To tell the truth, Sal Geneto's first impression of UC Davis--the South Gate entrance off Interstate 80--was less than impressive."I thought, 'With the reputation of being one of the premiere universities and on the cutting edge of technology, vet medicine, medicine, science and agriculture, this must be an awesome place,'" Geneto says. Instead, the prospective applicant for grounds manager drove along the curving south-campus entrance seeing spotty landscaping struggling to grow."I didn't see a consistent display of plants nor did I see a great deal of real, inviting color," Geneto recalls, recognizing a problem that the budget-strapped campus has been contending with for years.Geneto says his reaction triggered a valuable insight. "It tells me the perspective of students who come here for the first time," he says. "This is a great place, but you have to be on the inside to appreciate its beauty."As the new grounds manager at UC Davis, Geneto has a ready-made agenda: designing and creating a showcase entrance for the university that matches the quality of its already extensive 1,049 acres of intensive on-campus landscaping. Of course, the gateway is just the opening of this Fresno landscape professional's plans for cultivating the garden that is UC Davis. Among Geneto's plans are: Finding a solution to the annual Quad lawn demolition by pedestrians--he suggests mixing granular rubber into the soil to relieve the compacting; Developing a comprehensive management plan for the campus's 14,000 trees that will include health assessments, ages and time to replace, and a nutrition program; * Forging coalitions with departments so that employees have colorful landscape in their working environment; Creating a volunteer community support group that complements the Friends of the Arboretum (Geneto calls the group the Horticorps); and Featuring the campus's groundskeepers as well as faculty experts in a series of brown-bag lunches to teach employees more about gardening. "Sal Geneto brings a unique combination of talents to UC Davis," says his boss, George Reyes, administrator for Facilities' Environmental Services division. "He has technical expertise in landscape and turfmanagement and a record of working in a university setting with constituency groups--students, community gardening groups, academic units and private enterprise--to accomplish a variety of landscape plans."The way Geneto explains it, UC Davis is the opportunity he's been seeking in the 14 years of his career as a grounds manager. A native of Fresno who grew up helping his family farm figs, alfalfa and cotton, Geneto has worked for the Clovis Unified School District, Fresno Pacific College and at California State University, Fresno. He holds a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco. Coming from a centralized budget system at California State University where financial decisions are made from the chancellor's office, Geneto says he looks forward to working where a campus has more discretion in budgeting. Geneto says he is optimistic about cultivating additional sources of funding and volunteer labor throughout the Sacramento area. He's already developed the program fliers for volunteer programs and activities that would offer opportunities for joining a docent program or helping with garden maintenance and landscape plantings, design, tree surveys and fund raising. Warren Roberts, acting director and superintendent of the University Arboretum, says he welcomes Geneto's plan as a complement to similar programs at the arboretum. Geneto wants to make use of the talents of his grounds crew, many with a background in design, sculpting bushes into decorative shapes and other landscape specialties. Not only does he expect them to be going beyond maintenance to creating more landscaped areas, but he hopes that they have something to teach the rest of the community. The job of being a landscape manager is both offering people "image enjoyment" and an education, according to Geneto. That philosophy played out at the recent winter home and gardening show at Cal Expo.With the help of a dozen volunteers from the Grounds Division, Geneto set up a UC Davis booth. UC Davis gave away more than 1,000 cork-oak seedlings. The UC Davis representatives also passed out fliers inviting people to come to UC Davis and see what they can learn about landscaping from the campus and arboretum resources. "The campus has 14,000 trees," Geneto points out. "People can come see a mature specimen before they buy one."Geneto also hopes to continue and expand the tradition of working with interested units who want to improve their landscaping. He sees his department could offer options: his crews could provide the materials and supervise volunteers, or units could donate funds--"at a minimal cost" and his department could do the work. "I think people respond to having color around," he says.