About Jonathon Monto Owner

My Parents are chefs and artists, I learned to appreciate food and beauty at an early age which naturally led to gardening. In 2004 I was introduced to essential oils and I started to study plants with more than just culinary applications. I owned a small spa in Minneapolis Minesota, studied Native American herbal medicine with Matthew Wood for two years and made a variety of herbal products. I loved my work but wanted to inspire more people than I could reach with the spa. I decided to attend the Art Institute and study film making, worked in nonprofits for a few years.

In 2014 I was seeking more sustainability and I was drawn to Hawaii. For the first three and a half years on Big Island I lived on a beautiful 21 acre botanical retreat. I greatly expanded my love of plants with the incredible tropical varietals. I learned the fine art of radical pruning (required with year round growth) from Michael Stancliff and Davis Dalbok at Hale Mohalu. This experience grew into taking on more and more landscaping projects, and eventually expanded into treating fire ants with the business Ant Misbehavin’. Both sides of the business grew exponentially, in 2018 with nine employees I made the decision to split into two business. My manager Dale Rogers purchased the fire ant side of the business and I established the landscaping side Plant Misbehavin’. We still work very closely with each other ensuring our clients protection from the little buggers. With all my attention back on landscaping I started to focus on expanding our skill set, we started taking larger projects, concrete work, ponds, and water features. We have networked and partnered with several other tradesmen including excavators, tree climbers, contractors, plumbers, electricians, custom fabricators, nurseries, and a quarry.

Both businesses continue to grow today.