Staff

grew up with a strong love of nature and gardening further enhanced by working on farms. His passion for plants, sustainable agriculture, and PermaCulture brought him to Harlequin’s Gardens, where he is thrilled to be among people who share his values. Alexander loves to help others and feels that gardening is a great way to see and understand the need for a partnership of mutual nurturing with nature.

originals hails from El Salvador, but has been a mainstay at Harlequin’s for 14 years–propagating, potting up and keeping our plants beautiful. Back in El Salvador he has a coffee farm with cows and other animals, as well as a loving wife. Alfredo grew up on his grandfather’s dairy farm where he began learning to take care of plants and animals, and we feel blessed his skills grace us now.

spent seven years farming on the East Coast before returning to her Colorado roots. After two years at Harlequin’s and with Boulder County Parks and Open Space, she now runs a micro-farming/landscaping business, Left Hand Landscaping, and helps facilitate the Boulder Permaculture Design Course. She helps here with special projects and on Saturdays at retail. Fun fact – Amy is fluent in Swahili!

loves the chance to help Harlequin’s Gardens Wholesale customers learn about plants right for Colorado. She is grateful for all she is learning in return from her colleagues and customers at Harlequin’s. A long-time teacher and advocate for organic gardening methods, Ann also has interests in regenerative agriculture and gardening to nourish the living soil; tap-dancing; cooking nourishing whole grain food; sleeping; and (ahem) accounting.

fell in love with the natural world as a young boy in New York, filling his bedroom with plants and wandering in his front yard, aka Central Park. He has planted roses and herb gardens everywhere he’s lived, in France, DC and eleven different states, on his journey to become a specialized generalist. Working as a chef, restaurateur, operations manager, gardener, designer, teacher, lecturer, writer, and consultant, what has connected all his diverse interests and occupations is a desire to help others connect to something larger than themselves—call it nature, the divine, or what-have-you. As Harlequin’s Office Manager he strives to help keep our business growing and flourishing, while also delighting in sharing his knowledge of Biodynamics, PermaCulture and sustainable food systems.

may not often be seen  at the nursery, but she’s indispensable. A landscape architect with an emphasis in ecological practices and a longtime Harlequin staffer, creates and writes our informative and beautiful weekly e-newsletters, and maintains our ever-growing customer database!

with a degree in Urban Horticulture and decades of gardening experience, Engrid has been on our staff for many years. Engrid launched our beekeeping supply business and is also one of our custom-propagators, providing us with lots of organic vegetable and annual flower starts from her business Haystack Gardens’ greenhouse.

spent 20 years as the head propagator at Country Lane Wholesale Nursery, before helping establish Harlequin’s Gardens Wholesale, which supplies the retail operation, local governments, and landscapers with pesticide-free plants. He has a special interest in and is extremely knowledgeable about edible and medicinal native plants. When not managing operations “down below” in wholesale he’s probably out in the woods finding mushrooms or other delights.

Co-Owner of Harlequin’s Gardens with her husband Mikl, is the plant nerd in the family. Passionate about studying, growing, and drawing plants for as long as she remembers. Prior to joining Mikl, she pursued careers in landscape architecture, botanical illustration, and custom picture framing. She leads development of the vision of the nursery, plant propagation planning, seed and plant ordering, seed collection, writing for our e-newsletters, marketing, curating our Holiday Gift Markets, and so much more!

spent 30 years at the Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment, solving numerous environmental /ecological issues. Now he spends his time in his greenhouse, grape vineyard and vegetable garden, which he’s developed for over 25 years. Jeff not only has a horticultural degree but has a greenhouse legacy with both his grandfather and mother having managed greenhouses. We’re delighted we have him to share his knowledge and opinions with Harlequin’s customers.

has worked at Harlequin’s Gardens for eight years. We’re grateful for all he does behind the scenes keeping everything healthy.  He loves to watch plants grow, and has been gardening since he was a teenager back in El Salvador.

our resident beekeeper and entomologist has an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in honey bee behavior genetics from CU.  She opened her first beehive 35 years ago and has been hooked on bees ever since.  Beekeeping has taken her to 5 states, Mexico, Brazil, and Canada.  While living in Washington she co-owned a pollination business with both honey and mason bees. Currently she keeps about 10 of her own hives and with her business,  Beehave, mentors beekeepers along the Front Range. She manages our Bee Barn, and can answer your questions about both native and honey bees and the equipment to keep them along with sharing her extensive horticultural knowledge.

a woman of many talents – playwright, communication coach, violinist, certified herbalist. But it was her love of gardening that brought her to us and we’re grateful to have her here on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays helping to answer gardeners’ questions.

got his initial training along the creeks and woods of eastern Iowa. He studied biology at the University of Iowa, then went to India with the Peace Corps. Back in America, he managed a small organic apple orchard, and started a tree care business. Studying plants, researching alternatives to pesticides, and developing a xeriscape garden led him from the tree tops to a plant nursery. Now the evolving Harlequin’s Gardens is his life-work, helping the gardening community to bring nature into their personal lives and homes using sustainable plants, materials and methods. His current passion is soil health, and designing an energy-efficient greenhouse. He was honored with the 2009 PaceSetter Award for the Environment.

loves to learn and to teach. She’s passionate about all things related to gardening, food and community, with a background in fine art. Most of the week, ML works in Denver with the non-profit Earthlinks gardening program for people experiencing homelessness but we’re delighted that she’s able to fit working at Harlequin’s into her schedule.

brings a degree from CU in Environmental Studies; a background in communications; and leadership in the non-profit sector to Harlequin’s. She’s quickly learning about our plants at a rapid clip and her smart, helpful and cheerful energy delights customers and coworkers alike.

energetically joined our team this spring, bringing a passion  for gardening and sustainability to his work at Harlequin’s. A North Carolinian with a love of plants and knowledge of machines, he’s  a great asset, operating our equipment to transport soil products and make our special mixes.

has degrees in fine arts and landscape architecture and spent 25 years teaching university courses in both areas. Concurrently she managed a landscape design practice bridging the art of design and sustainability. Born in India, Rebecca developed a special interest in plants of the Himalayas and now, having moved to Colorado, in Rocky Mountain natives. If you’ve noticed beautiful and informative descriptive plant signs of late, it’s thanks to Rebecca!

a Loveland, Colorado native, recently moved back the Pacific Northwest. He graduated with his PermaCulture certificate 2 years ago and loves finding creative solutions to home and garden issues in the dry West, especially water catchment and dryland permaculture solutions. Ross welcome to Harlequins and Welcome Home!

is board-certified holistic nutritionist, owner of MBS Functional Nutrition, with a strong background in herbs. In addition to her wealth of nutritional knowledge she brings  Susan is a knowledgeable and energetic addition to Harlequin’s. When not here, she also helps out at WeeBee Farms, Dharma’s Garden, and Earth’s Table. Susan’s teaching degree and background in the airlines (remember TWA?!) have taken her to many places around the world.