Tree trimming and pruning in Gardnerville Ranchos, NV

Gardnerville Ranchos lies southwest of Gardnerville at about 4,859 feet. With about 12,000 residents it has more people than Minden and Gardnerville combined, in close to 5,000 homes, and about four in five are owner-occupied. It is a neighborhood of yards, and nearly every yard has a tree old enough to need attention.

At a glance

• About 86% single-family detached homes; median year built 1987
• Back-yard trees reached by climbing where a truck cannot go
• USDA hardiness zone 6b
• About 36 minutes from our Carson City yard

How do you prune a tall tree in a fenced back yard?

Access is the first question on a subdivision lot. A front-yard tree can usually be reached from the street with the 75-foot Altec boom truck. A tree behind the house, inside a fence, with a patio and a shed under it, usually cannot.

That tree is pruned by a climber working from inside the crown. Cut branches are lowered under control and carried out through the gate to the chipper. The arborist looks at gates, fences, overhead lines and what is under the tree during the free estimate, and the estimate says how the job will be done. See crane vs climbing vs bucket truck.

What do 35 to 50 years of growth look like?

About 28% of Ranchos homes were built before 1980 and only about 17% since 2000 (Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024). The bulk went up in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Trees from those decades have crowns wide enough to cover a roof and to reach across a side fence into the next yard.

The usual pruning list: dead wood out, limbs lifted off the roof, long branches reduced back to side branches, and crossing limbs removed. If a large limb has a crack or a weak fork, the arborist may talk to you about cabling and bracing as an alternative to removing it.

The edge of the neighborhood faces open country

The USDA Forest Service puts about two-thirds of Ranchos buildings in the indirect wildfire exposure zone and about 18% in the direct zone. Large perimeters mapped within about 10 miles include the Numbers Fire (2020, 18,380 acres), the Indian Fire (1984, 17,771 acres) and the Preacher Fire (2017, 5,386 acres).

For homes along the outer streets, raising low limbs and clearing branches from the roof belong on the pruning list. University of Nevada, Reno Extension's guide describes the zones around a house; see what is defensible space?

Cold nights and the pruning calendar

The Ranchos are in USDA hardiness zone 6b, with average extreme lows of 0 to minus 5 degrees. The Minden weather station, about 5 miles away, averages 21.8 inches of snowfall a year. Most deciduous trees are pruned in late winter, during dormancy. Most conifers are pruned in early spring and summer. A hazard is pruned when it is found.