About

Hello, I’m  Vicky Bartish, Certified Arborist #WE-7445-A

Teaching people how to establish, grow and care for their trees and landscapes in a responsible, informed and sustainable way is my passion and my vision.

I wanted to be a graphic artist but life takes some strange turns and I ended up as a Registered Nurse, spending  25 years in surgical suites and emergency rooms. But  my hobby was collecting old gardening books, new gardening books, books on herbs and herbal remedies, and anything to do with trees. I decided  that someday I’d get out of the ER and into horticulture.  In what seemed to others quite a radical shift, I gave up nursing  after 27 years and  found myself working in an Ace Hardware Store’s garden department;  I asked them not to put me into the pesticides aisle, but that’s what they did and that’s why I am  a 100% organic arborist and horticulturist. I learned the hard way about the bone-chilling toxicity of these products and vowed never to use them. 

I gained great experience over time in wholesale and retail nurseries, specializing in the  (organic) establishment, care and growing of trees and landscape plants. Working in a Japanese maple nursery, my employer urged me to become a California Certified Nursery Professional and also to seek the Advanced Certification. Doing this eventually led me to serving 2 terms as President of the Superior Chapter of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers. It also made me love Japanese maples, and all trees even more. 

This practical experience , along with hundreds of hours of independent study, qualified me to sit for the Certified Arborist examination and I am proud to be a member of the International Society of Arboriculture as well as the Western Chapter of the ISA.  Keeping in line with sustainable landscape practices, I also serve on the board of EcoLandscape California, a non-profit organization commited to educating landscape professionals and the general public about the benefits of ecologically sound landscape and gardening methods.

I live in a 3 acre arboretum in Newcastle, CA– all managed without chemicals, fertilizers or herbicides, with a spectacular bird and wildlife population–the ultimate sustainable environment. I serve the Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Nevada County areas but I will  travel on occasion!

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir