Sacramento City, County offer options to turn trees into mulch
Even if you're not ready to un-decorate your tree, think about how and where to recycle it. Kathy Morrison
Happy Boxing Day! Are you ready to box up your Christmas decorations – and deal with the tree?
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.
For Sacramento 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. 23. Please keep trees out of bikes lanes and away from storm drains, the city says.
Flocked trees will be accepted. Please remove all tinsel, decorations, lights, nails or tree stands.
In addition, several free drop-off events are scheduled:
-- 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7; 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. 7 and 8; North Area Recovery Station, 4450 Roseville Road, North Highlands.
-- 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 7 and 8; 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. 7; 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. 7; 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. 7; Dan Russell Rodeo Arena, Rodeo Park, end of Stafford Street, Folsom.
For more details: https://bit.ly/3YSEqQP
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Food in My Back Yard Series
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of May 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* 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.
* 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.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.