About Us

Marcy was the lead propagator and chief water-wand wielder at the nursery for many years, until Jimmy’s retirement, and she has a special interest in native plants that provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. Formerly a wild bird rehabilitator in northeast Ohio, since relocating to the Southwest 25 years ago she has been particularly fascinated with the area’s hummingbirds and their flowering plants. After years of intensive research, she produced a comprehensive book on native hummingbird plants of the Southwest that was published in 2015 (Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest, Rio Nuevo Publishers). Previous to that, during her time as a wildlife rehabilitator, she compiled comprehensive info on species-specific dietary requirements for recuperating birds, and ultimately published a directory of natural and substitute foods for birds in captivity called “Songbird Diet Index,” self-published in 1993 and since acquired by the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association. More recently, Marcy also co-wrote, along with Trish Cutler and Rob Wu, a booklet about common birds of the area and important native plants to support them titled “The Mesilla Valley Backyard Guide: Creating Habitat for Birds and Pollinators,” which was published in 2023. She and Jimmy have planted over three hundred trees and shrubs on their property designed to attract and provide for birds, and to date they have recorded 275 different bird species, along with 14 mammals, 22 reptiles and amphibians, and 67 butterfly species.

Jimmy graduated from Texas Tech University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Science in Land Use and Resource Planning. His master’s thesis, Planning Strategies and Guidelines for Watershed Urbanization, was a study of the Lake Worth watershed west of Fort Worth, Texas, and how to mitigate the impacts of urbanization on the watershed. Returning to El Paso, he worked at a local nursery where he promoted and encouraged the sale and use of native and resource-efficient plants and also pursued freelance landscape design. He has been implementing what he learned in his graduate studies in his landscape design work to “harvest” rainwater to reduce runoff, benefit landscape plantings, and reduce water use. In 1996 he started Zabriskie Landscape Design and Installation and in 2002 moved north of Las Cruces. In 2017 Jimmy was hired as the new Community Forester for The City of Las Cruces, while still maintaining his design and consulting services and helping with operating Robledo Vista Nursery, which he and Marcy founded in 2009. Jimmy retired from the City in January of 2023 and now only does a limited amount of design and consultation work. Some of his larger projects include consultation, installation supervision, and redesign work for the Helen of Troy corporate headquarters, design and installation supervision of Redd Rock Center, and landscape consultation for the Whole Foods center, all in west El Paso, Texas. He designed and installed a pollinator garden for a building at White Sands Missile Range and designed several pollinator gardens at the NASA test facility in Doña Ana County, NM. The bulk of his designs have been resource-efficient residential landscapes. Three of his residential designs have won awards from the El Paso Water Utilities and two were featured in the book Native Texas Gardens by Sally and Andy Wasowski, published in 1997. One of his Las Cruces designs was a featured yard in the 2006 garden tour. His design philosophy is to create colorful, resource-efficient landscapes, using water harvesting techniques and selecting native and adaptable plants. He has 36 years of experience designing resource-efficient landscapes in the area. Jimmy enjoys birdwatching, photography, hiking and piddling in their acre of wooded habitat.