We are often asked “What does the Garden Club do?”  Throughout this web site, you will find much information about our mission and our projects, but essentially we are all about the trees.  Previously we explored our pruning project, and today we’d like to introduce you to the magic of mulch, and why we do it.

When we plant a new street tree on the sidewalks of the Back Bay (and we plant, on average, ten new trees a year in empty tree pits), we install a PVC pipe perforated with holes and topped with a removable cap to facilitate deep watering.  We contact abutting neighbors and find a good citizen willing to provide auxiliary water to the newly planted tree for a period of two years, and then we mulch.  The mulch moderates the temperature of the soil surrounding the tree and lessens evaporation, very important on hot summer days.  A young tree undergoes the same transplant shock that flats of flowers do, but while a small pansy plant can recover rapidly with a quart of water, the tree needs far more moisture to thrive.

Needless to say, mulch isn’t free.  We purchase bales and bales of mulch and volunteer members clean out the tree pits (cigarette butts are but one of many unmentionable bits of garbage we find discarded next to our beloved trees) and add a few inches of mulch, carefully keeping the mulch away from the bark so we don’t promote rot.  That mulch money comes, in part, from your support of our Holiday Wreath sale, and we hope that, when you decide to purchase one of our gorgeous wreaths, you’ll think of how grateful the young trees will be when they are tucked in to bed with their blankets of mulch.  Click here to order.