Who We Are

Michael Martin Melendrez and Kari Melendrez, founders and owners of the Arboretum Tomé, Trees That Please and Soil Secrets, have made it their life’s work doing what’s right in the Green Industry.  By first encouraging their nursery customers to purchase only plant material that is suited to the climate and soils they have, Michael’s business is the industry leader in the Southwest in growing native trees of the Chihuahuan Desert Region.  Michael is a published author on the subject of plants of the Southwest and is recognized worldwide in the scientific community for his expertise in this subject.  Trees That Please is one of the oldest nursery tree farms in New Mexico and was the first to explore growing the native hardwoods of the Chihuahuan Desert Region and has been doing so for over two decades.

Since Michael and Kari consider all the trees produced at TTP special and precious, they demand that their customers have the best soil and plant fertility program possible.  This started Michael on his quest to develop the protocol that has led to the founding of Soil Secrets.  Michael started with the soil back in 1967 while a member of 4-H, doing his annual projects on Soil Restoration.  In 1974 while a student in college, Michael wrote the paper – ‘Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web’, which is perhaps the first time ever the phase was used.  The paper is copyrighted and has been revised many times to keep it accurate, as the knowledge in the field has expanded.

In 1987 Michael and Kari started the Arboretum Tomé collection, which today is the largest collection of trees, both exotic and native to the Chihuahuan Desert Region, of any collection private or public in the Southwest.  The site started as a poor soil of Saline Clay without much promise and with a large area that had been treated with a soil sterilant.  Today, Michael and Kari can grow any plant they want, as long as it’s tolerant of our zone 6 for cold hardiness.  A virtual paradise, today the Arboretum Tomé is visited by explorers and lovers of trees from all over the world. 

Michael’s vision or mission with his three entities Soil Secrets,  Trees That Please and the Arboretum is on a regional as well as national and international level.  First is the regional objective which is to restore the natural vegetation of New Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert to its pre European colonial period. The Chihuahuan Desert is one of the most diverse Ecotones on earth with more native hardwoods then any other bioregion in the continental United States.  With over 400 years of grazing, logging, plowing, fuel wood gathering etc., desertification has taking over most of the regions Woodland Savannahs.  Michael’s dream is to work on bringing the natural vegetation back into balance.  To succeed we must first restore the natural biology of the soil by introducing cultured humus inoculated with indigenous soil microorganisms – See Michael’s paper on the Simple Truths.