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Jonathan Castro
Owner of Texoma Landscapes
Jonathan is a graduate of Austin College with post graduate work from Texas A&M University. He is a landscape designer, licensed irrigator, horticulturist and a water gardening expert. Aquascape Designs has honored him as the 45th top pond builder in the United States. He and his wife Cameron, a Registered Nurse, have one son and three daughters.
Jonathan was green before green was cool. Twenty-five years ago, he started Texoma Landscapes out of his backyard at his home on Luckett Street in Sherman. Our philosophy at Texoma Landscapes and Garden Center has always been balance and working with Mother Nature. Having a formal horticultural background, from such mentors as Neil Sperry, Jonathan learned early on how much damage can be done with horticultural chemicals, both privately and commercially. Having learned that the Texoma area is very diversified and historical, Jonathan set out to change from a chemically dependent philosophy to one that has a much longer heritage in the area.
Presently Jonathan is actively involved in planning “Greenfest” in 2008. This will be a world’s fair style exposition of new technology and lifestyle that is oriented toward the green industry, such as renewable energy, sustainable lifestyles, and lessening our carbon foot print. This event is planned to be held at Grayson County College’s Van Alstyne campus, in cooperation with Austin College and many private and commercial entities, this event is presently taking form and Jonathan encourages that anyone that has any interest in the futures of our environment to get involved. The driving organization behind the “Green fest” is CORE (Citizens Organizing for Resources and Environment).
Having worked with aquatics and water features for the last fifteen years, Jonathan helped form the Greater Texoma Water Garden Association, and was the first to implement the Parade of Ponds in this area.
Jonathan is often teased by his children when people on the street ask if they are related to the “guy on television”. January of 2008 will mark end of the second year of KXII’s Texoma Gardening hosted by Lisanne Anderson and Jonathan Castro, which reaches the homes of 45,000 people on a weekly basis. In the weekly segments, Jonathan illustrates the importance of gardening with native adaptive plants and how to plant them in the right place (i.e. shade, sun, drainage, moisture). Jonathan says that knowing our soil conditions and the vast diversity of the beneficial organisms found in the living soil is what really matters. “Building beauty naturally is what we do best at Texoma Landscapes and Garden Center.”