La Cresta estate gardens featured in nature education tour

Four La Cresta families opened their estate gardens to visitors May 14 in a show of support for the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation’s (SRPNEF) mission to help students become aware of the environmental challenges they will face in the future.

The 13th Annual Garden Tour and Garden Party entitled “Gardening in Mother Nature’s Backyard” brought hundreds of visitors to the estate homes to view the many gardening ideas the local residents employed in their personal gardens.

All was to help the foundation provide funds to local schools to bring elementary school students so used to living in a digital world to the plateau allowing them to see firsthand the beauty of nature around them and to learn about ways to protect their environment.

SRPNEF directors and docents greeting guests as they arrived at the tour said the event was a “great success.” The guests were welcomed first by the hosts at Stone Brewing Company’s craft beer and wine garden party on Sierra Soto Lane, in the home of Plateau Vineyard. There, foundation docents and vendors provided information about the ways and means of protecting the environment and presented some other organizations dedicated to preserving natural resources.

The Plateau’s beautiful vineyards provided the backdrop for the attending musician’s classical guitar music and the start of the tour.

From there the guests either drove or were shuttled to the first estate garden on Avenida La Cresta that provided a stunning view of the adjacent Santa Rosa Plateau and the Murrieta/Temecula Valley. The garden featured a beautiful hilltop garden with many drought resistant plants highlighted by a finely sculptured horse.

Next came a tour of the estate garden on Calle de Companero. The garden featured a pond with its own beach surrounded by many beautiful plants. Swans with three cygnets swimming in the pond delighted the guests, as the family’s rescued animals, including burros and various birds curiously watched the crowds.

The tour then went on to estate garden Site C on Avenida Bonita where visitors were treated with a view of a garden pond and a homemade natural beach, waterfall and its own vineyards as well as a fine collection of vintage cars on display in a parking area near the garden.

The last estate garden on the tour, on Avenida La Cresta, was a home surrounded by a vineyard. It featured a number of young fruit trees and growing corn plants protected by PVC pipe. Most of the family’s plants are edible. The family sells their grapes to local wineries.

The SRNEF is a nonprofit, environmental project-based learning program that requires students to delve deeply into a range of academic content while investigating environmental issues affecting the natural work in their own backyard.

To learn more about the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation, visit http://www.srpf.org.