Riihimäki's home yard competition starts again

Riihimäki is once again looking for the city's most beautiful home yard, as well as a new age-friendly yard. You can enter your own yard into the competition no later than June 3, 2026. The Riihimäki Home Yard Competition is one of the oldest continuously organized yard competitions in Finland.

The Home Yard Competition encourages residents to maintain and beautify their yards and surrounding areas. Well-maintained and pleasant yards are visible in the entire city's cityscape and increase living comfort.

This year, the competition series has been renewed. Alongside the traditional series, the Riihimäki Age-Friendly Garden series will be held.

"The idea for the Age-Friendly Garden series originated from the collaboration between the city and the Kotokartanosäätiö Foundation, as well as the shared goal of developing Riihimäki into an even more age-friendly city. The series highlights age-friendly environments and encourages us to create more of them in everyday life," says Marjo-Kaisa Konttinen, the city's well-being coordinator.

The most beautiful backyard emphasizes spatial division, comfort, and diversity

In the traditional Most Beautiful Home Yard 2026 series, the evaluation emphasizes the overall appearance of the yard, its space layout, functionality, and comfort. In addition, the evaluation emphasizes increasing diversity by taking into account invasive species, utilizing stormwater, and successfully combining ecology and aesthetics.

An age-friendly yard emphasizes everyday functionality

The Riihimäki Age-Friendly Yard 2026 series evaluates the functionality of the yard from an everyday perspective. The judging focuses on accessibility, safety, ease of access and maintenance, as well as the comfort of the yard and opportunities for relaxation. The yard is hoped to be an inviting and pleasant environment that offers opportunities for resting, relaxing and experiencing nature.

In addition, the assessment takes into account community spirit: at its best, the yard can serve as a meeting place for residents and support togetherness and joint activities.

The Riihimäki Home Yard Competition is one of the oldest continuously organized yard competitions in Finland. The competition was originally founded at the initiative of the Riihimäki Society in 1935, and has been organized regularly since 1959. Today, the competition is organized every two years.

Registration

All yards in Riihimäki can participate in the competition: single-family homes, terraced houses, apartment buildings, public buildings (not city-owned properties), balconies and holiday homes.

To register for the competition, please complete the form online or by mail. The registration period is May 11–June 3, 2026.

The Riihimäki Age-Friendly Yard series also hopes to include service and senior housing projects where the functionality, safety and comfort of the yard play a key role in everyday life.

The juries will evaluate the gardens of those who have registered for the competition from 8 to 17 June 2026. Any pre-qualification will be made based on the registration information and images. After that, a more detailed assessment visit will be made to the selected sites.

Enter your yard in the Riihimäki Most Beautiful Home Yard 2026 series (maptionnaire.com)

Register your yard for the Riihimäki Age-Friendly Yard 2026 series (maptionnaire.com)

You can also participate in the competition by sending information about your yard and 1–3 photos by mail to:

The city of Riihimäki
VO Mäkinen katu 2
11120 Riihimaki

Envelope marked: Home yard competition.

Judging

The Most Beautiful Home Yard series is judged by the Home Yard Committee, which includes representatives from the Riihimäki Society, the Riihimäki Region Homeowners Association, Riihimäen Martat, and a landscape expert from ProAgria.

The jury for the Age-Friendly Garden series includes the well-being coordinator of the city of Riihimäki, a representative of the city's open well-being services, a representative of the Kotokartanosäätiö Foundation, and a representative of the Council for the Disabled.

The juries for both series are chaired by the city gardener.

The judging panel will review the yards in June 2026 and the winning yards will be announced in the traditional manner on Riihimäki Day, September 11, 2026. The winners will be notified personally.