Our new web site is on the way while we are trying to set up our new store location. I thank all of our friends, clients and vendors for their patience while we move forward.
Neighborhood Nursery is undergoing a name change from it previously being Las Tunas Nursery. We decided on an easier name for newcomers to remember us since we are no longer on Las Tunas Dr. Our number has also changed. Our new, temporary, number is 626-625-0481 and ask for the nursery or the landscaping division.
Suddenly losing our lease for the nursery at 1155 E Las Tunas after 15 years in business was a shock to us. We want to stay in the San Gabriel Valley to support all those who helped us grow from an undeveloped piece of land under the Edison Right of Way, to the thriving business we built.
We are searching out properties in Pasadena at this time.
Thank you for your continued support.
Frank
Grape vines can be used in many interesting ways. We most often see them in images from wine growing areas and have them at home growing up a lattice or chain link fence. But what if you use them not only for food, but to produce a cool shade or as a fast growing screen on a fence?
Although very fast growing in season, with little effort, the vines can be kept under control and can be used very nicely as an informal hedge-with some support, or to provide summer shade on an arbor or pergola. To produce the best fruit and to help reduce mildew, it is best to grow the plants in full sun.
Here is a vine grown for wine production.
 Grape Vines In Orchard With Fruit and Foliage This is the structure of the vine when it is deciduous, or has lost its foliage in the winter.
 Grape Vines In Orchard With No Fruit and Foliage Showing Structure An older vine supported on a wire can add interesting branching structure, try this at home.
 Mature Grape Vines In Orchard Here are example of grapes grown on an overhead wire structure and pergola.
 Grape Vines Can Be Grown On an Overhead Wire Structure  Grape Vines on Pergola Can Provide Fruit and Shade This European city uses much of its unused area as green space. Young grape vines grow in the median.
 Grape Vines Grown in Median of Train Right of Way
Yes, trees are made of Paper. I received a great promotion for paperless billing from Southern California Edison. It is a great visual of how many trees are used to make paper.
I am not against paper, or trees being used to make paper. But the end users of paper have to be conscientious of how trees are used. Be frugal with paper, don’t print everything you find in the office, and recycle, recycle, recycle.
 Great ad for paperless billing
  We are consulting on two rain water harvesting systems. One is in the city of San Gabriel, CA and the other in Pasadena, CA. One system is projected to be 12,000 gallons and the other just over 10,000 gallons of water. For both of these projects, we looked at several types of storage systems, all of which are underground units. Both of our projects are being built under either a parking lot or driveway, so they are designed to resist the H-20 loads of large vehicle traffic.
The CUDO cube is what our clients selected in both cases.
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We reviewed the products manufactured by-
| ADS |
Water Quality Unit |
10,000 gal tank |
| Aquascape’s |
Aquablox |
Matrix Block |
| Atlantic |
EcoBlox |
Matrix Block |
| CUDO Stormwater Products |
CUDO Cube |
Cube |
| EcoRain Tanks |
EcoRain Tanks |
Matrix Block |
| Invisible Structures |
Rainstore3 |
Matrix Block |
| RainSub |
RainSub |
10,000 gal tank |
| StormTech |
Subsurface Stormwater Management |
Underground Chambers |
We looked at the following factors-
- Strength
- Cost of the units
- Ease of assembly
- Freight costs to get the units to us
- Labor to install the units and peripheral items unique to each system
- Other costs to complete the installation such as liner, underlayment, the need for geomembrane, heavy equipment or cranes, etc.
- Access for future maintenance
We found that few products offer features that make them unique, most just copy what is already on the market. Other than rain caverns and the larger underground tank systems that are more industrial in nature, only the CUDO cube broke away from the common matrix block type of system. It is also competitively priced and is the only cube system on the market that makes it serviceable.
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The CUDO cube allows you to build an underground reservoir that is serviceable.
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All systems must have pre filters built into them to keep sediment from entering the units. In rain water harvesting, storm water management, gray water catchment systems or potable water storage, a concern is often “How do you clean them out if debris accumulates in them”. The larger one piece tanks and the CUDO system have access points that allow entry to the underground structures. The matrix blocks do not allow access. .
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Most of the systems use what are called matrix blocks. These blocks do not allow access once installation is complete.
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The one piece units have excellent access and are easy to clean out. However, heavy equipment such as cranes or large tractors have to be used to install them.
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One piece underground tanks have access ports built directly into them.
Rainwater has been used since the beginning of time for drinking, bathing and cooking by many people of the world. But in our research of the subject, it came to light that the safety of drinking rainwater in our industrial world, has never been tested, until recently.
Here is a study done in Adelaide Australia-
Researchers from Monash University’s infectious disease epidemiology unit recruited 300 volunteer households in Adelaide for the test, the first of its kind.
The research was led by Associate Professor Karin Leder from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in conjunction with Water Quality Research Australia (previously the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment).
“This is the first study of its kind. Until now, there has been no prospective randomised study to investigate the health effects of rainwater consumption, either in Australia or internationally,” Associate Professor Leder said.
The study involved three hundred volunteer households in Adelaide that were given a filter to treat their rainwater. Only half of the filters were real while the rest were ’sham’ filters that looked real but did not contain filters.
The householders did not know whether they had a real filter. Families recorded their health over a 12-month period, after which time the health outcomes of the two groups were compared.
“The results showed that rates of gastroenteritis between both groups were very similar. People who drank untreated rainwater displayed no measurable increase in illness compared to those that consumed the filtered rainwater,” Associate Professor Leder said.
