The Santa Maria High School FFA earned first place in the Nursery/Landscape Judging Contest at the Allan Hancock College Field Day last weekend.
The winning team members are Melissa Lua (5 th) individually, Diana Nicolas (3 rd) individually, Evelyn Navarrete, Jessica Avendano and Haillee Perez. The competition involved eight teams and 40 contestants from all over California, according to Saint FFA Advisor Michael Guerra. “This field day showed me that hard work really does pay off and motivated me to continue
practicing my nursery & landscape skills,’’ Lua said. “I also enjoyed participating in this field day in our hometown as that was something I had never experienced. This was a great contest to kick off the spring judging season!”

The students must identify 300 plants and 100 tools during the competition. They also had to demonstrate how to properly transplant, judge and place trees, shrubs, and bedding plants as well as present oral reasons explaining to a judge the placings. Lastly, they took a general knowledge test.