What beautiful gardens you have! That was the consensus of judges from the Post-Gazette and Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania while looking at entries in the 2007 Great Gardens Contest.

After spending a few hours going over nearly 80 online and mailed entries, we ended up with nine finalists, whose gardens will be visited over the next few weeks to determine the winners. Stories about the winning gardens will be published in September.

Here they are, listed in alphabetical order:

Gina Bianchi of Cranberry

Jon Alan Delach of Verona

Melissa DeStefano of Murrysville

Janet Krieger of Shadyside

Les Lagnese of Hampton

Judith and John Missell of Mt. Lebanon

Denise Morgan of Irwin

Marie Tuma of Monaca

Joyce Yasko and Lee Dyer of Evans City