For Nearly Three Decades,
Jefferson Woeste Has Welcomed
Locals and Visitors Alike to
His Los Olivos Garden Shop,
Where Every Corner Holds a Story
Find more Fall 2025 Home & Garden stories here.
Jefferson Woeste, the owner of J. Woeste in Los Olivos, was practically born with a garden shovel in hand. By the time he was 9, he had planted his first pepper tree — an early act of devotion to the soil that would shape his life in ways only a third-generation Californian could understand.
His avó (Portuguese for grandmother), who seemed always to smell faintly of lemon verbena (she kept the leaves tucked in her apron pockets, as if they were a secret charm), was the one who first taught him to see gardening not as labor but as a kind of inheritance.
Growing up, he would watch her tend to her “fabulous” flower garden, and he would eventually do planting of his own. “I used to plant the flower beds at the house,” he recalls, “and dabbled in the backyard with different types of plants — I’ve always enjoyed it.”…