Tri-Valley Water Conservation Art Contest Voting!
May 1st - 10th
HABITAT HEROES: TRANSFORMING LAWNS INTO VIBRANT NATIVE GARDENS!
It’s time to vote for your favorite piece of art in this year’s Tri-Valley Water Conservation Art Contest! Students were tasked with creating any form of visual artwork showcasing the importance of swapping traditional grass lawns for a beautiful water-wise garden using naturally drought-resistant plants that are native to California. Student projects should highlight the importance of using native plant species to support healthy habitats around them.
How it works
The finalists’ art is displayed below in alphabetical order by name, with the title of the project, grade, school, and a self-written description of their masterpieces. Scroll through the artwork and click each piece to enlarge the image(you will need to push the play button to view the video projects). Once you find the artwork you feel did the best job of highlighting the theme of Habitat Heroes: Transforming Lawns into Native Gardens, scroll to the bottom and use the dropdown menu to select your corresponding piece.
Voting is open May 1st – 10th. Each person can vote only once. Please note that multiple votes from the same email address will not be tallied.
The student with the most votes will be the grand prize winner of a brand new iPad!
Thank you to everyone who participated, and congratulations to all of these amazing finalists! We hope to see you all participate again next year!
My School’s Magical Garden
by Aaditya Rukesh, Kindergarten, Dublin Elementary School
My school lawn was just green. our class decided to make it colorful so we made it. My teacher got flowers, seeds and rocks. Me and my friends made our school garden. Now, my school lawn is not just green! It’s a rainbow! It’s the best lawn ever! I like to run on it! And jump on it! And smell the flowers! Daily we see butterflies, bugs and warms on our school garden.
Submit vote for this Art Piece
Small Heaven
by Anna Kim, 11th Grade, Foothill High School
Small Haven depicts a beautiful garden full of native plants contrasting a lawn next door. While the lawn wastes water with its sprinklers and appears almost flat, the native garden has a variety of textures that provide visual interest, helps pollinators, provides beauty for the homeowner, and reduces the need for water – all traits of native gardens in the real world.
Submit vote for this Art Piece
From Lawns to Lively Native Gardens
by Annika Majumder, 4th Grade, Kolb Elementary School
My artwork focuses on transforming ordinary, simple grassy areas into vibrant, native gardens overflowing with a variety of plants. It highlights the pure contrast between a lush, colorful garden and a plain, monotone lawn.
Submit vote for this Art Piece
Save water–plant native!
by Derek Sun, 6th grade, Windemere Ranch Middle School
In my illustration, California native plants collaborate to transform a parched lawn into a thriving native garden. It emphasizes the importance of choosing drought-resistant, native plants by showcasing their symbiotic relationship with insects and the environment. Through this transformation, the artwork highlights how sustainable planting benefits both nature and the ecosystem.
Submit vote for this Art Piece
Native Gardens
by Elvy Beltran, 8th Grade, Junction Avenue K-8 School
My artwork best fits the contest theme because it promotes people to plant native gardens. Also, using plants that are native to the bay area.
Submit vote for this Art Piece
Garden of California Poppy
by Katherina Wu, 10th grade, Granada High School
This drawing shows a garden of California poppies, which are native plants to California being pollinated by bees. It shows the importance of these native plants to support healthy habitats as other species, such as bees, benefit from the flowers being in people’s gardens instead of just regular lawn grass.
Submit vote for this Art Piece
Bellus Gard
by Katie Kim, 11th Grade, Foothill High School
The art piece represents a fruitful garden, filled with native plants such as poppies, a fuchsia shrub, purple western morning glory flowers, mountain violets, deer grass and a sycamore tree. As well as conserving water, this garden provides homes to local wildlife and encourages pollination. Not only does this show how it has a positive impact on the environment, it also presents the possibility of having a beautiful scenic view of mother nature, straight from one s backyard.
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Transforming your lawn into the garden of your dreams
by Madison Loeffler, 5th Grade, Our Savior
Conserve water without having a lawn, and instead create a habitat for native insects and flowers. Acrylic and oil paints on canvas.
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California Wild Rose
by Matteo Jara, 1st grade, Acton Academy East Bay
This flower is native to California and naturally drought-resistant.
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Let’s transform lawn into habitat garden
(*video piece)
by Nina Wang, 4th Grade, Alisal Elementary School
I draw 27 pictures for this video, including many California native plants. This is a story about residents transforming their lawn to habitat garden.
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Native garden leads to happy life
by Nivriti Ulavapalli, 5th Grade, Art Process
Instead of having lawns full of grass, you can grow plans that are native , don’t need much water. A great way to save water.
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Fruits and flowers front liners
by Pushti Mohta, 2nd Grade, Mohr Elementary
Our artwork celebrates the beauty and importance of creating water-wise gardens with native plants. Featuring monarch butterflies, bumblebees, and sweet bees, along with flowers like dandelions and the vital Milkweed plant, it showcases how these plants support pollinators and contribute to a healthy ecosystem. By swapping thirsty grass for California’s native species, we can conserve water while helping sustain wildlife habitats
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My Beautiful Backyard
by Reva Gupta, 9th Grade, Dublin High School
My pen-and-ink artwork illustrates a thriving native garden filled with colorful California wildflowers, drought-resistant plants, and animals like butterflies, bees, frogs, and more. It highlights how native plants conserve water while creating a vibrant habitat for local wildlife. This piece aligns with the contest s theme by showcasing the beauty and environmental benefits of replacing thirsty lawns with sustainable, water-wise landscapes.
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Rewilding the Future
by Sharmila Vepa, 8th Grade, Joe Michell K- 8 School
It is a vibrant transformation of a boring unsustainable water-thirsty garden into a thriving beautiful garden filled with native plants like poppies, irises, oak, native grass, toyons, and clarkias.
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Thriving Beauty
by Solomon Nguyen, 8th Grade, St. Raymond
By replacing unhealthy, dry grass with vibrant native California Poppies and Woolly Blue Curls, it not only enhances the visual beauty of California landscapes but also provides vital support for the ecosystem, specifically aiding the well-known California pollinators, the busy bees, to thrive. This results in an all-encompassing, beneficial success for both nature and aesthetics, exemplifying the true beauty that is California.
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Habitat Heroes: Transforming Lawns into Native Garden
by Souparnika Kiran, 3rd Grade, Lawrence Elementary
The artwork shows a superhero transforming a dull, dry lawn into colorful and vibrant native garden. On the left side, the land looks dry with wilting plants, while right, superhero has planted beautiful flowers and big green tree.The scene is bright and cheerful, with smiling bees, butterflies and a happy sun, reminding everyone to save water and plant native gardens
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Restore Native Plants!! Restore Native Ecosystem!!
by Viraj Gupta, 1st grade, Altamont Creek Elementary School
My artwork shows landscape design for a colorful lawn planted with several native trees and plants. It fits the contest theme as it shows how we can create colorful lawns using native plants . The artwork also highlights benefits of having native plants. It depicts that native plants attract local pollinators and help our ecosystem thrive.The artwork mentions names of all the trees, plants shown on the drawing along with the species of bird and butterflies they attract.
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