Hello! My name is Keith, and I’m the Gardensmith! Or rather, that’s the profession title I’ve come up for myself. Garden construction is a wide umbrella encapsulating many images and philosophies and outcomes, but I look back on my experiences and beliefs in the realm of landscaping and it seems like an appropriate title for myself! I love building, repairing, and diagnosing things, especially things that exist in landscape and perform function and stimulate the aesthetic senses!
Some biography about me… I grew up on an island near Seattle, where from a young age I witnessed my mom tending raised beds, fruit trees, a greenhouse, and our considerable yard. This turns out to be ground zero for my horticultural tendencies, and witnessing gardening in action. We later moved to San Luis Obispo, California where I went to middle and high school. I eventually transferred to Chico State, earned a B.S. in Exercise Physiology, grappled with the question of what to do with my life and played footsie with a bunch of public service careers, and was blind to what was right in front of me for a number of years.
You see, a lot of those years I spent working as an assistant to master gardeners for side work, and I guess it turned out I was inadvertently apprenticing as a horticulturalist. While I worked for these master gardeners, I was able to pick their brains from time to time and glean bits of rationale behind method or procedure or task. Gardening is a departure from normal daily routine in that it’s a seasonal activity, and it can be a long adjustment to disconnect oneself from the instant gratification people often generally want. Gardening is a long patience.
As I dove more and more into gardening labor, I started reading soil science and gardening literature on the side. It quickly became apparent that I needed some academia in order to transcend.
Currently, I am taking horticulture coursework at Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA in order to greatly augment my landscape repertoire. I took some plant science, weed control, and irrigation design classes at Butte College before I left Chico, and will continue taking classes until I earn an A.S. in Landscape Horticulture and a Certificate in Arboriculture. I think it’s important to have both the practical experience and sound theoretical and academic framework informing what I do.
I love working outside, and take great satisfaction in a job well done. As I put each year of gardening under my belt, I develop more of an eye for pruning trees and herbaceous plants. I am more able to see those forks in the road and quickly consider courses of action.
As to my experience, I’ll rattle of a short laundry list of things I have done. I’ve operated heavy equipment (tractors, trenchers, stump grinders, large rototillers), and used a wide swathe of power tools (many electric such as extension pole saws, hedgers, pruning saws, and I’ve been gaining more experience with my personal 16″ Makita gas chainsaw). I have tons of pruning experience, faced many scenarios involving weed suppression and management, have installed garden beds and walkways, and tons more!
I look back on the last several years and am happy with the friendships I’ve fostered with clients, and would even characterize myself as a son to some of the people I’ve worked for. I’m a one-man entity; I have a pickup truck, lots of tools, and a healthy motivation to solve problems! I think I work hard (but smarter, more importantly), and would love to hear about your project! If any or all of what I said resonated with you, feel free to reach out to me to start a conversation about your garden!