This is not to say that there was no illness. Though the households reported 769 episodes of gastroenteritis over the year, there was no statistically significant difference in gastrointestinal illness between ‘real’ versus ’sham’ filter households.
Adelaide was the location chosen for the study as it the city with the highest use of rainwater tanks in Australia.
Associate Professor Leder said some health authorities had doubts about drinking rainwater due to safety concerns, particularly in cities where good quality mains-water is available. The main concern was susceptibility to contamination with micro-organisms and chemicals.
“This study confirms there is a low risk of illness. The results may not be applicable in all situations; nevertheless these findings about the low risk of illness from drinking rainwater certainly imply that it can be used for activities such as showering/bathing where inadvertent or accidental ingestion of small quantities may occur.
“Expanded use of rainwater for many household purposes can be considered and in current times of drought, we want to encourage people to use rainwater as a resource,” she said.
The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and Water Quality Research Australia. And the research will be presented at the American Public Health Association 137th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia on November 11, 2009.
A rain garden is a very simple landscape feature that traps rain water runoff from streets, walkways and parking lots. The purpose is to increase the value of rain water by allowing the water from excess rainfall to percolate down into the soil where it can be used by plants, and then flow into the local water table, where it has a valuable use, versus running into the city drainage system.
You can see that the construction of a rain garden is very simple. Some soil modification and drains may be necessary in very clay soil types.
 Rain Garden Cross Section View No curbs in a parking lot allow the rain water to flow into the rain garden.
 A Berkely CA parking lot with no curbs and pervious paving. This rain garden is typical of landscpaing around the country. The use of ground cover, perennials and trees can easily handle most rain events.
 
Rhaphiolepis indica is one of my favorite low maintenance shrubs. Their are several compact varieties that if used appropriately, will require little to no trimming over the plants lifetime.
Pinkie and Ballerina are just two of these varieties.
 Rhaphiolepis indica 'Pinkie"- Indian hawthorne
Grasses can be used in both formal and informal landscape settings. Here is an excellent example of grasses being used in a “planned informality” setting.
The grasses add structure and texture as they soften the edges of the hardscape. Note how the grasses are used formally above the steps and more informally at the bottom of the picture.
Grasses are easy to work with, but they are not maintenance free. Being perennials, they have to be cut back every year to allow the newer fresher growth to come in. Also be be careful in the placement of the various varieties that are available. A small #01 pot can look cute when planted but you may find that it quickly grows to six feet tall.
 Grass Along Steps
Our preference is not to use chemicals around our homes, parks, schools or farms. But in some instances there are people that feel the use of pesticides is warranted. Be if for fleas that come into the home, rodents that can spread disease invading a food warehouse or insects that devastate entire crops, a “natural” remedy can not be found, so a man made pesticide is used. Note that the word “natural” has to be used carefully. Many man made products, such as pyrethrins, are naturally occurring and are derived from plants, in this case chrysanthemums.
So if you are an organic grower or an conventional farmer, the reality is that pesticides are used around us. Therefore, all of us should understand how to safely use any product. The following guidelines are just the minimum safety rules to follow.
Many pest control products on the market today have been tested and are found to be safe to use. Many have a label that show the product is no more dangerous than aspirin. Of course, aspirin can be abused and for some people it can be very dangerous. So be very careful when handling any pesticide, no matter how safe the label says it is. Certain pesticides, including insecticides, herbicides and fungicides can be very toxic. Again, read all product labels very carefully and use these products only as directed.
The primary rule in selecting what control to use is to first determine if one is actually necessary.
Use an IPM approach. Integrated Pest Management inspections will show what pests are present and when their populations increase to economic loss levels.
Use a natural compound if available.
Spray only when pest pressures show a loss to your plant material or crop will occur.
Use the least toxic products available that can do the specific job.
It is important to note that there are also some very dangerous products being used today. If used correctly and by following label directions carefully, these products will not cause any environmental harm. However, if used inappropriately, restricted-use pesticides are often very toxic to fish, mammals, and aquatic organisms. Extra precautions are to be observed when spraying in the vicinity of aquatic areas such as lakes, reservoirs, permanent streams, marshes or natural ponds, estuaries, and commercial fish farm ponds.
Some extra care should be taken during application of these products-
Spray the last three rows windward of aquatic areas using nozzles on one side of the sprayer only, with the spray directed away from aquatic areas.
Avoid sprays going over tops of trees by adjusting or turning off top nozzles.
Shut off nozzles when turning at ends of row.
Shut off nozzles when passing gaps in tree rows.
Do not apply when weather conditions favor drift to aquatic areas.
Do not apply within 110 feet upwind of aquatic areas or when wind speed is above 8 mph.
Do not apply during a temperature inversion.
If a problem should occur, notify the proper authorities immediately.
Here is a great tree that will not only give shade but is beautiful at the same time. The Tabebuia Ipe is becoming popular again for many reasons.
The Tabebuia Ipe or Pink Trumpet tree makes a nice patio tree, meaning the root system is not aggressive in confined areas.
It has great flowers in February when not much else is blooming.
In our area the tree is semi evergreen. I find that often time the tree drops its leaves as the flowers come out. Therefore it almost always has some leaves or flowers on it.
The Tabebuia flowers are not sticky and messy like the Jacarandas that are blooming now, in May and June.
If you prune the tree carefully every other year or as needed, you can easily keep it in the shape you want.
 Tabebuia ipe- Pink Trumpet Tree
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