I did a bit of cleanup work in the treebeds along the east side of Broadway from 106th to 104th Street this week: cleaning out some trash, breaking up the compacted top soil, and mixing in a couple of bags of compost. I’ll come back next week to scatter some flower seeds and hope that a few of them will come up over the summer.
Caring for treebeds in this high-traffic area can be frustrating — fresh trash is tossed in them on a regular basis, dogs routinely urinate along the edges, and it’s challenging to get the storefronts to put any effort into maintaining them — but I remind myself that they’re still better off with some care than without, and perhaps over time we’ll see greater community engagement.
