My husband, Barry, and I(Misty) have both loved gardening for many years. 
Over the years we have seen the cost of water rising and very few nurseries stocking plants that are drought tolerant.  I have always loved and cared for nature.  When we moved to Banning I became concerned about wildlife habitat and conserving our precious water. I fell in love the California natives in the spring we first lived here.  The flowers were so beautiful.  The seed to start a drought tolerant nursery had been planted.  Finally, after 4 years, that seed has germinated. 

Barry's college education was focused on horticulture,mine was in Physics.  A somewhat odd combination but it has seemed successful so far.  My degree taught me how to do research among other things of course.  But the ability to do research is so critical.  As many of you may know, finding reliable information about California natives as well as native plants of the south west may not be easy.  I have had to use a number of resources to gather the information that I needed to choose our plants. 

As of March 2008 I have started back to school to earn my teaching credential and a masters in teaching.  Meanwhile I will be substituting for the local school districts.  I hope to be finished with my education by July of 2009.

In November of 2008, I began my student teaching.  I love being at school but miss being able to spend more time in the nursery.  I will be student teaching until mid April, and hope to  be hired for the next school year as a math teacher.

In April, I received my teaching credentials for Science and Math. 
In July I was hired to be a 7th grade math teacher at the local middle school.  I am very excited to begin my teaching.  With this in mind, we have had to alter our hours of operation, but someday hope to be able to afford to hire someone to work full time at the nursery.  Until then we will have to make due.