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Sidewalk Greenspace on New York's Upper West Side

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Category: Civic Engagement

Neighborhood Treebed Mulching

The Columbus-Amsterdam BID, which coordinates neighborhood-improvement efforts along those avenues, arranged for a bulk delivery of mulch from the city’s Parks Department, and asked for volunteers to help apply it to neighborhood treebeds.

Continue reading “Neighborhood Treebed Mulching”
Author MatthewPosted on April 4, 2023Categories Civic EngagementTags MulchLeave a comment on Neighborhood Treebed Mulching

Mulchfest!

Every December, many of the city’s residents bring home a small conifer for the winter holidays — and then discard them in early January.

Mulchfest is part of the city’s adaptation to this cycle: deploying large chipper trucks at numerous locations around the city, where people can bring their trees to be chipped, and optionally take home a bag of the resulting material to be used as mulch.

While most people just leave their tree, or perhaps take home a small bag of pine chips, there doesn’t seem to be any real limit to how much mulch you’re allowed to take, so I’ve learned to bring a shopping cart and a stack of empty tote bags, so I can bring home enough for a dozen sidewalk treebeds around the neighborhood.

The mix of pine needles, twigs, and chips will slowly break down over the coming year to provide a stream of supplemental nutrients to the soil, as well as improving moisture absorption and retention and building soil health.

Delivering the tree.
Into the chipper!
A mountain of mulch, free for the taking.
Author MatthewPosted on January 8, 2023April 4, 2023Categories Civic Engagement, Garden ActivityTags MulchLeave a comment on Mulchfest!

Licensed Citizen Pruner

I was pleased to receive notice that I had passed the exam for a Citizen Pruner License, giving me authority to do minor pruning and related care for New York City’s street trees.

New Yorkers are so blasé that I expect in practice I could do nearly any sort of arboreal work without ever being asked to show my license, but if the situation ever arises, I will be ready!

Author MatthewPosted on August 18, 2022August 18, 2022Categories Civic EngagementLeave a comment on Licensed Citizen Pruner

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