2015 Challenge: Squash Wars - Prize Drawing!

Whew! Okay, after a very long and crazy-busy summer (we've got a lot of things going on right now on the site!), I'm pleased to announce the winners of this year's contest.

We had almost 40 participants who signed up. Some of us (Melody and me, mostly) were ineligible since we work here :-).

The rest of your names were put in a hat (well, actually into a random number generator) to determine the winners of 14 $25 gift certificates. A big thanks to the following vendors who will be sending out these prizes to our winners:

American Meadows
Botanical Interests
Garden Harvest
Harris Seed
JL Hudson
Johnnys Selected Seed
St. Clare Seed
Tradewinds Fruit

Drum roll, please....

Does the random number generator take into account how many pictures and comments we contributed since the member was supposed to get one entry for each picture and comment? Thanks, Julie

Here are the winners who completed the challenge by submitting at least one image and/or comment in PlantFiles:

Cville_Gardener: http://davesgarden.com/members/Cville_Gardener/
froggies_girl: http://davesgarden.com/members/froggies_girl/
Farmerdill: http://davesgarden.com/members/Farmerdill/
pepper23: http://davesgarden.com/members/pepper23/
howconnie: http://davesgarden.com/members/howconnie/
beebonnet: http://davesgarden.com/members/beebonnet/
brendak654: http://davesgarden.com/members/brendak654/
cactusman8: http://davesgarden.com/members/cactusman8/
emcars: http://davesgarden.com/members/emcars/

We also had several of you who participated in the thread, even if you didn't finish the challenge (if you have pics and/or comments regarding your experience with your chosen varieties, please add them to PlantFiles this fall!)

We randomly drew from this group and the following names were chosen:

BajaBlue: http://davesgarden.com/members/BajaBlue/
alpacaRenee: http://davesgarden.com/members/AlpacaRenee/
goshawk62: http://davesgarden.com/members/goshawk62/
CountryGardens: http://davesgarden.com/members/CountryGardens/
MaypopLaurel: http://davesgarden.com/members/MaypopLaurel/

Each of the winners will be contacted directly with contact information for receiving your gift certificate. Thanks to all who participated, and a hearty congratulates to the winners. We are hoping to do another growers' challenge in 2016, so stay tuned!

Congratulations to all the winners! Thank you, Terry, for trading care of the challenge and prize drawings. Looking forward to the 2016 challenge. I really learned a lot from other members! 😊

A big congrats to all! This was really rewarding, thanks for the opportunity to participate in, and learn from one another. Happy gardening everyone!

Well, Thank you so much, I think. I am just amazed!! Lily....why wasn't your name in there??? I am not only amazed, I am confused. Thanks, though, for my blue ribbon. I love to look at it. And, thanks, also, to Froggie for making the big push. If we do the squash wars next year, I think there should be a more clear agenda. Sorry Admin. Don't mean to step on toes, but, really. The rules were not as clear as I would have liked and you never stepped in to help us either. It was like we were an afterthought. Again, don't mean to step on toes.

beebonnet, thank you for your kind thought. My plate has been full (in my personal life), and I just didn't have the time to finish up my entries to PF while so many changes were taken place here on DG. I wasn't looking forward to getting any prize. If I did (get a reward) I would have gladly defer it to the next deserving member. No monetary prize would have been as rewarding as meeting/learning from like-minded gardening friends such as you and those I've met here.

Kim

Kim, you did deserve a prize! You helped us keep the challenge going!

I know I bugged the mess out of admin about the results of this challenge, not just for me but for everyone! Beebonnet, I agree that next year the rules should be more clear. And Admin, we are asking that you please post more often and chat with us next year.

Thanks for a great learning experience!

It was my understanding that each winner of the "2015 Squash Wars Challenge" would be contacted directly. Has that happened? Maybe I missed out? Has everyone been contacted, as I have yet to receive contact. Just curious . . . . .

Nothing here...

I received a message from admin, but nothing from a vendor! Vendors should have sent certificates to admin at the beginning and admin mail them to us.

BUMMER!

The post above, dated Oct 26 says winners would be notified directly and given info on how to get your gift cerifificate. What a disappointing mess and I'm not even a participant. I thought this was all taken care of.

A very disappointing MESS.

Nothing here, either. I would have been very happy with a free membership for the coming year. I won that with a photo once, and was thrilled with that prize. But, with so many of us as winners, guess that is way too much to expect.

I wish admin would at least respond. Maybe they aren't getting thread updates. Lol

I'm contacting admin!

What a mess this is. Sure goes to show how little DG thinks of us. Sure glad I didn't get involved in this. I started to and then things happened to keep me out of it.

I wasn't able to participate this year either but thought I might next year. But with all that's going on with DG I no longer feel like its a community but a dictatorship. Really sad.

Once again, admin is ignoring us! I even posted on the poll on the home page that what I wanted for Christmas was answers! UGH!

I think the admins are too busy playing CYA to pay any attention to our wants and needs.

This has been going on so long...the winners were announced I can't believe nobody got their prizes. I wonder if the vendors know?

Good idea! I'll start contacting the vendors on Monday!

I don't even see Dave's Gardens listed anymore on the Internet Brands website. It used to be.

Oooh, is that a bad sign? Are we going to lose DG?

Maybe there's a change of ownership coming again! Who knows? It seems like no one knows what's going on here anymore!

Other than Terry & Melody, nobody cares either.

Seems to me that Terry and Melody don;t care either because they are not answering dmails or replying to this thread!

I know that I've just about given up on this! Such a waste when so many of us actually followed through on the challenge. Very bad rep for the entire site when admin can't or won't hold up to their end of the challenge!

I've contacted all vendors.

Julie, I can only imagine the frustration y'all feel. I myself, I've learned to let go. ...
Hugs, looking forward to a better year.
Kim

Sure makes me glad I dropped out early.

A couple of the other vendors said they would contact admin! Finally, someone is listening to us!

This message was edited Jan 7, 2016 9:04 PM

Thanks for contacting the vendors. I'm glad (as much as I can be anyways) that it's not just us who haven't heard anything.

Six of the vendors replied to me and said they would also contact admin. Finally!

I got a D-mail from Terry about this.

I did also.

Great! My vendor has already sent my certificate! Yay!

I haven't heard from my vendor yet so still waiting on that end. Hopefully at the beginning of the work week. :~)