By Shari Kaplan

With irregular terrain, dusty paths and few places to escape the sun, it isn't everybody's idea of paradise. But God's Little Acre nursery is as close to divine perfection as it gets for Phil and Dolores Anzalone, who opened one of Almaden Valley's best-kept secrets to the public in January 2003. From hand-grafted trees to exotic vines to organic produce—it's all here.

"It was a hobby that went wild!" Phil admits with the wide smile he wears as frequently as his trusty straw hat. Although that hobby became a retail nursery this year, the Anzalones named it eight or nine years ago, when only family, friends and close neighbors were privy to its bounty.

"We have one acre of ground, and we're Christians, and we thought it would be a great name," Phil states, adding that the 1933 Erskine Caldwell novel of the same name had nothing to do with it.

Interestingly enough, while the novel's characters ruin their property by digging it up in search of gold, the Anzalones have beautified theirs by digging of a different sort: sowing seeds and planting trees. And they've been striking gold ever since!

It all began in the mid 1930s, when Phil was born on the selfsame property. His father, Rosario Anzalone, immigrated from Sicily with a green thumb that he passed on to his son. As a child, Phil learned to grow and graft trees and grapevines and to make wine. From his mother, San Jose native Rose Cecala, he learned to make traditional cucidati (fig cookies) from—of course—the family's fig trees.

The abundance of other fruit and nut trees on the property, such as prune, apricot, quince and walnut, nourished young Phil's body as well as his interest in grafting larger specimens. He was also active in the 4-H Club, which further honed his horticultural skills.

"I've always loved gardening and grafting. I had the drive and the interest. It came naturally. As I got older, I started reading books on it. But I realized, I know this stuff already!" he recalls.

A 1951 graduate of Campbell High School (one of the few local high schools at the time; he and his siblings rode the bus every day), Phil didn't always make a living from his first love. For 25 years, he managed Lincoln Lane Foods in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood.

When the job became too stressful, he cut back his hours and became head clerk instead. Far from a loafer—he and Dolores had five children to support—Phil pursued another part-time job.

"I threw a lawn mower in the back of my car and mowed lawns!" Soon, he expanded from mere mowing into Phil's Personalized Gardening Service, which he ran from the early 1960s until his 1994 retirement. He then plowed into his nursery full-time. Dolores is retired from Immigration & Naturalization with the U.S. Department of Justice.

"I do the paperwork, research and computer stuff. We complement each other. Phil has the gardening skills, although I have them too. But I also know how to arrange things so they'll catch people's eyes," adds Dolores, whose other favorite activity is oil painting—especially flowers and seascapes.

Grafting, one of Phil's favorite activities, is something he does with the enthusiasm of a Dr. Frankenstein. It's no wonder Dolores calls one of his biggest projects the "Mad Scientist Tree."

The lush specimen had its humble beginnings as a young almond tree. Over the years, Phil kept grafting twigs and branches of other stone fruits onto it. It currently bears cultivars of apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, prunes, peachcots, pluots and cherries. There are still almond producing branches, too. The tree is especially striking in spring, when it is awash in white, pink and red blossoms—a microcosm of Santa Clara Valley's bygone "Valley of Heart's Delight" days.

Although this tree is firmly rooted in the ground, there are plenty of other grafted crafts for sale. Some are stone fruits like the Mad Scientist Tree, while others are grafted with cultivars of citrus, apple or pear.

"With my system, you don't need to worry about having several trees to serve as pollinators; you can have just one!" he says, explaining that certain fruit trees need compatible pollinators to be fertile. He's even grafted male and female kiwi vines to create a self-fruitful "hermaphrodite" of sorts.

"A lot of people don't want to give out information like this; they want to keep it to themselves or charge for it. I have a lot of information in my head and I love sharing it!" he says.

"When Phil starts talking about something, everybody comes to listen," Dolores adds with a smile. Although they don't get customers until 8 a.m., the couple usually rise at 5:45 a.m., she says, and are often watering, fertilizing, pruning or cleaning until 9 or 10 p.m.

Along with its grafted fruit trees, God's Little Acre also stocks other greenery, including rose bushes of all colors and sizes, tibouchinas, Japanese maples, boxwoods, palms, cycads, cedars, pines, crape myrtles, succulents, cacti and ornamental grasses. "Anything someone wants—if I don't have it, I can get it," Phil says.

On the other side of the nursery is a large garden filled with, among other things, 53 types of tomato (standard and heirloom), 37 types of pepper (sweet to infernal), 20 types of squash, 10 types of cucumber and six types each of eggplant and string bean. The Anzalones also grow culinary herbs and caper plants, whose pickled flower buds are an expensive delicacy.

"The garden is all organic. We don't advertise that, but it is," Dolores says. The Anzalones don't have much trouble from pests, due in part to the resident predators: ladybugs, frogs and lizards.

"My girlfriend and I are spoiled from coming here. We don't like going to the supermarket anymore!" asserts longtime customer Jeff Gledhill of Almaden Valley. "If you've got a BLT sandwich, you'd better have some of Phil's tomatoes!

He also appreciates the atmosphere he says is lacking at larger nurseries. "It's not hectic or impersonal. And Phil is great! He gets this twinkle in his eye when he's describing something he's grown, like his Lolita or papaya squashes," Gledhill says with a chuckle.

"All of our customers have become our friends. We intend to have it that way with our new customers too," Phil reflects.

New or old, customers will be pleased with the renovations the Anzalones plan to complete by autumn. These include more level ground, extended fences on both sides and a gift shop filled with gardening supplies, pottery and related items.

Even without these new touches, old customers like Gledhill say they would return anyway. "It's its own little hidden gem!" is what he calls the nursery.

The Anzalones would have to agree.

God's Little Acre Nursery is at 19810 Almaden Road. Hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays 1-6 p.m. Closed Mondays. For more information, call 408.927.8868.