Now Open: Monarch Nursery on Lincoln Boulevard
An existing wholesale nursery on Lincoln Boulevard was given new life this year after two entrepreneurs combined their professional and lived experiences to grow something beautiful: Monarch Nursery.
A welcoming destination for green enthusiasts, the 4,000-square foot nursery serves as a neighborhood garden center, wholesale nursery and a connected space for community events.
The heart of the nursery are founders Anton Van Der Woude and Jasper Watts. They pursued the effort in a desire to heal from significant career and life transitions.
Anton was at a turning point after spending 15 years in the hospitality industry. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the industry hard, forcing him to close his downtown Los Angeles distillery and reevaluate his career. He transitioned into a broader world of controlled-environment agriculture research and vertical farming for a while, but the yearning to do something more weighed heavily.
“I changed the way I wanted to spend my days from late hospitality nights to my preference of being in the garden,” Anton said. “It was a combination of the industry slightly forcing me in one direction and my own development.”
To balance the new business venture, Anton needed a partner with deep horticulture experience.
Jasper, who also shares a lifelong love for gardening, was the first person he called.
MAKING THE CALL
Jasper and his family lost their home and home-based horticulture business in the Eaton fire of January 2025. On a frantic search for stability, Jasper planted new roots on the Westside, hopeful to embrace the overnight change.
“I was trying to figure out my next step after losing everything,” Jasper said. “I had a lot of knowledge of cultivation
and propagation and soil science from my horticulture business, on top of the landscaping I was doing. When Anton called me, it just seemed like the perfect fit.”
Today, the pair spend mornings watering, fertilizing, organizing, helping customers, making wholesale deliveries and working on landscape projects throughout the community.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Since opening in March, the nursery has become a beacon of hope for many who lost their gardens and backyards and transitioned into a smaller home — including Jasper.
“Many of our customers have gone from having a bigger garden to homes in Venice or the Westside with smaller balconies. Pots are the perfect alternative because one day, you might be able to replant your own garden again.”
In addition to its full service, retail and wholesale nursery offerings, Monarch is a small and agile enough business to carve out landscaping ideas and bring them to life.
GENERATIONAL AFFECTION
Monarch holds the belief that nature gives more than it takes.
Plants are part of a larger ecosystem, benefiting both nature and the people who
enjoy it. Plants support pollinators and local wildlife while also improving mood, reducing stress and helping people find renewal after difficult seasons of life.
Both Jasper and Anton have seen an increase of younger generations interested in nurturing plants, including Jasper’s 12-year-old son, often seen watering plants or potting at the nursery.
“In today’s uncertain world, people find comfort and joy in surrounding themselves with greenery,” Anton said.
Growing your own food is becoming more popular as well, especially as food costs continue to rise.
Monarch sells a variety of fruit trees, vegetable starts and herbs for this purpose, in addition to its array of indoor and outdoor plants. Some plant varieties the nursery carries are also drought-tolerant, including Australian and South African varieties.
While perusing the perfect home or office space addition, Monarch’s healthy selection of plants are paired with personalized expertise and customer service.
Monarch Nursery is located at 3280 Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. Follow @monarchnursery on Instagram to learn about its community events.
Building Southern California Since 1994: Ocean Seven Builders
A lifetime of continuous learning and trusted professionals focused on quality craftsmanship is how Ron Mor, CEO of Ocean Seven Builders, is carrying the legacy of his father while creating his own.
From coastal roofs to ground-up homes, Ocean Seven Builders has been transforming homes across Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura County since 1994.
With continuous improvement and dedication, the once-small roofing crew has grown into a full-service construction company, handling roofing, remodels, room additions, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and ground-up new construction.
Honest project scoping, transparent pricing, clean job sites and craftsmanship designed for Southern California’s coastal climate have contributed to the company’s success over the past three decades. More than the services it provides, Ocean Seven Builders remains a family-owned and owner-operated company where personal involvement and accountability are central to every project.
Day to day, Ron remains involved in every project, making sure every detail meets company standards for quality and customer satisfaction.
“We are experienced and pay attention to detail while working with clients and making their remodeling and renovation dreams come true. We can’t thank our decadeslong clients enough for trusting us on every project,” he added.
Employing experienced, trusted crews, maintaining dedicated project supervision and offering a turnkey, in-house construction process from start to finish are high priorities for the company.
