Q: I was checking today after our big rain and noticed something weird low on the trunk of my peach tree. I touched this spot and a chunk of rotten wood came off. Was this an unnoticed borer attack or something to do with the rain? Can it be fixed?
Local Columns
Q: If I make my own compost, can I use it instead of commercial fertilizers for grass, plants, trees and shrubs?
Q: I have a 5-year-old Thomcord grape and I was wondering how to prune it properly. I am using it to shade a chicken coop.
You’re westbound in the right lane of Summerlin Parkway on a recent afternoon. Traffic is steady. Then, unexpectedly, an onslaught of leaves flies directly in front of you. They’re landing all over your car, and in a split second they have covered your entire windshield.
Darwin Falls in Death Valley National Park is one of my favorite places to go when I need to clear my head. It affords me a full-day scenic trip, during which I can take a short yet adventuresome hike and immerse myself in nature.
Q: Is it a good idea to work coffee grounds into the soil in flower beds? Does it help?
The very best outdoor adventures for midwinter pack a lot of experience into a few hours of daylight. China Ranch does this just about perfectly, offering hiking, history, birding, shopping and a unique treat for the taste buds.
Q: You mentioned that male asparagus plants produce more than female asparagus plants. How do you tell the difference?
There he was, wearing a traditional hockey uniform while hugging his ice skates with one hand and holding on to his dad’s hand with the other. Dad also held the little guy’s hockey stick as they entered City National Arena in Downtown Summerlin.
“I consider myself lucky because I had a backpack,” he said at a TED Talk in June in Traverse City, Michigan. “And because along the way I found some of the most beautiful, compassionate and courageous people that not only helped me through this time but who have left a lasting impression stamped on my heart.”
Q: I have had a large poinsettia since last Christmas. Is there a way to encourage blooms this year? It seems I read somewhere to put it into a dark place without water for a period of time. Anything you can tell me will help.
While many of us in Southern Nevada want to travel this time of year, many of the go-to places are too cold or covered too deeply with snow. But you won’t have that problem if you head down into the Sonoran Desert and Tucson, Arizona. Almost as far south as you can go in Arizona, winter weather is luxuriously pleasant.
Q: I’m composting in plastic trash cans with holes. It’s taking a very long time to make compost, despite adding carbon to my grass clippings and kitchen waste. I water and turn it every few days. What am I doing wrong?
It has been stop and go for 12 years for advocates of a Northwest Campus of College of Southern Nevada. And the way things are going, it could take longer than anyone in the know is willing to say before funding from the state becomes available to allow the first construction shovel into the ground.
Winter fruit tree pruning starts as soon as leaves drop from the trees. It’s easier to see the branching structure of the tree — I call it the tree’s “architecture” — after the leaves are gone. This is also the time for the major pruning of landscape trees and shrubs.