Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Too many wet leaves delays The Claw

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED DEC 14, 2018

Sacramento cleanup service is behind schedule

This pile of leaves likely will be occupying this spot at least until
Christmas, or maybe later. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

This is Sacramento's prime leaf season. It's pruning time, too. Which means piles and piles and piles of leaves and trimmed branches line our residential streets, waiting for The Claw to roll around.

But this December has proved overwhelming for this fixture service of Sacramento winters. The Claw is way behind schedule. Instead of the usual 14-day turnaround, residential green-waste street pick-up is taking three weeks or more. Residents are complaining as the leaves and twigs keep piling up.

The city of Sacramento sent out an explanation via Nextdoor.com about slow service in the Land Park neighborhood, which hadn't had pick-up since Nov. 20-22. But it's a citywide issue.

According to the city's online collection calendar, The Claw last visited my block in The Pocket on Dec. 3. It read, "Leaf collection estimate for your street (is) Dec. 24-26. Dates will likely change!"

Yes, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Kwanzaa, we can expect our piles to disappear. Right now, I'm hesitant to put anything more out there. Holiday guests will have no place to park.

The city's green-waste grabber known as The Claw is behind schedule

thanks to the massive leaf drop in early December.

(Photo courtesy City of Sacramento)

The problem is too many wet leaves, according to The Sacramento Bee. (Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2PCEyPt ) Rainy weather coincided with a massive leave drop in early December. This has ke
pt city crews working six days a week, trying to catch up. The added weight of wet leaves means the trucks can be filled only partway, further complicating the problem.

During the first 11 days of December 2017, The Claw fleet collected about 800 tons of green waste. In those same days in 2018, they collected more than 1,700 tons. That's a lot of leaves.

The city suggests using the green-waste cans first before adding more leaves to the street. The cans get picked up weekly. Think about composting fallen leaves or using them as mulch. Anything helps this overload.

Meanwhile, delay pruning to dry weather. The Claw service continues through Jan. 27.
Residents can get email reminders and text alerts on waste pick-ups via the city's website. For more on leaf season and a link to the collection calendar: https://bit.ly/2rDmnj4

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

gardening Sacramento pruning The Claw green waste trees fall weather leaves rain weather

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Find our fall recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Local News

Sites We Like

Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Find our winter recipes here!