The Keepers Behind the Orchards
Rooted in Santa Cruz, Growing Across the Greater South Bay
Orchard Keepers began with one person pruning fruit trees and a conviction that a landscape could feed the people who live on it, the creatures that visit it, and the soil beneath it, all at once. Since 2004, that conviction has grown into a team of horticulturists, builders, and gardeners caring for hundreds of home orchards and edible landscapes across Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Portola Valley, Atherton, and the greater South Bay.
The company took root when its founder, trained in sustainable agriculture from Italy to Wisconsin to UCSC's famed farm and garden, began pruning fruit trees around Santa Cruz and called the work what it was: orchard keeping.
Twenty years on, the name still tells the truth. We've grown to design, build, and tend whole landscapes, but every service we offer traces back to that first craft, the patient keeping of living things.
Our Story Starts With the Trees
What We Believe
Our mission is to create healthy, enjoyable, and beautiful outdoor spaces while keeping faith with three commitments.
01
Client Experience
Clear, timely communication and relationships that grow as smoothly as the projects do.
02
Environmental Stewardship
Working with natural processes to reduce the energy-intensive habits that pervade our industry, a commitment recognized by our California Green Business Network membership since 2017.
03
Employee culture
A trained, supported, career-minded team, because the people who tend your land are the heart of everything we do.
Keep Exploring
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A surfer turned scientist, hydrologist turned habitat builder, farmer turned fine gardener: our team's paths to this work are as varied as the properties we tend, and every one of them runs through a love of growing things. Come meet the people who'll greet your land like an old friend.
Meet the Team
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Every project follows the same steady arc: we listen first, design together, build with craft, and stay for the seasons that follow. It's a process shaped by twenty years of learning what the land and the people on it actually need.
View Our Process
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We believe knowledge belongs in our clients' hands, not just our crew's. Our Education & Stewardship journal shares what we're learning in the field, and our Cultivation Guides put decades of practical orchard wisdom, from pruning calendars to pest prevention, a click away.
Read the Journal
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From our home in Santa Cruz, we care for properties across the region: Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Portola Valley, and throughout the greater South Bay. Explore our service areas to see the work we're doing near you.
Explore Our Service Areas
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From what a first visit looks like to how our maintenance partnerships work, our FAQ gathers the questions we hear most, answered plainly.
Read Our FAQs
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We're always looking for exceptional people who want to make a career of this work: hands in the soil, fundamentals of horticulture, and a team that takes real care of its own, with health insurance and retirement benefits for full-time staff.
Join Our Team
Santa Cruz Roots, Tended for the Long Run
A company named for keeping should keep its promises. Schedule a consultation and find out what twenty years of orchard keeping can do for your property in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Portola Valley, Atherton, or the greater South Bay.