Judging Plants: What did I get myself into?

I agreed to judge out horticulture division at our little county fair today. Wow, that was something. There were only about 50 entries. I have a sneaking feeling that a bunch of high school 4H kids were forced to place an entry, maybe even an Ag class. The kid who put forth the most effort was the only entry in the children's division. She entered a very pretty geranium. She received three ribbons. There were two pretty house plants , a couple of good hanging baskets, and some decent vegetable flats the seniors entered. Two of the veggie flats were water stressed. Otherwise, these plants looked like they were just stressed four inch color plants stuck in a container or some winter stressed plant in a container they lifted out of the garage. Many didn't even bother to pull off yellowed leaves or repot a plant in need of repoting. I felt like a big Meany giving out so many white ribbons, but come on a 3rd grader grew a better plant.

Above is the quilt block of the month for March. I didn't finish the completer blocks. Shhh...don't tell.