Ready, Set, Grow: Nominations Sought For City’s Annual Green Thumb Awards

EDWARDSVILLE - If you have a green thumb, the City of Edwardsville wants to know about it; and even if you don’t, you can point us to the people, businesses, neighborhoods and civic groups that do. It’s once again time for the annual Green Thumb Awards, an opportunity to recognize properties with landscaping, gardening or flowering projects that help beautify the City.

For more than two decades, the Edwardsville Beautification and Tree Commission has been honoring individuals, groups and businesses for giving Mother Nature a hand. Hundreds of Green Thumb Awards have been handed out since 1999 in an effort to foster neighborhood and civic pride. However, it all starts with nominations from the public, which the commission then sorts through to choose the Green Thumb Award honorees for the year.

Residential, neighborhood, commercial and civic settings can be nominated. Anyone who maintains property within Edwardsville City limits is eligible for an award (other than members of the Beautification and Tree Commission and Green Thumb Award Committee). Self-applications also are encouraged. The Green Thumb Award Committee will consider the character of the nomination (i.e. a homeowner- maintained garden, a professionally designed and maintained garden, a volunteer-maintained garden).

The Green Thumb Award Committee will visit each nominated site and take photographs. Award recipients will be notified later in the summer and receive a Green Thumb sign to post on their property for one month.

Nominations are now open and will be accepted through June 4, 2023. They can be submitted in two ways:

• Go online and fill out and submit a nomination form;

• Print a nomination form, fill it out and mail it or drop it off at Edwardsville City Hall, 118 Hillsboro Avenue.

The online form and the printable version, along with details about the awards, can be found on the City’s website: www.cityofedwardsville.com/greenthumb.