For those visitors who have noticed the little countdown timer in the right-hand corner yet been puzzled by its purpose, allow me to explain.

Each year - well, this is the second year that it's happened - Blotanical spends the month of September highlighting some of the best garden blogs around. This year there were 75 award categories exhibiting regional blogs, US State blogs and a raft of categories honouring those for best garden photography, best blog writing, and best blog design.

The process became a little trickier this year as the blogs vying for nominations escalated from 700 last year to well over 1500 this year. Yet, it seems that some of the finest blogs have floated to the top especially for the categories of Best Garden Blog, Blog You'd Most Like an Invite From to Guest Post and Newcomer Blog of the Year.

The difference with these awards is that they are nominated and voted by peers. Hence, gardeners are the ones who are voting.

If you would like to be a part of the 2009 Blotanical Awards - you don't need to have a blog - then you can join Blotanical and start voting straight away. Membership is free and you can meet thousands of gardeners from all over the world.