Gardening in the City

Cambridge is full of lots of public spaces that are too small to be properly accounted for in budget and maintenance, but too large to just be ignored. So, often we end up with bare patches of dirt and empty tree boxes in places with far more potential.

Enter some active neighbors and their green thumbs, aka the Pick-a-Pocket Gardeners. Last year, these folks volunteered to adopt several City-owned pocket-gardens and maintainted them throughout the growing season. DPW kicked in some training and landscape materials.

This year, the group wants to expand, and so DPW is hosting a kickoff meeting next Wednesday (6/2) at 6:30pm at the DPW offices at 147 Hampshire Street.

From an invitation email from the aptly named Kathy Gardner:

[Last year, w]e all enjoyed the fresh air, interesting conversations, and exercise and we were greatly appreciated by passersby and businesses. We also improved our own and our neighbor's quality of life by promoting beauty in our environment. Can you beat that for a free activity?

This year the program is expanding to include more parks and more people. You may already have noticed a spot you would like to take care of -- we'll help you get started. At the meeting we will match volunteers with garden spaces in their neighborhood...

Please contact Ellen Coppinger, ecoppinger@cambridgema.gov for more information or to express interest.

DPW Comes Through

Though one could find some humor in the Brookline Street sinkholes blogged about on Monday, the situation was probably more than a little dangerous for cars and pedestrians alike. DPW's reaction was commendable: warning signage and traffic barrels were put up during the rain Sunday. The water-filled holes were filled (again, in the rain) with gravel on Monday. By Tuesday, the two main sinkholes were asphalt patched and driver-ready. Nice work.

Now count me among those who are ready for Brookline Street to be resurfaced, the project completed and leaves to appear on all the new trees!

A Thought Exercise

Start with a not-yet-completed street improvement project.

Add days of unrelenting, saturating rain, which causes sinkholes in the unfinished roadway. Fill the sinkholes with more rain, disguising the sinkholes as mere puddles.

Throw in some speeding cars that run into the sinkholes with a great deal of force, jarring anything not bolted to the car loose.

What do you get?

A) C-port's newest public art project;

B) a new mom-and-pop auto body shop; or

C) a severely value-engineered traffic calming installation for CDD

Christmas Tree Collection 12/28 - 01/08

The 12-day window to recycle Christmas trees began yesterday. See details from the City's announcement:

Curbside collection of bare Christmas trees will be Dec 28-Jan 8. Decorations and stands must be removed and trees should not be in a plastic bag. Weather permitting, trees collected during this time don't get buried or burned. Last year, residents recycled over 4,700 trees. The chipped trees were used as mulch in natural areas in Cambridge. For more information, visit the DPW Yard Waste page.