what a bodge job it turned into in the end, the photographer failed to phone me to book an appointment so came while i was out and took 1 picture over the fence, not the best view of the garden and certainly gave no impression of the work and detail within the garden that ideally needs to be photographed from all angles. i fumed at the news that no judges would be coming as a similar garden had been picked for the best back garden...... i called alan oakley one of the event organisers (who i know from my voluntry work) and explained the fact that my garden could not be judged by one picture having taken the same picture myself and could clearly see the injustice of the situation he told me that unfortunatly the organisation in the final week had been shoddy and rushed and that the garden was judged on the picture taken, well at this i lost it. alan came to see me the following day and showed me 4 sets of pictures mine, the garden picked over mine, the winner, and a blind mans garden.... after i took alan around my garden he wholeheartedly agreed that several pictures would have raised my chances as the photograph taken did'nt show very much. the garden similar to mine (his words) had chickens and veg plot etc... but was no way as neat and diverse as mine well i saw the chickens and thought hang on when i enquired if as a social housing tenant could keep chickens they said no so i asked alan who is a housing officer if i could and what the rules are and he said yes so the chucks are back on and should be settled in by the end of july... so that is a good outcome. i said to alan that he needs me next year to take the photographs as i felt i could do a better job and he agreed so i am now the 2009 photographer something else to put on my c.v. and at least they will get some semi-decent pics and i won't be taking any over the garden fence. i am over it now but i am 100% certain that i did'nt win any prize is because of the cruddy photo and not my garden and there's always next year. i am far more excited about the chucks and i would have created the garden to this standard comp or no comp.
That was 3 years ago and i haven't looked back