RSS Feed
|
|
|||||
|
for larger version       More Trees Are What Everybody Needs April 27 is Arbor Day, the day we celebrate the beauty of trees. As you can see from the springtime display, trees are a thing of beauty and add to our quality of life. Street trees are especially important as they trade carbon dioxide for oxygen every day and need water, air and nutrients to survive. An established tree needs ten (10) gallons of water a week, but a newly planted tree needs twenty (20). Water should be slowly added to the tree pit by either an "alligator" bag which can be purchased, or by simply burning two small nail holes in the bottom of a garbage can, covering the holes with tape, filling it with water and placing it on the tree pit and removing the tape over the holes. This will allow the water to slowly trickle down to the roots. Be sure to cultivate the tree pit (break up the soil with a claw-like tool) so the soil is not compacted and air can reach the roots. The planting of bulbs in the fall helps the tree by breaking up the soil and discourages dogs. For the springtime, planting of hardy annuals (no perennials!) like marigolds, dusty miller or portulaca, protects the tree from dogs and people walking on the tree pit. Many people believe that dogs using the tree as a urinal are watering the tree. It is killing the tree because of the high concentration of nitrogen in the urine. The same is true of lawns. Yellow holes in the lawn are burns from over-fertilizing or dog urine. Fall is the best time to fertilize trees and fertilizer spikes can be purchased at our local hardware store. Or, you can use liquid fertilizer. If you are interested in getting a street tree you can do so by calling 311 or going to the nyc.gov website to Parks and Recreation. There you can request a tree, or have a dead tree replaced. If there is a tree pit with a stump or no tree, put in a request for a replacement. You can also go to the milliontreesNYC website to request a tree. Trees are available not just for in front of your home, but for the entire neighborhood. So if you have a site in mind that needs trees, let the city know and put in a request. Perhaps a school or stretch of highway with a tree line needs trees. Put in a request! If you don't ask you don't get! Increase the beauty of our neighborhood by adding trees. MAUREEN WALSH
|
|
||||
