A local community association has recognized a pair of its residents by handing out awards for the area's best front gardens.

"The look of surprise and obvious joy when given their awards has been a real treat for me," says Queensway Terrace North Community Association President Henry Sweich, following judging earlier this summer.  "The recognition from the community for their hard work was a source of pride to both of them."

Gillian Boyd looks every bit the avid gardener; emerging from her Pinewood Cres. home dressed for work in jeans and a t-shirt emblazoned with a picture of flowers.

Both her front and back lawns have been replaced with gardens; the front was created between 1986 and 1993, when she began work on the rear portion.

She calls the award - which included a plaque reading: "For your wonderful garden that adds beauty to our community"- "very surprising. And flattering."

Her love of gardening is, pardon the expression, deep rooted.  Growing up in England, she was surrounded by green thumbs.

"I grew up in a keen gardening family.  My grandmother, mother and aunt were all pretty keen gardeners, so you pick it up."

Still, in spite of all her inherited expertise, Ms. Boyd says re-locating to Ottawa meant a major adjustment to its sometimes scorching summers.

"You get to learn about plants and what they like and I'm a strong believer, myself, in plants knowing very much more than humans about what they like.  That is what you learn by trial and error and lots of mistakes."

She's also an organic gardener, which means more than simply being chemical-free.

While her gardens may not have a perfect, magazine photo sheen, Ms. Boyd takes pride in the fact that, with the choice of plants, she has followed the dictates of the local soil rather than trying to bend it to an unnatural ideal.

By extension, that ensures that her gardens are very much in harmony with the wild creatures that share the neighbourhood.

"I have kind of an odd garden because I want to attract insects and birds.  My theory is that, if you get insects in your garden birds will come to eat the insects and birds take care of the pests."

As an added ecological touch, her front garden is a dry one; no watering beyond rainfall required.

"Organic gardening is what everyone did until the end of the Second World War," she observes.

Andre Cyr, whose Forest St. yard is home to another winner, calls himself the "caretaker" of the gardens, giving the bulk of credit to his late partner, Todd Armstrong.

"The soil here was clay," he recalls of the pair's early days in the neighbourhood a decade-and-a-half ago.  "The first year was a lot of work."

Mr. Cyr's home is itself very unique.  In spite of having a Forest St. address, the compact former cottage sits adjacent to Elmhurst St.; literally adjacent.  Where its neighbours are parallel to the street, it is the side of the Cyr/Armstrong home which faces Elmhurst.

The garden reflects the eccentricity of the home itself; Mr. Cyr points out a number of decorative accessories which were recovered rather than bought, including several former bowling balls sitting atop short pillars.

The plant selection is wildly diverse; tomatoes, hostas with their huge leaves and blossoming flowers and even a patch of sunflowers.

Mr. Cyr says he wasn't an avid gardener in the beginning, though nor was Mr. Armstrong.  The pair created the award-winner not only through learning on the job but also from plenty of outside advice.  Enthusiastic neighbours, he adds, even instigated a plant swap, bringing them plants well suited to the large shady areas on the lot.

"(Mr. Armstrong) learned a lot and there were an awful lot of people in the neighbourhood here that also helped.  When they saw that we'd started fixing up the place, they would come and say 'We really like what you're doing.'"

In spite of the obvious beauty on display, Mr. Cyr says the honour was entirely unexpected.

"I was surprised, actually, because the garden probably looked better a few years back."

But there was no award back then," he laughs. "I've tried to keep it up because my partner put an awful lot of work into it."