2025 Reader Garden Award Winners Have Been Selected!
Every year, our annual Reader Garden Award celebrates the creativity, passion, and vision of garden enthusiasts who have transformed their outdoor spaces into inspiring, functional, and beautiful environments. Readers from across North America submit spectacular spaces that feature thoughtful layouts, inspired plant selections, and plenty of personality.
These incredible gardens make our job of judging increasingly challenging, but all votes have been tabulated and we're excited to begin announcing our 2025 runners up in the coming months, culminating with the winning gardener in December 2025. Thanks again to Jung Seed for sponsoring the 2025 award and providing prizes for our winners. Follow along as we reveal each inspiring garden and gardener!
2025 Reader Garden Runner-Up: Lonna Engel from Williamsport, PA
Explore Lonna's shady garden haven, appropriately named Painted Leaf Hosta Garden, home to her collection of more than 900 hosta cultivars! Read more about the garden here.
Stay Tuned...
- Next Runner-Up Announcement Coming in September 2025
- 2025 Reader Garden Award Grand Prize Winner Announced in December 2025!
Now Accepting Submissions for 2026!
Enter your own garden for a chance to be photographed and featured in a future issue of Garden Gate magazine. Find full entry guidelines here: 2026 Garden Gate Reader Garden Award.
How To Enter:
Submit via Email (preferred method of entry):
Email your information and a link to your images in cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, etc.) to ReaderGarden@aimmedia.com
Submit via mail:
Reader Garden Award
Garden Gate Magazine
2143 Grand Avenue,
Des Moines, IA 50312
Enter your garden by January 6th, 2026. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents.
Check Out Our Previous Winners
See the designs that have won in the past, and find ideas to inspire your future creations:
