Pitchforks (and hydrant wrenches) aloft!

Flower Power! We are neighbors who are interested in bringing some botanical beauty to the bike-lane
tree pits so we have persuaded the city to allow us to garden there unimpeded. Anyone is welcome to
join at any level of involvement. There are no dues and no formal meetings; Just a desire to keep
Chelsea tree-lined and flower-filled. Join us!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Bits of bark and mulch

The Parks Department dumped a big pile of wood chips on Eight Avenue for the Garden Club pits. There are still a few bags worth of bark and mulch available to anyone willing to trek over to Eight Avenue and 22nd Street, It's piled just north of the pit on the North side. Help yourself. Hopefully is will keep your garden moist. A very grateful "thank you" to Parks!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A late Spring/almost Summer celebration

Mark your calendars for Sunday, June 19 at 4pm. I'd like to get everyone together at Clement Clarke Moore Park (22nd Street and 9th Avenue) to celebrate our achievements so far, share tips (and plants if you want to bring them) and make plans for future gardening.
I will provide some lemonade and cookies. If anyone else wants to bring some refreshments, that would be great too. We'll meet at the Park and if everyone is up for it, perhaps we can tour the pits on 8th and 9th Avenues and admire our handiwork.
I look forward to seeing all of you.

Flower Power!

Iron sulphate and good soil

Phyllis Waisman and Paul Bodden made an attempt to rescue the tree in the
bike lane island on the south side of 21st Street at 9th Avenue. The
tree, a pin oak, has recently started turning yellow (chlorosis). It turned
out that the base of the tree trunk was buried by almost 5 inches of dirt
and debris including some large chunks of cement. Paul and Phyllis
excavated the soil to the tree base level for about 1 to 3 feet around the
base of the tree.


Phyllis filled the tree garter with water and the cement and dead juniper
were discarded. The soil, which is of fairly good quality, was loaded up
into 5 bags and taken for storage in Paul's yard. Any one suffering with
poor soil on 8th Avenue might want to take some of this better soil and work
it into your pit.

At the advice of Steven Boyce from TreesNY, iron sulphate has been ordered
and will be added to the soil next week. Pin oaks are particularly
sensitive to alkaline soils and cement and lime can affect them adverse
ly.

Ideally, the soil level should be lowered 4-5" for a full 3 feet around so
that the tree roots can breathe, but we didn't want to disturb the plantings
in the pit. Again, ideally, some kind of barrier could be put in to keep
the soil from spilling back towards the base of the tree.

If anyone need some iron sulphate or good dirt, contact cgc.nyc@gmail.com

Thanks!