Membership Rewards!

Did you know that membership in Alta Vista Botanical Gardens now has rewards?
Alta Vista Gardens has recently secured a 10% (or more) discount from many local area nurseries and other businesses including gardening supplies, hydroponics and composting supplies. There is also a company offering discounts on self improvement workshops.
Check back frequently as our list of participating businesses is growing all the time.

Las Pozas

Las Pozas ("the Pools") is a sculpture garden built by Edward James, more than 2,000 feet above sea level, in a tropical rain forest in the mountains of Mexico. It includes more than 80 acres of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete.

Las Pozas is near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, a seven-hour drive north of Mexico City. In the early 1940s, James went to Los Angeles, and then decided that he "wanted a Garden of Eden set up . . . and I saw that Mexico was far more romantic” and had "far more room than there is in crowded Southern California.” In Cuernavaca, he hired Plutarco Gastelum, then a young manager of a telegraph office, as a guide. The two found Xilitla in November 1945.[7]

In Xilitla, Plutarco married a local woman and had four children. They all lived with "Uncle Edward", as the children called James, in a house Plutarco had built, a mock-Gothic cement castle, now a hotel - La Posada El Castillo.

Between 1949 and 1984, James built thirty-six concrete follies - palaces, temples and pagodas, including the House on Three Floors Which Will in Fact Have Five or Four or Six, the House with a Roof like a Whale, and the Staircase to Heaven. There were also plantings and beds full of tropical plants, including orchids - there were, apparently, 29,000 at Las Pozas at one time - and a variety of small casas (homes), niches, and pens that held exotic birds and wild animals from the world over. Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges and narrow, winding walkways that traverse the valley walls. Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction.

Donated Sculpture: Broken Link

At the beginning of November, Alta Vista Gardens came into possession of a wonderful sculpture called 'Broken Link' by the very talented local sculptor Tony Imatto. The sculpture is finely molded from Granite and stands on a Granite Boulder Base. With its base, the sculpture which is approximately fourteen feet high is very impressive.

The sculpture was donated by Vista philanthropist Michael Vuytowecz and is being stored at the Garden awaiting the Vista Public Arts Commission approval. A permanent location in the Garden has not yet been selected

A Visit to AVG - Commentary from Amy Haessly, mom of 2

I wanted to tell you I took Otis (age 2) and Allison (1) over to Alta Vista Gardens (October 24) after the Anstine Preserve Fall Festival. We had so much fun exploring. That place is beautiful! We had fun examining and counting scarecrows, we had a little pow-wow in the teepee (after I made sure it wasn’t already occupied). Otis loved the pond and watching the fish. Allison wanted to walk right into the water! And we got to see the big backhoe and Otis found a Dinosaur in the garden by the house. It was lots of fun and I plan on going back again.
We had fun in the garden! I’m sure the day Otis joins the gardening club will be here before I know it. I can’t believe how fast time flies.

Kids in the Garden: Children’s Class for Gardening and the Environment

Children ages kindergarten through sixth grade are invited to participate in one hour Saturday morning classes once a month in the Bugs, Birds & Butterflies Children's Garden.

The instructor will be “Farmer Jones” Nancy B Jones who is a retired teacher of the VUSD, Alamosa Park Elementary, School Garden Coordinator, A.V.G. Fall Fun Festival organizer, GATE teacher

Topics Include: Planting for Nutrition, How Plants Work, Watering and Weeding, Seeds, Leaves, Compost Worms, Birds, Bugs, Butterflies, Garden Discovery, Walks, Five Senses Environment, Recycling, Music, Art: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Cooking for Nutrition, Nature Crafts, Recycle Crafts, Nature Games, Storytime in the Garden

For more information and to register for the classes visit the 'Kids in the Garden' page of our web site.

Photo Competition: 'Through Children's Eyes'

Children up to the age of thirteen years are invited to "come, photograph Vista’s “almost secret” garden, and then show off your photos at an exhibition in the Vista Library... Photos must be taken on the Alta Vista Gardens grounds. Subjects can include the Children’s Garden theme of “Bugs, Birds & Butterflies,” environmental activities such as growing plants, the flowers and trees at AVG, composting, recycling, and water conservation, various scheduled activities at AVG, and the people who volunteer for or visit the Gardens."

The Exhibition Display shall be held at the Vista Library, Children’s Section and at other sites.

Rules, application forms and instructions are posted on the Alta Vista Gardens web site. For more information visit the Through Children's Eyes page

Stop Killing your Soil! by Bryan Morse

On a project that I recently completed the soil is some of the worst I have ever seen. I had added to the existing plant palette a year ago and in spite of normal soil amending practices had watched the plants grow smaller every month. I asked the gardener to fertilize the garden. He proceeded to dump fistfuls of granulated fertilizer around the trunks of the plants and killed off a good percentage of the young plantings. After that he was prohibited from ever fertilizing anything again. Later on, he was also prohibited from pruning anything. Due to the water shortage in Southern California we decided to eliminate most of the lawns, and his is job got even easier as we removed most of the sod.

When we stripped the lawn, we blended the sod and roots back into the hard pan to add organics and then purchased a massive amount of Humic Compost from Agri service inc. and blended it along with many bags of WormGold worm castings, ‘Live Earth Bio-Basics’ (soil enzymes) and ‘Soilbuster’ (pelletized gypsum). We purchased a Biostack composting bin and a worm composting bin for our client from Solana Center for Environmental Innovation (some cities subsidize these for their residents) so that the client could continue to add rich ammendments to the soil as time progresses. The soil had been sterilized through years of chemical fertilizer use, it would take some time to bring it back to life.

The planting theme is eclectic and blends succulents with tropicals. The irrigation is drip and thus we are able to add plenty of water to the Palms, the Sugarcane and Gingers and almost no water to the young succulents as they establish themselves. There are some small areas with groundcover and for those areas we have installed ‘Netafim’ soaker tubing. This moistens the soil with no spray at all.

When the planting is complete the ground will be top coated with Forest Fine, another product from Agri service designed to dress the raw dirt and decompose easily over the next year. In six months worms will be added so that they may begin to do their magic and bit by bit the transformation will be complete.