Gardening with youth offer a variety of lessons from species of plants, what they need to grow, design, and responsibility. These factors are what created the 1^st annual Christian County 4-H Growing with The Bloomery: Container Flower Garden contest a collaboration with 4-H and a local nursery. Youth would create flower gardens in a 14’-16’ diameter container and show proof of caring for entry until the day of judging. Starting in April youth that registered designed their own flower container garden using the flowers of their choice and using their creativity. Using a provided care log, participants recorded what kind of plants were in their entry, how often they watered, checked for dieses, and fertilized. Youth also had to submit pictures doing the following actions: contestant planting their container, contestant actively caring of plant, and contestant with final product. With the care log and pictures, this proved to the judges the knowledge that the  youth were responsible for their own entry and took the time to do the contest. On April 17, 2021, judging took place at The Bloomery, a local nursery. Entries were divided by participant’s age, 5-11 years old and 12-18 years old. Two local Master Gardeners volunteered as the judges who used a rubric to judge each entry on plant health, design, creativity, and submission of photos and care log. There were 20 participants in the contest and the top 2 in each age division received a cash prize sponsored by The Bloomery. Through this project youth were able to develop valuable life-skills, including decision making, record-keeping, and the ability to set goals and accomplish them through horticulture.