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Hay River Yards in Bloom taking a break

Yards in Bloom – the popular competition to promote gardening and community beautification – is taking a year's hiatus.

The program of the Hay River Beautification Committee won't be happening this summer.

Last year, Thess Cruzpe-Cooper, left, received the Darm Crook Overall Winner award in the Yards in Bloom competition from Darm Crook at an awards luncheon in August. Yards in Bloom is taking a break this year, but plans to return for the summer of 2019. NNSL file photo

Faye Stark, the secretary of the Hay River Beautification Committee and a member of the Yards in Bloom subcommittee, said the break is being taken basically for two reasons.

The first is to give volunteers a break from what she called a "very intense" program.

"We had about 35 volunteers last year doing all the judging," Stark noted. "But people were starting to get a little bit burnt out."

Secondly, organizers feel it would be a good time to take a look at Yards in Bloom and possibly make some category changes for the future.

Currently, the competition has the categories of amateur, master, a people's choice award and blooming with no space, which is basically growing flowers on a balcony, a very small plot of land or just in pots.

Stark noted they have noticed a change in yards over the years.

"People have really been working on them for a number of years and had graduated from blooming with no space to actually having amateur gardens and progressing to master gardens," she said. "We started early this year and we're still working on it to maybe change some of the categories that we have. We probably will still go with master and amateur, but we're also looking at changes of some of the other ones."

Stark noted Yards in Bloom has also been looking at various cities and towns on the Internet and seeing what categories they have.

"Some we can do and some we can't because we're not a big community," she said. "But we certainly have a good selection of different flowers being grown and incredible gardens here. People take a lot of pride in them."

Volunteers are also being asked for their point of view.

"We're trying to get different perspective, different lenses looking at all the different categories to say, 'OK, what can we do with it to improve it?'" Stark said.

The plan is for Yards in Bloom to return next year.

Stark said it was a hard decision to skip the competition this summer, but the program needed to be evaluated.

It has taken place since the Hay River Beautification Committee was formed in 2007 to replace the Hay River Horticultural Society.

Stark said Yards in Bloom has had a big impact on beautifying the community.

"Of course, our goal of the Beautification Committee is taking pride in the community and in your own place through beautifying Hay River," she said. "And we've been doing Yards in Bloom every year."

Last year, 156 yards participated in the contest.