Category: 40 Year Essays

We run a nursery, so plants are pretty important, but by putting pen to paper (as it were) in this exercise, we realized their true significance lies in their (and our) relation to people and places.

Fortunate are the ones who can point to a blurry line dividing their work and play. Concerning values, rich among rich are people who enjoy their jobs. Afterall, most of our waking hours, and a good portion of our whole lives are spent at work

We’re out on a hike together, enjoying all the uphills and the downhills alike. Feeling fine, the air fresh and cool, the breeze just right, and a few clouds above to make the sky interesting. We forge ahead, glancing back occasionally to assure ourselves of our path.

The inspiration for our built environment comes from the cultural and natural histories of California. Our garden designs are inspired by nature.

But people are our real source of lasting inspiration.

If you try a lot of stuff, something’s bound to work. At Tree of Life we are singularly passionate about native plants, and with them, indeed through them, we strive to provide inspiration, information and connection to nature. But over our 40-year history, you could say we have sampled from many different flowers within one big garden.

We’re finding that to propagate plants you have to propagate passion as well. Much of the work is repetitive. It’s all done by hand. You need patience. You need intuition as well as hard facts. You can’t be discouraged by failure but you must be ecstatic with success. And you have to be willing to share your knowledge.

Unlike many farmers, we knew what we wanted to grow before we had the land to grow on. Some might buy or inherit land and then wonder what to grow, and how to do it. Forty years ago, we were certain of our goal to operate a nursery specializing in California native plants.