a richly deserved win

oh my gosh, Asa's post almost creates the illusion that I somehow orchestrate the show--uh, thanks hun

evermorelawnless said:Just a couple of notes on Dirt's gardens (from really a non-gardener):

She plays "plant tetris" in absolutely unimaginable ways. How she packs the x, y, and z axis like she does baffles me.

But the result is what I like to call "fireworks in slow motion". The first blossom last year (foothills of the rockies) was a crocus in January - and thanks to a late fall, we had some viable purplesomethings blooming in December. It's almost a different garden each week...and surely each month. One year, I'm going to take a weekly, fixed shot of one of her gardens and animate it - to show the stop-action fireworks show.

The other thing with the plant packing and plant tetris is that each garden seems like its own little ecosystem. Plants competing for resources - pushing and pushing back - getting snipped and clipped and relocated - it's remarkable to me to watch the lifecycles of the various individual members of the system - and seeing the system work within itself to try to find and maintain equilibriums. I love that so much more than the industrial, box-store-petunias-and-marigolds-in-a-row-and-at-right-angles-at-the-doctor's-office kind of gardening.

She's got both an eye for it and a love for it. And I just get to keep getting amazed by the art that she makes in and with her gardens.

And all of what you stated here Asa is quite simply because she is completely tuned in to the earth. Her screen name says it perfectly. Dirtdorphins. Her gardens are nourished by her as she is nourished by them. And I'm not talking about fertilizer.

Dirt, is there a forum where you have posted more pictures of your garden? I would like to see more of it

I love your mixed plantings, dirtdorphins!

I am trying to learn more about creating cottage garden plantings. It is a challenge to choose the right plants and an even bigger challenge to keep the planting interesting all year round!