People with a passion for gardening stand to win a share of more than $40 000 in cash prizes as the National Parish Home Garden Competition opened for entries, aiming to boost biodiversity and encourage environmentally sustainable habits across the island.
Dewyn Phillips, the tree planting coordinator responsible for competitions, outlined the rules and schedule when the contest was launched at the Ministry of Environment headquarters in Warrens. The competition runs from Tuesday to December 15.
The winners in each of the 11 parishes will receive $1 500 for the most beautiful garden, with a $1 000 second prize and a third prize of $750 within each parish. The 11 parish winners are then going to compete for the grand prizes of $4 000 for first place,
$3 000 for second, and $2 000 for third.
To enter, participants are required to send a WhatsApp message to 234-3252, including their name, address, and three photographs of their garden.
Phillips emphasised the positive impact of the competition on Barbados’ carbon footprint.
“One must know the benefits that gardens have on the environment as well as the climate. We know the increase of carbon sequestration as well as the decrease in the carbon footprint that gardens do right away. There’s also the improved physical and mental health that comes with that sense of accomplishment when you go into your garden, and it brings you that connectivity with nature as well.”
“We also can see the promotion of sustainable practices such as composting and using food scraps — orange peel, potato peel, bananas — and we use those in our gardens. That helps restrict the impact on the landfill, so it is a better, productive use of your food waste, and then, most importantly, supports the increase in biodiversity preservation, as well as plant diversity.”
The national tree planting competition, organised by the National Conservation Commission (NCC), which ran from October 1 to 15, has five winners so far, said Phillips: “The winner with 1 088 trees, second place 730, third 698, fourth 410, and the last one, 306.”
Environment and national beautification minister Adrian Forde highlighted the need to prioritise making Barbados beautiful.
He said: “There must be equal focus in the journey to beautify this country. And although we hear a lot about the word sustainable development, and it encourages us to reach that 30 by 30 target, and allows us to acquiesce to the United Nations General Assembly call — I equally want to confess today that the sustainable development vision and the development of livelihoods must now be imbued in every single Barbadian — not because of a general assembly call, but because it must be who we are in terms of how we develop this country and as part of development, it must be the way how we beautify and ensure the survival of our ecosystems. It must be part of our DNA. Cleanliness being next to godliness is age-old, but it must be part of the new generation.” (LG)
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