One night a year, a display of prize-winning garden photos blooms in the El Cerrito City Council chambers, marking the annual presentation of the awards.
In this year's awards – given out at Tuesday night's council meeting – first place went to Claire Garcia, with second place for Daniell Frattin and third place for Kathryn Hall.
"The El Cerrito Garden Club has been sponsoring the contest for about 15 years now," club representative Bonnie Smith told the council.
"This year we actually looked at 20 different gardens, and it was really tough," she said. "But we narrowed it down to three winners."
The contest is known as the Annual Sundar Shadi Garden Club Awards, in recognition of the , a long-time El Cerrito resident locally famous for the annual holiday display he created of a miniature Bethlehem-type village and for the large garden he created in his yard on Arlington Boulevard.
A list of the winners and addresses where the front-yard gardens can be seen is attached to this article.
