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New trees need water
05/03/2009 6:00 AM by John M
The south end of Fairmount has recently been blessed with 25 or so new street trees via the Urban Forestry Division, mostly along the 1000, 1100, and 1200 blocks of 21st and 22nd Streets. Anybody want to volunteer to help water these trees this summer?
Some of the new trees have already been adopted by neighbors, but many are in front of rental properties or vacant lots and may not find a sponsor. The New Vision Civic League has an ad hoc water truck and is seeking volunteers to help with watering as needed, volunteers to provide water on occasion, and sponsors willing to provide for individual trees. Comment below or contact John to get involved.
There have been a couple of neighborhoods (Westover Hills comes to mind) that have agreed with DPW for a watering plan. They buy what’s called water gators that are placed around a tree and slowly release water. Drive down Forest Hill Avenue to Westover Hills Blvd and look at the crepe myrtles placed there. Good community buy-in.
The water gators still need to be filled & I takes a TON of water to fill all of them. We have a couple of Union Hill people that are signed off on driving a few city trucks that have big plastic water tanks on the back. I think they had to take classes to drive the trucks.
I had a tree plant in front of my house last year. How long do you fill the water gator? One year or two?
With drought, maybe forever. With current weather, don’t need Gater at all.
Two years is the best plan. I had trees planted on my block and took care of them for that amount of time and they thrived. The gator bags should be filled once a week in the summer to really work. After that, donate them to neighbors that have new trees on their block. It’s a great recycling!
We’ll be glad to collect any extra gators for the Fairmount trees, as we’ve not got any for them.
Same situation on North 29th Street, the City did not provide us with gator bags for the two new dogwoods on the 600 block.
Does anyone in Union Hill remember how we got the gator bags for the new trees at Jefferson Park last year? I can’t remember if we had to buy them or if the city provided them at our request.
In Jefferson Park we did get gator bags for most of the 30 trees we planted. The way I understand it, trees that are purchase through the “Adopt a Tree” program come with a gator bag- trees that come through other programs such as the planting in Fairmount do not come with gator bags. Gator bags are about $25 apiece and can really put a hurting on the new tree budget. Whenever possible, let’s recycle those bags when they are no longer needed for younger trees.
Bill, that’s a great idea! Have you thought about looking around the neighborhood and seeing if some of the trees planted, say, two or three years ago, still need the bags? I’m wondering about some of them behind Richmond Hill, among others, although those may still be such young trees that they need the bags – what with all the rain we’ve just had most if not all of the bags should be full right now, so this would be a project that could take a few weeks to accomplish. I don’t know who, if anyone, takes away the bags once the trees really take root.
If anyone needs a gator bag or two, I’ve got a couple (still in great shape) in my basement. I’d love to see them used on new trees. Send an email to elaine@churchhillphoto.com and we can arrange the hand-off.
Bill (and Elaine), does anyone know how old the trees have to be before you can safely remove the gator bags? Would the city advise? I’d be game to help do a survey of the area to see which trees have bags that can be safely removed, I don’t think the city goes back two or three years later and removes them.
The first year is the most crucial. If a tree is thriving after 2 years, I’d be inclined to shift the bags over to the new babies.
crd: Rain doesnt actually fill the gator bags, rather you have to put a hose in a fairly small slot at the top of the bag and fill it up. The water then slowly is dosed out to the tree over the next few hours. It is designed to give the tree a chance to absorb the water and minimizes runoff. The key to a good watering is to allow the root ball to get a good soaking.
Any gators that are no longer necessary could be un-zipped and placed on a needy tree.
-Bill