SAN MARCOS: Home and garden makeovers 'go green'
City volunteers help spruce up four properties
By RENEE RAMSEY - For the North County Times | ∞
Dan Weinheimer, center, an administrative analyst for the city of San Marcos, and volunteer Caylan Kolste, 14, move a rock that will go in the hole dug by Doug Kolste. They and other volunteers were using California native plants to landscape the front of the historical Cox and Bidwell houses in Heritage Park, within Walnut Grove Park, as part of the San Marcos sixth annual Volunteer Improvement Beautification Event, or VIBE, in San Marcos on Saturday. (Photo by Hayne Palmour IV - staff photographer) 
Six-year-old Brett Goodall carries plants that will be planted around the historical Cox and Bidwell houses in Heritage Park, within Walnut Grove Park, as part of the San Marcos sixth annual Volunteer Improvement Beautification Event, or VIBE, in San Marcos on Saturday. Heritage Park was one of several sites in San Marcos being revitalized by volunteers participating in the event. (Photo by Hayne Palmour IV - staff photographer) SAN MARCOS ---- Hundreds of North County volunteers added an ecofriendly approach to their annual day of sprucing up the homes and gardens of needy families on Saturday in San Marcos.
Some of the more than 350 participants in the city's sixth annual Volunteer Improvement Beautification Project, or VIBE, added environmentally friendly touches to the repairs and landscaping of four private homes.
Other volunteers created an ecofriendly garden outside two Victorian-era public houses at a nearby city park by using donated materials designed to promote water conservation and the creative use of recycled materials.
"It's amazing what a bunch of hands can do in one day," said Jennifer Topzand, marketing director at Pacific Marine Credit Union's corporate offices at Camp Pendleton. "You can do marvelous things."
Pacific Marine Credit Union was one of several companies that donated materials and sweat equity for the one-day event at Walnut Grove Park and surrounding neighborhoods.
"Going green" was not a clean way to spend their Saturday.
Long lines of volunteers in T-shirts, heavy gloves and jeans spent hours painting and clearing yards and park grounds of rotting boards and trash. Then they shoveled and cleared dirt to plant fire-retardant trees and bushes.
At the park, they also built the foundations for a gazebo and benches that would be made of recycled plastic bags.
San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond praised the all-volunteer community improvement partnership of area service groups, families, businesses and students from Cal State San Marcos and Palomar College.
The volunteers cheered when members of the Palomar College Fire Academy raised their hands for extraheavy lifting duty.
"This is what gives you goose bumps, when the community pulls together like this," Desmond said.
Landscape designer Greg Rubin of Escondido, the San Marcos Historical Society, Vallecitos Water District and United We Paint developed the design of the new California Native Victorian Garden at the park.
The nonprofit United We Paint, based in Carlsbad, for three years has partnered with San Marcos to host the annual event.
"This year we wanted to go green," said Jeff Zotara, executive director of United We Paint, adding that only native California, drought-resistant plants were used for the garden.
Zotara said the goal is to make what he has nicknamed the "tomorrow garden" an educational tool for visiting school children who can learn how resource conservation works.
United We Paint has overseen nearly 500 home and school makeovers in California and Florida, and the 10-year-old organization soon will expand to Colorado and Texas, Zotara said.
Businesses contributing materials and volunteers to Saturday's event in San Marcos included Grangetto's Farm & Garden Supply, UPS, EDCO Waste and Recycling Services, Allen Brothers Mortuary, Baker Electric Solar and Timberline Moulding.
Other donors included Burger King, Mr. Taco, Frito-Lay, Albertsons, Submarina, Altman Plants, Green Thumb Nursery, Diamond Environmental, Starbucks, Corner Market & Deli and Hollandia Dairy.
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