GILROY
– Goldsmith Seeds’ Head Gardener, Gilroy resident Charlie
Wysocki, retired on June 11 after 24 years of maintaining the
60-acre facility.
GILROY – Goldsmith Seeds’ Head Gardener, Gilroy resident Charlie Wysocki, retired on June 11 after 24 years of maintaining the 60-acre facility.
“I miss it already,” says the 64-year-old gardener as he strolls around the grounds, telling jokes and stories about the plants.
He’s proudest of an ivy geranium, a vine with pink and white blossoms creeping over a giant round ceramic planter.
“That took me three years alone,” he said, to guide the branches to act more like individual vines than a bush.
As much as he enjoys plants, Charlie doesn’t keep a personal garden.
“My house is a dump,” he said.
He added that after spending a long day working on the gardens, he doesn’t want to continue it at his house. Currently his energy is directed toward caring for his new golden retriever and his cat. He and his wife, Ginny, never had children.
Wysocki’s other hobbies include fishing, football and traveling, but much of his spare time is spent helping his friends and co-workers with their gardens.
Actually, when Wysocki was first hired, he knew very little about flowers. For 16 years, he had sprayed, watered and mowed at various golf courses but had minimal experience with planting and pruning. However, he learned quickly, and now he says that he loves watching a tiny seed sprout into a bud and then grow into a “nice big flower.”
“I can honestly say that I saw this company grow,” he said.
Born in Connecticut, Wysocki, moved to the Gilroy in 1976, and has seen the Bay Area grow as well.
“When I first started here, I could look out on those hills there … and see as many as 17 deer up there,” he said, pointing to the brown hills across the road from Goldsmith’s.
He said that after construction started on the other side of the hill, they all disappeared.
Wysocki is excited about leaving behind certain aspects of city life, especially traffic. He and his wife plan to move to Puget Sound in Washington State after their house sells. It’s an area that his wife stayed at while she was in the Navy, and Wysocki said that the two of them fell in love with it. The best part, according to Wysocki, is that their new house is an hour and a half from the freeway.
“I hate the freeway,” he laughed.
