Chipped and Mulchy (Number 2)
The Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood will be having another “Chipped & Mulchy” day before the Brush and Bulky pickup beginning February 4th.
Sign up by January 27 to be included in free chipping on February 1. If you want to participate you must sign up here. We need to keep track for the chipping contractor and must have a complete list by the January 27th, so make sure to sign up by then.
You will need to place your fresh tree trimmings on your curb just as you would for Brush & Bulky. Please combine your pile with a nearby neighbor if possible!
The mulch produced from your prunings will be used to replenish our neighborhood water harvesting basins!
(You may also like to participate in a native tree pruning workshop to be held prior to the chipping on January 19th)
Why Mulch? Organic mulch, such as chipped up tree prunings, applied to the top of soil:
- Increases the rate at which water infiltrates into the soil, preventing flooding, erosion, mud bogs, and mosquito habitat.
- Reduces soil-moisture lost to evaporation, lessening the need for irrigation.
- Feeds the soil's beneficial micro-organisms that improve your soil's fertility, reduce pollutants, and significantly increase plants’ ability to uptake water and nutrients.
- Brings soil to life! Mulched water-harvesting basins can transform relatively sterile urban soils into soils having the equivalent fertility of mature forest soils in just a couple of years.
- Reduces weed growth and wind-blown dust.
- Reduces waste. 12 to 14% of the City of Tucson’s solid waste stream is comprised of yard trimmings.
- Minimizes or eliminates the need for purchased chemical fertilizers.
Guidelines and Procedures for Neighborhood Mulching
* All public rights-of-way adjoining all properties must maintain/prune a contiguous clear walkway a minimum 5 feet wide and seven feet tall, so two people can comfortably walk along the path side by side without having to duck under limbs. Violations are subject to a citation from the City of Tucson.
* All piles of prunings left on curb (for chipping into mulch) should ONLY be of freshly pruned, green limbs 3” in diameter or less. No old, dry dead wood will be chipped into mulch (this dulls the chipper blades too quickly).
* Pile branches so branch butts are all facing in the same direction. This helps ensure that the pile of prunings is not tangled, but rather is orderly and easy to take apart to chip into mulch.
* Wide branch “crotches” or “V’s” should be cut at their base, so the branch will fit into the chipper (no diameter can exceed 3 inches).
* You must sign up by January 26 to have your prunings mulched. Do so here: http://dunbarspring.org/content/sign-chipped-and-mulchy
* All piles must be on the street curbside before Romeo Tree Service arrives on site. No other brush is to be added once the crew arrives.
* Any material not within these parameters will be left for Brush & Bulky service to remove (this takes place the week of Feb. 4 in Dunbar/Spring).
* Only Romeo Tree Service personnel shall be on site during any and all operations associated with chipping. While Romeo Tree Service is on site no one shall be doing any tree work whatsoever, including trimming or dragging branches.