Beekeeping classes on tap at North Las Vegas orchard

A series of beekeeping classes will be offered at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Orchard in North Las Vegas.

The first class will start at 8 a.m. April 21. Basic beekeeping will last the entire day and will orient bee enthusiasts on how to manage small bee colonies in Southern Nevada. The idea behind the class is to help area residents produce their own honey and keep local bees from getting Africanized.

Interested people can contact me at Extremehort@aol.com or the master gardener help line at 257-5555 for more information.

Q: I want to replace my acacia-like tree because it does not lose its leaves during winter and thus persists in shading our house from the sun at a time we actually need the solar heat. I want a deciduous peach, apricot, plum or apple tree, which would be a fast-grower, provide shade during summer, give little shade during winter, and bear some flowers and some good fruits on the side.

A: If you want some shade on your home to help reduce cooling costs in the summer, you should focus on shading the south- and west-facing walls of your home. Since the walls typically have less insulation in them, they are the worst offenders for heat gain in the summer.

It is not as important to shade the roof as it is to shade the west and south walls. If you do focus on the walls, then some of the smaller fruit trees such as peach, apricot and plum and semidwarf apple will work just fine. All of these fruit trees are deciduous so they will not create shade from December through February or March.

I would recommend planting them about 5-7 feet from the wall and that far apart so that you can work all sides of the trees. Another possibility is to trellis them along the wall to create shade. The trellis should be a stand-alone trellis, not attached to the wall. You also can achieve the same thing by putting an arbor on that side of the house and using grapes to shade the walls from the overhead sun.

My recommended varieties can be found on my blog, Xtremehorticulture of the Desert, which can be found at http://xtreme
horticulture.blogspot.com.

Q: My daughter has just moved into a house that has old-growth lilacs and we need to know how to prune them without causing too much stress on the plants. Do you have any ideas?

A: By the way, Persian lilacs grow and bloom better here than the common lilac and are very showy. However, the lilac variety Lavender Lady requires less chilling and blooms very well here. These are not plants for rock landscapes; they should be in high-water-use zones and the soil should be amended well at planting and covered with organic mulch.

For good-looking lilacs always start pruning at the bottom of the shrub. At the bottom, identify the two or three largest stems coming from the base. Remove them with clean cuts close to the ground. You can't see the shrub, but several smaller stems should remain that support flowering for next year.

What you are trying to accomplish is to renew a shrub many woody stems with new growth on a constant basis. You do this by removing the largest stems close to the ground. This should cause smaller and newer growth to originate from the base, keeping the shrub green, juvenile and full of flowers and leaves from top to bottom.

Every couple of years, repeat this type of pruning. If done correctly, this will keep the shrubs renewed and looking good. This is all you need to do unless you have some crossed or broken branches at the top that you need to remove.

Don't forget to fertilize them with a good-quality fertilizer made for woody plants. Fertilize plants whenever you take anything from them (pruning) or they give you something (flowering). So when you're pruning or they bloom for you, you need to give back to them lightly in the form of a fertilizer. You can use fertilizer stakes. Put fertilizers close to the emitters or their source of water. Do this in late January through March and make light applications right after they finish blooming. I hope this helps.

Q: I noticed that even though my drippers water deeply, the mulch around the surface of the plants and trees forms a crust. Does that prevent oxygen from getting to the plants? The summer heat can only make it worse. What do you suggest?

A: I have never noticed this with the organic wood mulch that we use at the orchard. It is very important that air gets to the roots. If this is a problem, then break up the crust with a rake.

Very fine mulches can compact or lay flatly on the surface of the soil over time. This can happen with sawdust, finely shredded newspapers and even very fine rock mulch, such as ¼-inch minus. Salts that are pulled up from the soil by surface evaporation can accumulate and cause crusts to form.

Coarse mulches seldom, if ever, have this problem because they cannot lay flat. Air moves through the coarse mulch where it supplies oxygen to microorganisms that help break down the mulch at the soil's surface.

This constant breaking down of wood mulch adds organic matter to the soil, which further aids in getting air into the soil. With time, the breakdown of wood mulch loosens the soil even further, allowing even more air to the roots, particularly at the soil's surface.

Hopefully, you added compost to the soil at the time of planting. The wood mulch adds even more nutrients to the soil as it breaks down. It is important to have a wide diversity of different types of wood in the mulch; the more the better.

If you want a measurement of the activity, pull the wood mulch back where the soil is irrigated. After just a few months the soil will become much darker, indicating its enrichment and biological activity, which continuously improves the soil. Wood mulch also helps keep the soil cooler, aiding in decomposition as well.

Bob Morris is a horticulture expert living in Las Vegas. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com.