Fallbrook FFA garden receives two awards

Fallbrook High School's Future Farmers of America chapter received two donated awards for the Fallbrook FFA garden exhibit at the San Diego County Fair.

The garden, which was titled "Sweet Life at the Beach", was given the Buckner Deeter Student Succulent Landscape donated award for the best use of succulent and drought-resistant plants in a design and the Palomar Cactus and Succulent Society Youth Display donated award for the most appropriate and attractive use of succulents and cacti in a youth-designed garden display.

"Our kids worked really hard on it," said Fallbrook FFA advisor Meaghan Alvarez. "They did a really good job and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out."

Alvarez teaches the school's environmental horticulture class, and the 17 students in that class worked on the garden project. The theme of the 2018 San Diego County Fair was "How Sweet It Is" and the concept of sweetness was not limited to candy.

"Our students put that together," Alvarez said. "The first thing anybody thought of was the beach."

After the students determined the theme they spent about a month designing the garden. The work included four days of setting up the garden at the fairgrounds.

A hammock hung between two king palms to represent the palm trees along the San Diego County coast. A planter with plants of various colors represented the tide pools of Carlsbad's beaches where sea creatures of various colors can be observed. A rock retaining wall with a raised level was planted with ice plant similar to the La Jolla cliffs area. The backdrop was a plant wall made from recycled pallets and planted with drought-tolerant succulents.

The display included king palm, ice plant, blue fescue, croton, horsetail reed, desert rose echeveria, cylindrical snake plant, jade plant, snake plant, sticks of fire, Japanese grass sedge, firedance, blue chalk fingers, finger jade plant, and black rose aeonium.

The judges awarded "Sweet Life at the Beach" 97 out of a possible 100 points given for educational value, practicality of design, use of new or repurposed landscape materials, quality and quantity of plant material, and visual appeal.

"That's pretty awesome," Alvarez said.

The Fallbrook FFA garden received 20 out of 20 possible points in the practicality of design, use of new or repurposed landscape materials, and visual appeal categories and 19 points out of a possible 20 in the educational value scoring. The quantity and quality of plant material criteria includes coverage of at least 50 percent of the exhibit, so the beach theme limited the Fallbrook entry to 18 points in that category.

"It kind of conflicted with our idea," Alvarez said. "We really wanted to stay true to our theme even if we were going to be losing a point."

Succulent bowls will be created using some of the plants from the fair display, and those bowls will be sold at the FFA chapter's plant sale this fall.

The 2017-18 school year was Alvarez's fifth year as a teacher and first at Fallbrook High School. Scott Duffin had taught Fallbrook High's horticulture classes before retiring in 2017, and Alvarez took his place. Alvarez is originally from Northern California and began her teaching career with two years at a continuation high school in Yuba County. After Alvarez and her husband moved to San Diego County she taught at San Pasqual High School for two years before being selected for the Fallbrook High School opening.

Although Alvarez taught agriculture classes all five years, she taught animal agriculture in Yuba County and at San Pasqual.

"This is my first year taking over an all-plant position," she said. "I'm just really excited to continue that growth."