Rules
Photo submission/contest entry rules:
- IMPORTANT: You must be the original photographer. We will check every photo, using Google Images and Tineye, for originality.
- IMPORTANT: By entering, you are agreeing that if you are the winner, you will be featured in an article in the fall issue of LNP's quarterly lifestyle magazine, Balance, and on LancasterOnline.com. You will be interviewed by an LNP | LancasterOnline writer, and photos and a video tour of your garden will be produced by our team. Check out some online issues of Balance here.
- No heavily filtered, edited or altered photos may be entered in the contest.
- Your garden must be within Lancaster County.
- Still photos only (no "live" photos or videos).
- Photo entry starts on June 15, 2026. All photo entries must be submitted by midnight June 30, 2026.
- Photos deemed offensive, indecent, obscene or generated by AI will be removed from the contest.
- At least 50 photos must be entered for the contest to be a success. If fewer than 50 photos are entered, the contest may be cancelled.
Voting rules:
- Free votes:
- Anyone may cast one free vote per day, Thursday through Sunday, during each of the three voting rounds. The link to enter free votes is here.
- Free votes will be manually added to the leaderboard by Monday 7PM of each voting week.
- Paid votes:
- If you choose to purchase votes the price is $1 per vote and the money is non-refundable.
- Paid votes are added to the leaderboard immediately.
- No purchase is necessary to be eligible to receive votes for your photo.
- Vote totals are zeroed out after each round to ensure a level playing field at the start of each voting round.
- Voting dates:
- Round 1 voting:
- Free and paid voting opens: Thursday, 7/2.
- Free voting closes Sunday, 7/5 at 7:00PM.
- Free votes added to the leaderboard Monday, 7/6, by 7:00PM.
- Paid voting closes: Tuesday, 7/7 at 7:00PM.
- Round 2 voting - the top 50% of photos from Round 1 will move to Round 2 and all vote tallies will be re-set to zero.
- Free and paid voting opens: Thursday, 7/9.
- Free voting closes: Sunday, 7/12 at 7:00PM.
- Free votes added to the leaderboard Monday, 7/13, by 7:00PM.
- Paid voting closes: Tuesday, 7/14 at 7:00PM.
- Round 3 voting - the top 50% of photos from Round 2 will move to Round 3 and all vote tallies will be re-set to zero.
- Free and paid voting opens: Thursday, 7/16.
- Free voting closes: Sunday, 7/19 at 7:00PM.
- Free votes added to the leaderboard Monday, 7/20, by 7:00PM
- Paid voting closes: Tuesday, 7/21 at 7:00PM.
- Announce winner: Wednesday, 7/22, based on the top vote tallies for the final round.
General rules:
- The garden photo that get the most votes in the final round will be featured in an article and photo spread in LNP's quarterly lifestyle magazine, Balance. The winning garden will also be featured in an article on LancasterOnline.com, including a video tour of the garden.
- Void where prohibited by law.
- LNP Media Group reserves the right to disqualify or modify any entry for any reason.
- Rules subject to change without notice.
- Contest administrators' decisions are final.
- LNP Media Group is not responsible for lost entries, technical difficulties, acts of God, and any other issues that may cause problems with entering the contest.
- Employees, agents, successors, assignees, advertising agencies, promotional companies, immediate family members, household members, sponsors, agents, affiliates, parent companies, vendors, and suppliers of LNP Media Group, Always Lancaster, and others acting on their behalf are ineligible to participate.
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