winter

It is definitely winter outside. The temperatures have been bone chilling the past couple of days and today is a bleak day with light sleet falling as I write. The tree and plant debris continues to build at curbside in neighborhoods across central Arkansas, and I feel sorry for the public works guys trying to get it all picked up. It may be days. I did have a call yesterday from one neighborhood association that is considering renting a chipper and making mulch for their neighbors. They were worried about using it, but I told them it would be fine, provided, they didn’t stockpile it too high and left some air space at the base of the plants. I recommend it more for walkways and around woody ornamentals–not vegetable gardens. If there are parks or public spaces in your neighborhoods, this would be another great use of the mulch. The LR public works crew was in my neighborhood yesterday taking down some tree hazards that were still impeding roadways, but their task is daunting, and this weather I am sure is not helping.

Yesterday afternoon I went to Benton to meet with some Saline MG’s –Sherry Faulkner and Julie Kerr, along with agent Ron Matlock. Sherry has come up with a wonderful idea that we are calling: “Arkansas Plants it Forward”. Her idea is for Arkansas MG’s to help in plant recovery in NJ and NY. We are going to try to team up with a few counties up there that were hard hit by the storms and try to go up and replant some MG projects. The project is in its infancy, but we will share more information as we get it.