Because of its long-standing industry reputation, homeowners benefit from consistency throughout the entire process. Rather than coordinating multiple contractors, clients have one point of contact who communicates honestly, answers questions and keeps projects moving forward.
“Homeowners have peace of mind while they wait for the final walkthrough,” Ron says. “We stay organized and on schedule and frequently update the homeowner on timelines.”
Built for Every Part of Your Home
Ocean Seven Builders houses four core trades — roofing, remodels, new construction and ADUs — all designed, permitted and managed through the company’s turnkey approach.
Roofing services include seamless polyurethane spray foam systems, along with tile, shingle and flat roof repair, and replacement for both residential and commercial properties. Materials are selected to withstand Southern California’s unique climate while enhancing the appearance and protection of each property.
Full-home and structural remodels open up floor plans, modernize layouts and breathe
new life into older homes. Ocean Seven Builders manages every phase of the process, including permit handling and design coordination, making the process as seamless as possible.
From foundation to finish, the company’s new construction services include custom homes, foundation and framing, permitting and complete project management.
For homeowners looking to expand their living space or create additional rental opportunities, Ocean Seven Builders also specializes in detached ADUs, garage conversions and secondary units.
“No two projects are alike. For both residential and commercial clients, we are committed to quality and service that goes above and beyond,” Ron says.
Four Steps, No Surprises
To understand each client’s goals, constraints and budget, Ocean Seven Builders begins every project with a complimentary consultation and on-site walkthrough.
From there, the company drafts a clear proposal, outlining the scope of work, recommended finishes and an estimated timeline. Once approved, construction begins with in-house crews, daily job-site cleanup
and regular progress updates from the project manager.
“Our clients always know how their project is progressing,” Ron says.
At the final step, a walkthrough and workmanship warranty ensures every detail meets expectations before the project is considered complete.
Whether replacing a roof, expanding a home or building from the ground up, Ocean Seven Builders continues to build its reputation one project at a time.
For more information or to view Ocean Seven Builders’ portfolio of work across Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties, visit oceansevenbuilders.com. Free quotes may be requested online or by calling 310-903-7869.
Finding Peace of Mind in Fire Zones: How a Local Founder is Revolutionizing Wildfire Defense
Safeguarding neighborhoods against wildfires is a collective responsibility, and effective wildfire defense should be accessible to all homeowners, not a luxury reserved for a few.
That is the foundational philosophy behind Matador Fire, a company established by Los Angeles native Nate Snyder.
For Snyder, Matador Fire addresses a general uneasiness Angelenos share, associated with the profound loss caused by the January 2025 wildfires that swept across LA.
On the night of January 7, it was not the videos of burning houses that compelled Snyder to act; it was the sense of helplessness he experienced alongside close friends who sought refuge in his home after following mandatory evacuation orders.
“We stood by, powerless, watching Los Angeles burn,” Snyder recalled. “Despite our community’s escalating fire risk, Southern California homeowners appeared caught off guard when the fires started. As a community, we remain dangerously unprepared for the threat of wildfires.”
Five months later, Snyder sold his pool business and committed his time to helping his community prepare for the next wildfire. He has since collaborated with
veteran firefighters, state legislators and homeowners to engineer a new wildfire defense layer founded upon safety, efficacy and affordability.
HOW IT WORKS
Matador Fire places professional-grade fire retardant directly into the hands of homeowners.
While some retardants can be toxic, prone to staining or require hydration to maintain effectiveness, Matador Fire’s retardant is essentially non-toxic according to EPA standards, environmentally safe according to third-party labs, and shown to work wet or dry in fire-tested conditions.
Matador Fire’s wildfire suppression system features an independent gas or electric pump connected to a 100-foot fire hose, capable of propelling 50 gallons of non-toxic retardant over 35 feet high in calm conditions.
Should a wildfire threat emerge, your personal defense unit is operational within minutes. Through a streamlined protocol taking less than 15 minutes, homeowners can thoroughly coat their property’s vulnerable surfaces with a protective “fire shield.”
Residents are then encouraged to safely evacuate, leaving the area clear for
emergency personnel.
“Nate and his staff have earned my confidence... I actually have a lot more peace of mind when I go to sleep at night.” a longtime Malibu resident and Woolsey Fire survivor noted.
COMMUNITY
PROTECTION
Embers completely ignore property lines. Extensive research indicates that structural defense proves considerably more successful when neighborhoods coordinate their preparation. When an entire street collaborates to fortify their properties against wildfire, the collective probability of survival increases dramatically.
