JIMMY GONZALES
Jimmy Gonzales is a native Santa Fean who grew up learning the landscaping trade by working in his father’s business as a young man. In earlier times, when people didn’t move as frequently as they do now, landscaping a property was often a multi-year project. Jimmy and his dad would plant a section of the garden or some trees one year, then come back and plant more over the years as families grew up. Landscapers and their clients developed long-term relationships. Jimmy remembers when most business in Santa Fe was done on a handshake, and your word was your bond. As a native and someone who has worked here most of his life, Jimmy has long-term relationships with both clients and people in related businesses here. Integrity in his work and in his relationships with people is a principle he has always lived by.
In his 20’s Jimmy learned welding, earning a variety of certifications and working for several years at Kirtland Air Force Base. He now has his own metal shop where he can create many custom landscaping elements that other companies must often contract out.
After his time at Kirtland, he came back to help his father with the landscaping business and eventually took over the business when his father retired. He earned an irrigator’s license and has followed the trend from using mostly sprinkler systems to using mostly drip irrigation nowadays, working on sites that vary from small city courtyards to large estates. With his experience and training, he is able to both design new systems and trouble-shoot and upgrade old systems.
Jimmy learned how to work on his vehicles and equipment at an early age, and now operates and maintains a fleet of trucks, including two cranes, as well as a tractor and other equipment. (He also rides a mint-condition motorcycle in his scant spare time.)
At the tree farm that he and his father started over twenty years ago in Espanola, Jimmy stores and maintains trees for use throughout the season, as well as growing some trees on to larger, “specimen” size. His experience as a grower and transplanter of both nursery-grown and collected native trees is unparalleled. The farm is on a traditional acequia system, so Jimmy’s landscaping knowledge is enhanced by his experience as an acequia parciante and by the plumbing he designed and installed on the farm property in order to be able to use the acequia water most efficiently.
With his experience in landscape installation and garden building in Santa Fe and the surrounding areas, Jimmy is very familiar with the regional climate, plants and soils, not to mention the equipment and the materials suppliers—he knows what it takes to make a good garden here.
