Queens MulchFest 2010 - Jackson Heights

Mulchfest 2009 – Jackson Heights Queens

Jackson Heights / January 9, 2009. I headed up to Jackson Heights on this cold clear wintry day to watch Mulchfest 2010 in process. It was 28 degrees, but with the 17 – 22 mile an hour winds it felt more like it was in the low teens. Upon arrival I was greeted by members of some of the collaborating community organizations, which in concert with the Queens Park Department, had organized and help publicize the Mulch Festival.

Mulchfest Alleviates Sanitation Department Burden

It wasn’t long before the tree toting citizens of the neighborhood began arriving, trees in tow, to send the trees of Xmas 2009 back to the planet. Mulchfest provides numerous benefits to the community in that in one fell swoop the Parks Department picks up some tens of thousands of trees, which alleviates some of the burden on the Sanitation Department.

Mulchfest Improves Community Soil – Queens Parks Department

The benefit of mulchfest goes beyond helping the Sanitation Department in that the mulch collected during this festival weekend, ends up adding to the health of the park soil, as well as to the soil of many citizens’ backyards, gardens and in Jackson Heights – originator of the Garden Apartment – communal gardens. One group came with a couple of wheel barrows to collect mulch for the garden of their building [see photo below].

Mulchfest Gives Xmas Trees An Extended Life

While watching the festival of mulching, I overheard one set of parents explaining to their children that they weren’t saying goodbye to their Xmas tree, but rather transforming into another form so that “their Xmas tree would be with them all year round”. They picked up a bag of the sweet smelling pine chips, before heading off to ceremoniously sprinkle the chips in their garden.

Mulchfest Sponsors

Mulchfest is primarily a parks department sponsored event, but it’s given quite a bit of additional publicity and support by a number of other community organizations, such as the Friends of Travers Park of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group [JHBG], the Queens Botanical Garden which continues to educate the public about the benefits of composting [recycling biodegradeable matter], and the Astoria Parks Alliance which was busy doing this very same thing at the very same time in Astoria Park.

Photo Album / Special Mentions

We created a photo album showing the collaborative efforts of the groups mentioned above. Mike Rizzuto, William Conlon and Hugo Ramos of the Parks Department were on hand to mulch the trees and provide mulch to those who wanted to take some home. Len Maniace of JHBG, Julie Corwin of the Queens Botanical Gardens and [TB Named] were there serving hot chocolate and providing literature about composting.

Click here to view a photos of Queens Mulchfest 2010 , including local residents contributing to this effort. Kudos to all of them. Click this link to go to the Friends of Travers Park Jackson Heights home page on this site.

Jackson Heights Neighborhood - Related Links

Click this link to go to the Jackson Heights & Elmhurst Neighborhood News / Jackson Heights & Elmhurst Restaurants Guide & Map / Jackson Heights Business Directory / Elmhurst Business Directory / Jackson Heights & Elmhurst Shopping Center & Map.

Queens Buzz Site Search. To find restaurants, shopping or other things to do in any of the neighborhoods, use the search function: 1) for best results, when typing in more than one word, use quotation marks - eg "Astoria Park" and 2) try both singular and plural when searching for a specific item such as "gym" or "gyms".

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