City of Sacramento, county offer options to turn trees into mulch
Do your holiday traditions include a live Christmas tree? When it's time to take it down, consider recycling it as mulch. Kathy Morrison
Merry Christmas! Now that the gifts are all open, it’s time to consider: What’s next for the tree?
If your celebratory conifer was a real tree, it could be recycled into mulch for your garden or a local park.
Living Christmas trees – those in pots with roots – should get back outdoors ASAP. They need sun, water and air. Conifers don’t make good houseplants.
Real Christmas trees – once living, but by now pretty dead – can be recycled. The City of Sacramento as well as Sacramento County turn old trees into mulch that can help save water as well as add nutrients to soil.
For Sacramento city residents with curbside trash pick-up, trees can be left in the street or cut up and placed in the green waste container. “The Claw” will pick up trees through Jan. 29. Please keep trees out of bike lanes and away from storm drains, the city says.
Flocked trees will be accepted. Please remove all tinsel, decorations, lights, nails and tree stands.
In addition, several free drop-off events are scheduled around the county:
-- 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6; SMUD Corporation Yard, 6100 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento. Get your tree mulched for free and take home the mulch to use in your garden. Bring large trash bags or containers to cart home the mulch.
-- 8 a.m.-6 p.m Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 6 and 7; North Area Recovery Station, 4450 Roseville Road, North Highlands.
-- 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 6 and 7; Kiefer Landfill, 12701 Kiefer Blvd., Rancho Cordova. Directions: From Jackson Highway, go north on Grant Line, then right on Kiefer Boulevard.
-- 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6; Elder Creek Recovery and Transfer, 8642 Elder Creek Road, Sacramento. Directions: From Jackson Highway, go south on Florin Perkins Road, then left on Elder Creek Road.
-- 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6; Sacramento Recycling & Transfer Station, 8491 Fruitridge Road, Sacramento. This site is also accepting trees weekdays through Jan. 7. Directions: From Jackson Highway, go south on Florin Perkins Road, then right on Fruitridge Road.
-- 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6; Dan Russell Rodeo Arena, Rodeo Park, end of Stafford Street, Folsom.
For more details: https://rb.gy/mjdiko or https://bit.ly/3YSEqQP
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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Garden Checklist for week of May 4
Enjoy this spring weather – and get gardening!
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.