WITH the summer just around the corner, it s time to get your garden looking its best – not just for the warmer months, but also for The Hunts Post Garden of the Year competition. Sponsored by Admiral Windows and Conservatories, the competition aims to fi

WITH the summer just around the corner, it's time to get your garden looking its best - not just for the warmer months, but also for The Hunts Post Garden of the Year competition.

Sponsored by Admiral Windows and Conservatories, the competition aims to find the best kept gardens in the district, and present the people with the greenest fingers with one of four cash prizes which are up for grabs.

The three categories are Best Kept Garden, Best Garden Design and Most Colourful Display, and each of the winners will receive £250.

There will also be one overall winner who will be presented with £500.

To help prepare your garden for the competition - and, of course, for those long summer evenings, Will Honeybone, a landscape architect and one of the competition judges, has a few suggestions.

Will, who is proprietor of Earthscape, said: "It is not always the amount of time and money that makes a garden stand out from its neighbours, but its design.

"Careful thought about the hard landscaping structure, and inventive choice and positioning of the plants that will create the desired impression.

"It pays dividends to devote as much time to the planning of a garden as the construction."

Will, along with the editor of The Hunts Post, Andy Veale, and Steve Thorogood, managing director of Admiral Windows and Conservatories, will judge the competition with the aid of the newspaper's readers.

The competition is simple to enter. All you need to do is choose the category you want to enter, send us three photographs (three j-pegs if you use a digital camera) of your garden along a explanation of up to 200 words detailing why your garden deserves a prize.

Gardeners can submit entries until September 30.

Entrants must complete the competition coupon (below and available on the website www.huntspost.co.uk) and send it, marked Garden of the Year, to either Admiral Windows and Conservatories, Ermine Street, Alconbury, Huntingdon, PE28 4FL, or to The Hunts Post, 30 High Street, Huntingdon PE29 3TB.

All the usual Archant terms and conditions apply.