With music, crafts, and a scavenger hunt, this year’s Earth Day Festival on April 22 was a great event for families! 1000 people enjoyed a sunny day honoring our Earth and discovering Vista’s own Botanical Gardens, located at the top of the hill inside Brengle Terrace Park.
The day started with a Walk for Earth Day organized by Beleaf in Fatherhood – a chance to explore the Garden’s 14 acres of filled with unique plants, intriguing sculptures, and meandering pathways. Families posted photos online to share their discoveries from the scavenger hunt.
CA Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s representative Fernando Hernandez presented a Certificate recognizing the Gardens on Earth Day.
“We are grateful for the work you do to create and maintain a space that educates our communities on the importance of environmental protection”
as environmental stewards sharing nature and appreciation of natural resources with North County communities. “Thank you for making a meaningful impact on our local families and youth,” the certificate states.
During the Festival, 60 student volunteers helped families create bubbles, discover worms, make macaroni necklaces, and paint Earth Day Rocks and a flowery Earth Day banner. Girl Scouts shared their projects and made caterpillar swap pins. The San Diego Beekeeping Society shared their hives at their Pollination Information Station. The Woman’s Club of Vista shared about Penny Pines and collected funds to support reforestation. Adult volunteers set up the event, organized children’s activities, led the walk, sold plants, managed parking, and cleaned up after closing time.
Vic Moraga on guitar added instrumental music, song and sing-alongs to the beautiful green setting of the Gardens. Vendors offered plants, crafts, jewelry, handmade cards, facepainting, books, rocks, and shared about childcare, leaf filters, and replacement windows. Information about wastewater, climate education, and human rights was also available.
Our Plant Sale was busy, filled with GrowGetters succulents along with flowers, veggies and herbs from Progressive Growers. BBQ lunch was tasty thanks to Amigos de Vista Lions. The raffle offered Garden memberships and baskets, United Plant Growers plants, gift cards, and drew in generous donations to support the Gardens. Sorting out recyclable cans and plastic bottles before our visitors tossed their trash helped divert some of the event’s waste from the landfill.
Earth Day 2023 was an amazing day in our beautiful Alta Vista Botanical Gardens.
Our Kids in the Garden class at Alta Vista Botanical Gardens is offered monthly by Farmer Jones – $5 per person or free for Family Members. Our schedule is posted on the website and pre-registration is required. Field trips and tours are available.
AVBG Memberships for families and individuals offering daily access to the Gardens and special events are available for a reasonable fee. Alta Vista Botanical Gardens are open every day; we are located at the top of the hill inside Brengle Terrace Park in Vista. altavistabotanicalgardens.org
