AVG Families in the Garden Composting Class to be at Vista Library April 18

After a meeting with Vista Library's new Branch Manager Wynne Weiss, Alta Vista Gardens will be offering a community contact program at the Vista Library.

On April 18 from 2 to 3 pm at the Community Room, Farmer Jones will share a free Families in the Garden: Composting class. She will teach what compost is, why we should be composting and what the ingredients are for compost. Each family will take home a bottled compost (bring at least one 2-liter soda bottle - more if you have them). Information sheets about compost containers will be shared.

Families will receive flyers encouraging them to join in the AVG Earth Day Festival 2010 on April 24 and the monthly Kids in the Garden Class.

Lia Strell's 'A Creative Bloom' joins our Garden

This Monday Lia Strell's sculpture called 'A Creative Bloom' was installed in the Upper Jungle Garden at Alta Vista Gardens. Here are some photos taken by Board Director Ivy Bodin. More work needs to be done to finalize its position

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Invitation to a Garden Event

Please click on the invitation to enlarge it

For more information, Read our previous Blog about this about this program

Kids in the Garden… February 13th by Nancy Jones

Our Kids in the Garden class was a busy time with a Treasure Hunt and planting succulents for our largest group yet - 30 children! Following rainbow and map clues to the dinosaur in the Reception Garden behind the Garden House (who was wearing sparkly Mardi gras beads), the kids found the hidden treasure box. The box was filled with nature's treasures: a wild cucumber seed pod, green fruit beetle larvae, hawk and crow feathers, a wild bird eggshell, a mourning cloak butterfly, a coyote skull, a cow jawbone and a deer leg with the hair still on it. These treasures from hikes and gardens were shared by Farmer Jones and could be inspirations for our next sessions.

We welcome you to join us for our March 13 class when we will be planting in our new Sunrise Incredible Edibles agricultural garden. The beds have been built and will be installed after grading is completed in the area below the Sunrise Discovery Pavilion. J & W Redwood gave us a great discount on the lumber for the beds, so the grant money will stretch further to buy our fencing and a gate as well as hardware cloth to discourage gophers.

You are invited to join us at the AVG workday on Saturday March 27th when a group of children will give service by working on weeding and defining the paths in the Jungle Garden. We will be starting work at 10 and finish with a tour of the gardens.

E-mail Farmer Jones for details at farmerjones@altavistagardens.org.

Nancy Jones Children, Gardens, Vista - What's Not to Like?

Special Benefit for joining Alta Vista Gardens!

Special! Join or Renew you membership to Alta Vista Gardens between March 15th and June 15th and receive a free one year subscription to Better Homes & Gardens. Plus....

• Guest Speakers;
• Quarterly Newsletters  
• Trips to other Botanical Gardens  
• Discounts from many local area Nurseries & other Businesses  
• Invitations to Special Member Only Events at the Garden
• Alta Vista Gardens Blog
• Garden & Plant Book Lending Library
• 20% discount on the Cooking with Klibs classes at AVG

Earth Day Festival 2010 at Alta Vista Gardens

In conjunction with the City of Vista, Alta Vista Gardens is proud to announce that our annual Earth Day Festival we be held on April 24th. This is a special year because Earth Day is now 40 years old!

There will be a whole series of Guest Speakers, all sorts of vendors and displays, lots of food and a full day of fun for children in the new Bugs, Birds and Butterflies Children's Garden

Come join us for all the fun and tell your friends.

Admission and Parking are Free!

Children's Garden Awarded Grant!

Nancy Jones has announced that a $550.00 Grant has been awarded our Children's Garden. The Grant  is from the  Farm Bureau San Diego County and San Diego Ag in the Classroom programs to build raised bed planters to show "What we grow in Vista" at Alta Vista Children's Garden!

Nancy will research costs of building the beds and obtaining garden fencing. She welcomes anybody in the community who is available to help move this forward.

This is another new feature (details on design coming up) to be added to the updated Children's Garden plan.
The raised beds will be moveable when the space is needed for another feature. They are an essential teaching tool connecting children with the agriculture that feeds them!

Children, Gardens, Vista - What's Not to Like?

Deconstructing Scarecrows by Nancy Jones

Straw was flying, muddy clothes were hung up to dry, plastic bags were drifting, and the scarecrow sentinels were given their send-off to the great recycling bin in the sky this morning. The imposing line-up of stuffed scarecrows along the fence in the Children's Garden was looking a little woebegone so a crew showed up and made short work of cutting their tethers, unstuffing them, and filling up the Jones truck. Bags of straw will be used by the Jefferies family in their compost, and more bags of straw will be going to Alamosa Park Elementary's school garden to spread in the pathways. The plastic stuffing will be recycled, and the already-decomposing levi jeans will be added to the experimental compost at school.

The first 10 scarecrows were constructed in October by school groups (Olive, Crestview, Grapevine and Alamosa), and 20 more were stuffed and decorated by families on-site at the Fall Fun Festival. The colorful line of scarecrows has cheered up many park walkers and intimidated some passers-by. With all the rain and wind we've had, it was surprising any of the 'crows were still standing!

Many thanks to our take-down crew for your fantastic support today - you accomplished in 75 minutes what would have taken me all day! Our crew consisted of Carol, Levi, Phineas and Oona Jeffries, Gail Stram, and Don Nelson.

Look for scarecrows to be featured again at next year's Fall Fun Festival!

NancyJones: Co-Chair, Children, Gardens, Vista - What's Not to Like?

Pacific Horticulture Board meets at Alta Vista Gardens

Last October the Pacific Horticulture Board used Alta Vista Gardens as a retreat for their meeting. In the January/February/March 2010 issue (pictured to the left) on page 2 in 'Clippings, News from Pacific Horticultural Foundation' the photo and caption below appeared.

Through Children's Eyes Photo-Collage

THE ALTA VISTA GARDENS – THROUGH CHILDREN'S EYES

A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

Through Children's Eyes, Inc. in cooperation with the Alta Vista Gardens in Vista, is conducting a children's photography and exhibition project at the Alta Vista Gardens in Brengle Terrace Park.

Children can take photos with their digital camera during the gardens' regular hours, and email them to: tartanstar@earthlink.net by February 13, 2010. Those using film cameras can submit negatives and small prints to the Vista library Children's Librarian. Participation in the photography project is free.

Additionally, from 11:00 am to12: 00 noon, on February 13, (after the monthly “Kids in the Garden” class * ) there will be a free escorted photo hike for kids around the Gardens. Participants must bring their own cameras. The children do not have to be a resident of Vista to participate.

The Vista Library's Children's Section will display the children's photography throughout March , and on April 10, there will be a reception and exhibit at the Alta Vista Garden House.

This is not a photo contest; it's our chance to see our world, and the beautiful, scenic Alta Vista Gardens, through children's eyes. Some of their photos may be included in a future AVG calendar.

For detailed information and a PDF of the form required for participating, please review the Alta Vista Garden's link to the project at: http://www.altavistagardens.org/html/photo_essay.html

You can also check out Through Children's Eyes, Inc. at: www.ThroughChildrensEyes.org

(All of the photos throughout the site were taken by children.in previous programs.)

for more “Kids in the Garden” monthly class info: Click Here

Attached is a collage of a selection of photos taken by participating children. For more information, you can reach me at this email address or call (760) 643-9495 or (cell) (661_ 992-1181.