You choose the winner!

First let me say, “WOW!!!”  One hundred twenty-one comments! Thanks, too, for the tweets.  Y’all outdid yourselves.  NGBF (Non-gardening Best Friend), Aimee, and I found it hard-scrabble plowing to narrow the playing field to three potential winners.  Therefore, we also chose three Honorable Mentions.  You are all so brilliant, and you inspired me with your stories of saving the planet bit by bit.  After much cussing (not really) and discussing, we came up with the following:

First, for the Honorable Mentions:

• #31 Deborah R.  Backyard habitats are always near and dear to my heart, and I was impressed by your use of native grasses to stabilize a hillside.  Good job!

• #23 Jodi.  Paying it forward by teaching school children and their teachers how to grow gardens.  Your “Writers in the Schools” program made me think about going to my own school and giving a talk about sustainability, and what better way to beautify the planet than with a garden?

• #65 Mosaic Mom.  Taking the Fiskars mower to schools to teach them about sustainable lawn care is a wonderful idea.  Dressing in green while doing so made us smile.

Although I didn’t plan it in the first post, the three listed above will each receive a book of my choice.  For Jodi, I’m going to send a copy of Sharon Lovejoy’s newest book, Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma’s Bag of Tricks, a book near and dear to my heart because it promotes teaching the love of gardening with children.  Oh, and Jodi, I’m not saying you’re a grandmother, BTW.

For Mosaic Mom, I’m sending a copy of Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, by Alice Waters, which I think you will be able to use in your school program.

For Deborah, I chose Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design, by Nancy J. Ondra and Saxon Holt. I hope it will help you choose the best grasses for your “cliff.”

Now, my dear readers, it’s your turn.  Because I can’t get the poll to show up in this post, I’ve placed it prominently on the sidebar.  You can only vote once, and voting will end on February 8, 2010 at Midnight CST.

Before you make your choice, here are your contestants:

• #64 JP. “I am organizing for my farmers market to get a wireless EBT (food stamp) machine for our vendors, through the USDA. We are a rural county (Grand Isle, VT) without a full service grocery store. Now people won’t have to drive 45 minutes or more to buy good food.”  Aimee and I were touched by J.P.’s sincere desire to be more sustainable while helping others.  As Aimee said, “The poor want good food too.”  She should know.  She assists the working poor everyday.
• #92 Mary T. “One of my brothers cleans up crime scenes. Ergo, he has vast knowledge on how to super clean just about anything. Joe and I collectively decided to do something about the tires, which are dumped along a lake near his home. Joe got us some earth-friendly cleaning solution. We scrubbed the tires inside and out. Both of us put out the word that we would put up a tire swing for anyone who wanted one in their yard. I am happy to say that for a while we had more interest in the swings than we had tires!”  Aimee and I titled this entry “Of crime scenes and tire swings.”  I think it speaks for itself.
  

  Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars by Sharon Lovejoy

• #53 Irma. “We have planted our garden for the past year and have cut down buying some vegetables at the store.  We have made our own rain barrels to collect rain water so that we may water our garden in lieu of using city water.”  Although many of you use rain barrels, this entry struck our fancy because Irma actually built her own rain barrels. Aimee felt like making your own was the best reason for picking Irma’s.

One more thing, I want to thank the Plurkettes (you know who you are) and Robin at Getting Grounded for tweeting the contest several times.  Also, thanks to both Shady Gardener and Jan at Thanks for Today for blogging about the contest and even expanding on the theme.  Jan is giving away several things on her blog in honor of every day being Earth Day.  Now, if I missed anyone who promoted the contest on their blog, please let me know, and I’ll add you to the list.

Thanks so much, everyone, for playing.  This was such fun.  Also, thanks to Fiskars for providing such a nice prize.

I can’t wait to see who wins.