I volunteer at greencitypartnership.org, leading a crew restoring a large park.
I've been wondering how we might build a community of urban forest hackers. To share tips and info, how to deal with vandals, help each other make yard signs, how to transport water over trail, etc.
I would love to know better ways for breaking up a parking lot.
I opened up 4 separate spaces for tree planters. I started with pickaxe and pry rod (nicknamed The Persuader by its owner). That's real work. Next, I borrowed a Makita rotary hammer from our local tool library. Very helpful!
My "boss" has a protocol to improve plant survival and reduce labor: pile up 10" - 12" of mulch. If my trees survive this summer I'll be very happy.
So, my boss's teams use the "too much mulch" hack, to great success.
But her innovation is slow to spread. Because our teams only meet yearly (some of us do float around to other job sites, which is great). But we have no contact with other teams, other cities, other regions. And seeing is believing. (I too was very skeptical and reluctant to schlep that much more mulch.)
And I'm sure someone somewhere has some labor saving hacks for tackling Himalayan blackberry. Once removed, my boss's hack is to use pinebark to prevent their return. Works great! (Another innovation slow to spread.) But oh boy removing invasives like blackberries, english ivy, scotch broom, etc currently requires a lot of labor.
(I know about super steam lances. Notion is to cook root balls from the inside out. I'm still trying to find a unit to experiment with. I heard there's one in Oregon, that I might go visit.)
I've been wondering how we might build a community of urban forest hackers. To share tips and info, how to deal with vandals, help each other make yard signs, how to transport water over trail, etc.
I would love to know better ways for breaking up a parking lot.
I opened up 4 separate spaces for tree planters. I started with pickaxe and pry rod (nicknamed The Persuader by its owner). That's real work. Next, I borrowed a Makita rotary hammer from our local tool library. Very helpful!
My "boss" has a protocol to improve plant survival and reduce labor: pile up 10" - 12" of mulch. If my trees survive this summer I'll be very happy.
So, my boss's teams use the "too much mulch" hack, to great success.
But her innovation is slow to spread. Because our teams only meet yearly (some of us do float around to other job sites, which is great). But we have no contact with other teams, other cities, other regions. And seeing is believing. (I too was very skeptical and reluctant to schlep that much more mulch.)
And I'm sure someone somewhere has some labor saving hacks for tackling Himalayan blackberry. Once removed, my boss's hack is to use pinebark to prevent their return. Works great! (Another innovation slow to spread.) But oh boy removing invasives like blackberries, english ivy, scotch broom, etc currently requires a lot of labor.
(I know about super steam lances. Notion is to cook root balls from the inside out. I'm still trying to find a unit to experiment with. I heard there's one in Oregon, that I might go visit.)