Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Tony Tomeo has been giving away trees and shrubs for years, and the town has been a major beneficiary.

Neighbors call Tony Tomeo Johnny Appleseed

By Miriam Eljas

Tony Tomeo can't recall a time when he wasn't planting or involved with the soil in some way. The first time his uncle explained the mystery of seeds to him, he thought it was the greatest thing he ever heard. "I kept planting, and my father thought it was weeds. He kept pulling them out, and I kept planting," Tomeo says.

Now 31, Tomeo is still planting with a passion. And Los Gatos is reaping the benefits. On July 12, Tomeo, who lives on Carlton Avenue, celebrated his birthday by planting 31 redwood trees in Live Oak Manor Park near his neighborhood.

That wasn't the only time the town benefited from his passion for sharing plants. Six months ago Tomeo approached the Los Gatos Parks and Public Works Department with 200 rhododendrons from the nursery where he worked in Scotts Valley. The colorful bushes, no longer in perfect condition, were on their way to being tossed when Tomeo stepped in and saved them.

Together with Parks and Public Works Department Supervisor Tim Boyer, Tomeo had 120 rhododendrons planted at the Pageant Grounds behind Town Hall and 80 at Oak Meadow Park.

"We didn't even know what colors the flowers were going to be," Boyer says. "When they bloomed, it was beautiful. Next year ought to be even better than this year because the plants were damaged by the transportation," Boyer says.

Driving through town, passersby will inevitably see some of Tomeo's work--everywhere he goes, he leaves things growing behind him. "San Jose is my next victim," Tomeo threatens, plotting to make the Bay Area into a greener, shadier place.

However, Tomeo's tree-planting spirit isn't limited to Northern California. When he and his friend Brent Greene were studying horticulture at Cal-Poly in San Luis Obispo, they would travel down to Los Angeles on weekends and plant trees in shadeless spots.

To this day, city officials are still wondering who planted the trees on little patches of land around the city for which neighbors were thanking the city government.

It was Greene, in fact, who inspired Tomeo to make the birthday planting of redwoods. When Greene turned 30, he planted 30 redwoods in a Los Angeles park.

Sharing the wealth is part of Tomeo's philosophy. When working with citrus fruits at a nursery, Tomeo managed to donate the leftover fruits to several shelters. "The homeless were eating all these exotic fruits that you and I don't usually eat," he says with a chuckle.

Even Tomeo's home has become a gardening center for his neighborhood. The back yard of his four-plex has been converted into a nursery filled with potted plants that he gives away periodically. Ask any of Tomeo's neighbors about the "Johnny Appleseed of Carlton Avenue," as he is known to some, and they will surely tell of the numerous times Tomeo has lifted their spirits with a gift of a flower or a tree.

"I was really low, and he planted two good-sized trees in front of my house. He does things out of the kindness of his heart," says his neighbor, Ann Rugsted. "He's always giving plants away. He can't stand to see a living thing wasted."

College was the only thing that could take Tomeo out of his happy planting grounds. He returned to the Los Gatos community after graduating in 1990 from Cal-Poly with a bachelor's degree in horticulture.

"You don't go into a field like this for money," explains Tomeo, who has found it difficult to make a living through working at various Bay Area nurseries.

This past June Tomeo started his own business as a horticulture consultant, though opening his own nursery is his true aspiration. Land prices and availability make it nearly impossible for Tomeo to do so, however.

"I really miss working with my rhododendrons at the nursery, but it's hard to get by only working in nurseries. My family has been here a long time and I don't want to leave, but if I want to open my own nursery, I just might have to."

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