Winners of our Flickr garden-photo contest

The Monitor's gardening section has had several photo contests running on our Flickr group page. Today we'll announce the three winners of the fruit photos competition. Then, as soon as we've heard back from the winners, we'll show you the top three photos in the "What does your winter look like" contest.

The winners among the fruit photos were chosen by Joanne Ciccarello, the Monitor's photo editor.

First place went to Carolyn Hopper for a pomegranate photo titled "Remember Persephone?" [See Photo No. 1, above.] It definitely looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?

Carolyn says: "My husband Dan loves pomegranates. One morning as he was eating one at breakfast I noticed how the sun was playing on all the surfaces
and had to take a picture on a colorful plate that I love. The story of the pomegranate makes it an interesting fruit to get to know and they are a tasty treat."

Her prize is "P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens Deck: 50 Recipes for Year-Round Gardening" (Potter Style). It's a packet of 50 cards that contain easy-to-follow directions for container gardens of all types.

Jayne Hanlin took second place with an interesting shot of a dragon fruit that she took in a very unexpected place. [See Photo No. 2, above.] She explains:

"On the way to the railroad station, our Chinese guide had the tour bus stop at a huge, crowded Wal-Mart Supercenter in Beijing so that we could buy snacks for our overnight train ride to Xian. Looking for them, I couldn’t resist taking colorful photo of these exotic dragon fruit."

Jayne wins "The World of the Monarch Butterfly," by Eric S. Grace (Sierra Club Books), which explores the life of the insect with the longest migration.

Third place went to Susan Mitchell for an appealing photo of figs. [See photo above left.] She says these fruits make interesting subjects for photography:

"I love figs and every summer we get hundreds of them from people who have fig trees, but don't like figs.The bulk of them go into my own recipes for cooking and preserving them, but we keep the very best ones--the plump, fat, perfectly ripe ones -- to eat fresh.

"These gorgeous, perfect fruits are not only wonderful for eating, they are also wonderful subjects for photography. I had put these two in a bowl and was going to sit on the porch and eat them, but noticed the way their shadows highlighted their elegant shape, and how the sun brought out the green and brown and purple of the skin. I decided that eating could wait, and spent the next ten minutes or so taking photos of my "figs in a bowl"from different angles. This one was my favorite primarily because of the distinct shape of the shadow on the bowl."

We will be sending Susan a copy of "The Family Kitchen Garden," by Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland (Timber Press). It's a photo-filled book that gives step-by-step instructions for growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers.

Thanks to all who entered. The quality of the photography was so high that Joanne had a tough time picking just three winners.

And stay tuned to Diggin' It for announcement of the winners of the winter photo contest.

Editor’s note: The Monitor’s main gardening page offers articles on many gardening topics. See also our blog archive and our RSS feeds. If you join Gardening With the Monitor on Flickr (it's free), you can upload your garden photos and enter our next contest.