The eighth annual Communities in Bloom Awards night brought together gardeners from across greater Fort Erie.

"Our awards ceremony is for all people who entered in the local program," said Shirley Opie, Communities in Bloom Committee chair.

There were over 75 different categories including criteria awards such as tidiness, urban forestry, landscape areas, garden of the week awards, and three-, four- and five-bloom recognition awards, among others.

Twenty-two-year-old Justin Sherk was hoping to take home an award for himself. Sherk, a Ridgeway resident, has been landscaping for years.

"It started off at my own house," said Sherk. "People saw it and said it was good."

Sherk works by himself and has done landscaping at various places including the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre, which won a 2008 criteria award for environment.

For Cathy Herbert, the creation of her Ridge Road shade garden, which won her a 2008 criteria award for forestry, was both a happy and sad thing. Herbert had planted pine trees, but the bottom branches died and had to be removed.

"The pine needles create a natural mulch," said Herbert. "I was quite happy even though I was upset."

This is Herbert's fourth summer working on her shade garden that contains hostas, ferns and 20 flats of impatiens.

Communities in Bloom is a national program focused on creating an overall improved quality of life within a community while respecting and preserving the environment. This is the first year that local schools were recognized for their efforts in improving the community through various projects.

Other winners who took home awards that night include the Fort Erie Conservation Club for conservation, Village on the Trail for residential neighbourhood, Jack Harastay for vegetable garden and Bonnie Teal for curb appeal, among others.

The 2008 Bloom award winners are: