What happens first when I reach out?

The process starts with a conversation about your property, your goals, and what is or is not working. That helps Orchard Keepers understand the site, identify early priorities, and determine whether the next step should be a site visit, design planning, or ongoing care.

Will you visit my property before recommending work?

After the discovery phone call, most projects benefit from a paid on-site assessment, where the team evaluates plant health, irrigation, soil, existing conditions, and how the landscape is functioning overall. That visit shapes recommendations around what your property actually needs.

When does design become part of the process?

Design becomes part of the process when a property needs more than routine care or small improvements. Orchard Keepers can develop site design plans to guide planting areas, irrigation updates, layout changes, and larger installation work with more clarity.

Does the process include ongoing care after installation?

Ongoing care can continue after installation when the property needs long-term horticultural support. That may include orchard care, garden maintenance, irrigation oversight, pruning, soil support, and seasonal attention to help the landscape establish well over time.

How does Orchard Keepers decide what the land needs?

Recommendations are based on site conditions, local growing knowledge, client goals, and the long-term health of the landscape. The process is meant to reduce guesswork and help clients make informed decisions about care, design, and installation.

Service Areas: Two Decades Across This Coast and Valley

Twenty Years of Knowing This Ground

You can't tend land well from a distance. Since 2004, Orchard Keepers has grown, built, and kept edible landscapes across Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Portola Valley, Atherton, and the greater South Bay, and two decades in these towns has taught us what no manual can: which slopes hold the fog, where the frost settles, and what ripens beautifully on one street and struggles two miles away. Explore our service areas below.

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Lemon tree loaded with ripe fruit above a stone edged bed and mulched path — Orchard Keepers

The coast and the valley are different countries, horticulturally speaking. Fog-cooled gardens near the water want different varieties, different timing, and different care than the warm inland properties over the hill.

Knowing those differences is half our craft, and it's why our service pages are local: your town's growing conditions shape everything we'd recommend for your land.

Black and white illustration of a branch with leaves and flowers.

Every Town Grows Differently

Hillside garden of dense flowering plantings below a home's raised deck — Orchard Keepers

Ornamental grass and yellow flowering shrub in a timber raised bed beside a gravel path — Orchard Keepers

Santa Cruz, CA

Our home ground. Orchard Keepers was born here, pruning fruit trees in the fog belt, and our crews have been tending the city's orchards, gardens, and landscapes ever since. Coastal Santa Cruz properties reward the right variety choices with harvests nearly year-round.

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Santa Cruz County, CA

From the redwood edges of the mountain towns to the open coast, the county holds a dozen microclimates in a morning's drive, and we've grown food in most of them. Whatever your corner of the county offers, twenty years here means we've likely tended a property like yours nearby.

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Los Gatos, CA

Where the Santa Cruz Mountains meet the valley's warmth, Los Gatos properties enjoy some of the region's most generous growing conditions. Our crews cross the hill for orchards, edible gardens, and ecological landscapes throughout the town.

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Wood deck with teal chairs overlooking a gravel patio and mixed drought tolerant plantings — Orchard Keepers

Saratoga, CA

Our relationship with Saratoga runs deep: Orchard Keepers manages the City of Saratoga's own Heritage Orchard, and we bring the same care to the home orchards and gardens of its neighborhoods. Few places better reward a well-kept fruit tree.

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Portola Valley, CA

Rural in spirit and generous in land, Portola Valley properties are made for the work we love most: orchards with room to grow, native plantings that belong to the hills, and edible landscapes that live comfortably alongside the wild.

Explore Portola Valley →

And the greater South Bay

Beyond these pages, our crews serve properties in Atherton and across the greater South Bay. If your town isn't listed, reach out; if there's an orchard or an edible landscape in your plans, chances are good we already know your growing conditions.

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Rooted Here, From the Coast to the Valley

Land is local, and so are we. Schedule a consultation for your property in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Portola Valley, Atherton, or the greater South Bay, and put twenty years of local growing knowledge to work on your ground.

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