diseased

I'm just itching to start pruning our evergreens, but my arborist self knows it’s a bit soon. I will wait until we have a hard freeze, to ensure my pruning cuts won’t attract any bark beetles. When a tree is pruned, we actually are wounding it.

Good yard sanitation in the fall is as important to year-long plant health as proper planting, watering, fertilizing and pruning are. This is particularly true for next year’s crop of vegetables and fruit. Remove or cut back all the plants in the vegetable garden that are done for the season.

Gardeners ask me if it’s time to prune. Late summer and early fall pruning can encourage new growth, which will not have time to harden off before freezes occur. If freeze damage happens, the health of the plant can be adversely affected. This is particularly true for roses, which should not get pruned until April.

Due to the botulism outbreak at Carson Lake and the wetlands south of Fallon, the Dayton Valley Wildlife Reststop is taking in dozens of shorebirds and is asking for the public's help in getting the birds through rehabilitation.

FALLON — The Nevada Department of Wildlife is continuing its efforts to monitor cases of botulism within the Truckee Meadows area, and specifically in the Carson Lake Wetlands.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) began receiving accounts of horses exposed to equine herpes virus type 4 (EHV-4) and Streptococcus equi bacterial infection — also known as strangles or equine distemper — as of Saturday, Feb. 18, NDA public information officer Rebecca Allured said in a press release late Wednesday.

All winter I have said, wait to prune your roses. April 15 is time to prune roses. While there are general rose pruning principles, the different types of roses: hybrid teas, floribundas, shrub, climbers, ramblers and miniatures, all have special requirements.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife has taken necessary actions in the Montana Mountains in Northern Nevada in an effort to save healthy bighorns in the adjacent Nevada and Oregon mountain ranges.

The decision was made to depopulate a herd of California bighorn sheep due to an ongoing and aggressive outbreak of polymicrobial pneumonia that has caused an all age die-off in a once healthy herd in the Montana Mountains of Humboldt County.

We prune shrubs for a number of reasons. We want to remove dead or diseased wood. We may feel the shape of the plant needs improving and choose to prune branches that cross or stick out. Another important reason to prune is to maintain or improve flower production.

Timing is important with each of these, but particularly important to increase flowers. Often people get the urge to prune everything in the spring, not realizing that may be the worst time to prune flowering plants such as lilac, if you want to have flowers.

Although you might not feel it, the weather is starting to change in North Lake Tahoe. Days are still warm, with temperatures averaging in the 60s, but nights are dropping to approximately 35 degrees. It’s the time of year that the region’s upper elevations may even see a dusting of snow.

“We’ve been reviewing all the long-range forecasts,” said Chief Marketing Officer Andy Chapman of the North Lake Tahoe Chamber/CVB/Resort Association. “And if Mother Nature keeps up her end, we should have above-average snowfall this winter.”