Nelson Avenue Gang

Yes, we’ve got trees but the contractors who planted them didn’t do a very good job of it. In fact, you might say the way they planted the trees is a case study in how NOT to plant trees.

For the most part, they did not dig the holes deep enough. They also made “volcanoes” of mulch around the trees – another big no-no. But the biggest sin committed by them is that they did not give each tree a good, heavy drink right after planting them.

Trees get stressed when they are moved. The best time to move/plant a tree is in January or February when they are dormant but they can be moved/planted most any time of the year if proper care is taken. When our trees were planted the root balls were no doubt dry (if wet they would have been heavier and no one wants to lift a heavy, wet root ball) and they should have been given a long soak right after planting. As you all can probably tell, most of our trees look stressed and not so happy right now.

I went out last night and worked with a few of you to get water to all of the trees (thanks for your help!) and that should be good for a few days. Some people are already watering their trees and that is great. For those who may not know, the best way to water a tree, especially a newly planted tree, is a deep, long watering once or twice a week. A gallon here or there is not as good as a long soaking of 20-30 gallons. This gets water deeper down and helps the roots grow into the surrounding soil. It also mimics natural rainfall – a light sprinkle doesn’t happen as much as a longer sustained rain.

So, if you can, please water your tree really well once or twice a week. I’ll work with the city to see if we can get those water bags they put around trees to help with this.

Thanks,

EZ

This post is slightly off-topic as it doesn’t have a lot to do with Nelson Ave. or the neighborhood. However, there are a lot of eco-friendly people on our block and I bet some are wondering the same thing I am: what to do with those “eco-friendly” produce bags from Harris Teeter?

Our local Harris Teeter stores, where I shop occasionally, offers “100% degradable” plastic produce bags. I buy a lot of lettuce, and I have eco-guilt: in other words, what the heck is “100% degradable”? Aren’t these still going to a landfill?

The answer is yes, more or less. The produce manager at Potomac Yards’ Harris Teeter told me that the store accepts the bags back for recycling.

However, representatives from the bag manufacturer, Epi-Global, says that recycling is only appropriate for clean, pre-food bags. Once the bags have been sullied, it’s best to either compost them or toss. Like the corn plastic peanuts, they’ll break down in a regular (non industrial) compost environment, but it’s going to take awhile. My produce bag has been in the compost pile for about 4 months, but Epi-Global estimates it will take 3 years to disintegrate. There is a cool photo on their site, epi-global.com, that shows a bag disintegrating in two weeks. Don’t be fooled, this is a best-best-case scenario.

Biodegradable plastics are better than regular plastics, of course, because they will eventually return to CO2, water and biomass. Still, this inquiry didn’t satisfy me. Does anyone have a better idea of how to stop all the produce bags? Also–if you have a better way of getting restaurants to stop using polystyrene leftover containers, and it doesn’t involve hauling your own Tupperware to a nice restaurant, please let me know.

–Rebecca, 529