Streetscaping project is Moving Along

Things are moving along nicely with our Streetscaping project.  Pablo has measured all the tree pits, has adopted tree #7, (that’s the tree on campus Road, right where East 21^st street begins) a European Hornbean that he has lovingly named, “Musical Intelligence.”  Awwhhh little tree…

Chad has photographed each tree---Full length and bed views.

I had some specific questions regarding paving stone removal, and weather this was considered excavation/ did we need to hire an arborist? Yesterday, I got that straightened out when I called the Brooklyn Forestry division of the Parks Dept.  It turns out that we can complete a simple Tree Work permit and do not have to hire an arborist to remove the stones. It is not considered excavation.  

We do not need an architect to install tree guards, architecture drawing are only needed if tree is to be in front of a new building, or if you are designing unique tree guards rather than styles supplied from the city.  Also received information that each Borough president’s office has a budget for funding “tree Guards” and we may qualify. 

Pablo is going to contact Marty Markowitz’s office about that, Chad is working on completing the Tree work Permit; I’m filling out a compost requisition form in order to pick up compost and mulch from the DOS- Wasteless.

Soon, we will start caring for the tree pits.  We will remove paving stones with Dean Hainline’s many hammers and chisels, carefully.  We will add coarse compost or wood chips to the areas where the stones used to be.  Did you know it’s recommended NOT to backfill with soil?  I didn’t.  Tree roots need loose soil full of oxygen and good drainage.  Adding soil right away can reduce oxygen level in soil.  It’s recommended to wait 1 year to add soil, instead adding coarse compost or wood chips for now.

http://forestry.about.com/od/treeandforestcare/a/yard_tree_roots.htm

Compost and mulch will be added to the rest of tree beds, and then planted.  We are gathering resources for free plants and seeds, ones that have shallow root systems.  Pablo and Chad have ideas about doing different planting themes for the tree beds. 

There are many of you who expressed interest in the Streetscaping project.  We would love to hear your ideas.  Just think, if we can get this short stretch of Campus Road trees rejuvenated, we can move onto another stretch or teach/ inspire other groups with what we’ve learned.

I also went to this fantastic “Community Greening” workshop tonight, through the BBG’s Greenbridge program.  It was very well done, there are so many ideas/ projects/ people around Brooklyn, creating gardens and street projects who want to hook up and share ideas!

Just found these two sites:

On tree identification, TreeKIt

http://treekit.org/

Street gardening

http://www.streetgardening.org/

Can anyone pickup a rain barrel for our garden this Saturday?