In the last four years, the population of Reno, Nev., has probably doubled. Along with this growth, expectations of the people from neighboring states moving into Reno has elevated the bar of landscaping. This can be seen in the majestic landscape of Tanamera Town Homes, installed by G&G Nursery and Landscape.

Although the desires and expectations have grown, the challenges of working in the high, dry desert in the Great Basin has remained the same. Few have faced this more than the owner of G&G, John Giossi, a native of Nevada who started installing residential landscapes with little more than a backhoe and a lot of determination. John, along with his wife Cece and two sons Stephen and Kevin, now heads up four departments: landscape installation, maintenance, retail nursery, and 90 acres of growing grounds that supplies the plant material for both retail and installation departments.

Reno's climate is described as an "alpine desert," which means poor soils, limited water and unpredictable weather for landscape professionals to work with. Tanamera is located in a wetland area that serves as a collection area for boron, alkaline and salt.

"The two biggest obstacles we faced [on the Tanamera project] were the decomposed granite soils filled with boron and the lack of water we had to work with," Giossi said. After many years of using different types of plants and turf blends, the grounds at Tanamera is nothing less than magnificent.

Because of the soil type and the drastic temperature variations in the seasons, plant selection at the job site was key. At the entry to Tanamera, Quacking Aspens, Giant Sequoias and Austrian pines stand scattered on the open knoll of turf. At the forefront of the knoll are two rockscape water falls with the Tanamera sign overhead. Surrounding the waterfalls are an assortment of perennials such as Gaillardia, Shasta daisies and Chrysanthemum. As you drove down a brick-paved driveway, arborvitaes, photinas, red twig dogwoods and all types of brooms line the winding path until you hit its centerpiece fountain filled with petunias, marigolds and chrysanthemum.

G&G Nursery and Landscape provides complete maintenance service for one and a half acres of turf, an acre of shrub area and several thousand square feet of color spots. They provide a full-time gardener for pruning and flower care, once-a-week turf care service and irrigation management.

Through the entry, the leasing office area is lined with more petunias in an abundance of color until you enter the pool area's lagoon style setting. Here, a bit more exotic plant selection was wanted. Stephen Giossi, who heads up the retail nursery was instrumental in selecting the correct type of plant material for this selection. Pots full of annual color, Variegated Canna lilies and lace leaf Japanese maples surround the pool area. Four 10-foot Sequoiadendron "pendulum" accentuate the rocked areas close to the spa, which are surrounded by ornamental strawberry ground cover with a backdrop of blue atlas cedars and Blue Spruces, all of which thrive in this region under the water restrictions imposed on Tanamera.

The water restrictions bring more challenges than just selecting the correct plants. Tanamera is allowed to water two days a week in a 24-hour period, so more sprinkler valves must be run simultaneously to get the water down in the allotted time. In order to get enough water volume, four points of water connection were used; essentially one for each clock. In this drastic dry heat, one week with missed water will show severe damage, so a maintenance check of all stations is performed once a week to help monitor the grounds. To speed up the checking of the clocks remote control valves have been a great asset. In conjunction to the weekly checks of the system, a stringent fertilizing schedule is enforced along with a springtime aeration of the property.

Because the soils are so coarse and have very little holding capacity, they are often depleted of all three primary nutrients. To combat this, once a season the soil is fertilized with 16-16-16, followed up by a high nitrogen fertilizer such as 25-5-5.

The water and soil types are not the only challenge G&G encounters at Tanamera. Due to the amount of dust in the area, spider mites are a constant threat to a large portion of plant material in the landscape. Constant monitoring is required by the maintenance department. They have found that small spot treatments of products like Avid or Symater produced good results in keeping the pests down without eradicating all insects. Other insects are controlled, but allowed to remain because of their beneficial nature.

Tanamera has set new standards for landscapers in the Reno area. Last year, G&G's installation and maintenance departments both won commercial account of the year from the Nevada Landscape Association for their efforts at the Tanamera apartments. The site has also been used as a ground-breaking example of what can be done and what is to come in Reno's landscapes.