Matador Fire’s new way of reducing ignition risk at a community-wide level, buys more time for responders to arrive onscene and saves public water and power for the fire fighters.
Matador Fire offers several affordable preventative defense layers that homeowners can easily implement:
Managed Fire Defense System: Their flagship, “mini fire stations” are placed in discrete, strategic locations around your property and are deployable 24/7 prior to an evacuation order.
Seasonal Retardant Application: Administered to landscaping prior to fire
season by trained technicians, this passive fire defense treatment can remain active throughout the highest-risk months.
Home Hardening: Installation of CAL Fire-approved mesh over exterior ventilation openings effectively seals the primary pathways embers enter. This enhancement reduces the probability of a structure igniting from the inside.
“The January 2025 fires taught us that our community’s resilience against wildfires is not a burden anyone can face alone,” Snyder said. “Effective defense requires homeowners to become “force multipliers” while leaving the dangerous parts to the well-trained and heroic firefighters.”
To schedule a comprehensive property assessment, visit matadorfire.com.
‘Build Your Home Correctly’: ReWater CEO Urges Palisades
Homeowners to Plan for Water Reuse Before Construction Starts
Every gallon counts.
1,752,000 gallons is how much water a family of four can reuse over the 30-year life of a water reuse system if they plumb their home correctly. That counts even more.
Considering California’s chronic water crisis, changing atmospheric pattern, growing population, and poor policy choices, efforts to conserve water are important.
But all of them combined can’t touch the volume of water you get from plumbing your showers, tubs, bathroom sinks, and laundry water together, and using that good water for irrigation.
As Palisades homeowners work to build their future homes, Steve Bilson, the CEO of ReWater Systems, is adamant that “homeowners must decide to separate the good water from the bad during design if they ever want to reuse their water. It’s the most sustainable choice they’ll make.”
He goes on to say, “We make permitting, plumbing for reuse, and reusing water simple, but you only have one chance to do the plumbing right and that’s in the very beginning of construction during rough plumbing.”
HOW IT WORKS
Plumbing officials historically called all used water “sewage” and enforced sending it to the sewer. But in 1990, ReWater Systems sponsored a state law where the legislature recognized two different types of used water — good and sewage.
ReWater then spent two decades getting the state “greywater” code ironed out. The company’s intelligent controller-operated, automatically self-filtering water reuse irrigation systems exceed the code and
have now helped thousands of home and apartment owners cost-effectively reuse their good water.
If there’s not enough greywater any day to complete the irrigation programs, at midnight, ReWater’s controller seamlessly switches to city water to complete the irrigation programs. When you go on vacation, your landscape never misses a watering.
If there’s too much water that day, the surge tank simply overflows to the sewer. Maintenance is changing the sand annually.
Choosing a ReWater system means you’ll be reusing half of the water from your home in your own landscape for its lifetime, which is incredibly more efficient than pumping water from the Bay Delta or Colorado River.
THE WATER REUSE INDUSTRY
Greywater irrigation has been legal since 1992, and many architects, PMEs, general contractors, and plumbers are familiar with the plumbing process.
However, Bilson cautions that six greywater reuse companies have come and gone in Los Angeles in the 36 years ReWater’s been in business.
“Companies with NSF-360 ‘certified’ systems are the next to go,” he says. “They get clogged filters, burned out UV lights, ozone generator failures, and chlorine kills their membranes. And you only discover they’ve failed by the stench.
“Our systems aren’t lab-approved high tech, high maintenance experiments. They’re proven infrastructure.”
THE BENEFITS OF REUSE
One way to quantify the value of reusing your water is by using a green-building point system such as by Leaders in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED).
LEED quantifies the values of various building techniques, like water reuse, and assigns points to them. Up to 15 points are available for a greywater irrigation system, which is more points than a large solar array with battery storage that costs twice as much.
You can also quantify a system’s value using pure economics. The city sells water by 100 cubic feet/748 gallon “units.”
1,752,000 gallons of reused water equals 2,342 units.
The city’s least expensive unit currently costs $11.79, and their most expensive unit currently costs $17.52. They’ve been raising water rates at 5% per year, making the ReWater system’s lowest value $61,148 and highest value $90,089.
To enjoy long guilt-free showers, helping the environment and saving money on water, contact ReWater Systems at rewater. com, 805-716-0104 or support@rewater. com.
