Pull your green thumb out and get busy

GREEN thumbs from around the Lismore area, it’s time to get planting.

DIGGING IT: Wally Estreich of Goonellabah and his granddaughter Kaitlyn Willers from the Gold Coast, tend to his garden. Picture: Cathy Adams

GREEN thumbs from around the Lismore area, it's time to get planting.

The annual Spring Garden Competition is only five months away so now is the time to create a new garden or revamp your old garden to enter.

Spring Garden Competition secretary Judy Thorne said the competition features 28 sections with everything from the complete garden to pot plants, and even a horticultural novelty section.

She said entry is free and open to all Lismore City Council ratepayers including businesses, schools and retirement villages.

"People entering the Sweet Pea section should have their seeds in and they should be up by now as they are traditionally planted on St Patrick's Day," she said.

Mrs Thorne said the competition has something for everyone and you don't need a complete garden to enter.

"People can enter just a pot plant or a flowering shrub but to win the grand champion you must enter a complete garden."

"Horticultural novelty is always a fun section as people can enter everything from an old shoe to a wheel barrow but it must have a plant or plants in it."

Entries for the Spring Garden Competition open in May and close at 6pm on September 2.

The competition will be held over the weekend of September 7 and 8 and the gardens will be open for inspection on September 14 and 15.