GARDENERS from Ayrshire can show off their green-fingered skills to win a popular gardening contest.

The annual Cardwell Gardenfest competition has just been launched and for the first time, it’s open to customers of Cardwell Garden Centre from all over the West of Scotland.

And since the Inverclyde garden centre is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2022, the prize for each category winner has been upped this year to £60 worth of Cardwell vouchers and a trophy to keep for a year.

The categories in the Cardwell Gardenfest are best hanging baskets; best planted containers; best junior gardener (16 or under); best overall garden; and best community garden (schools, churches and community groups etc.)

There will also be judges’ discretionary certificates awarded to those entrants who may not have won a category, but merit recognition for the way they have looked after their garden.

Cardwell director Kieran Gallagher said: “This is a great opportunity for gardeners to get some recognition for their hard work and the photographs sent in will be testament to just how well people’s gardens grow.

“In previous years the Gardenfest competition was only open to gardeners from Inverclyde, but we were getting so many requests from folks living outwith that area we decided to open the contest up to the whole of the west of Scotland.”

Gardeners should enter three photographs of their garden per category and they can enter as many categories as they wish.

Photographs can be submitted by email to cardwellgardenfest@gmail.com; via the competition posts on the Cardwell Facebook and Twitter pages; or by post to Gardenfest Competition, Cardwell Garden Centre, Lunderston Bay, by Gourock, PA19 1BB.

Entrants are asked to include address, email and phone contact details either along with their entry, or by private message on social media.

The closing date for entries in this year’s competition is Saturday, August 13.