Lawn & Leaf Bag Pickup -- not gonna happen

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

This is just an FYI in case you're starting your spring yard work early, but I just found out that the city won't start accepting paper lawn & leaf bags for curbside pickup until April 15.

How do I know this? By the 4 very full bags that were still on my curb this morning after yesterday's pick-up. I called (617-625-6600 X5100), and found out about April 15. Until then you can take them somewhere (I didn't pay attention to where because I don't have a car -- they'll tell you on the phone). But if car-less like me, you are stuck with them for another month, when the bottoms will be rotted out and rebagging necessary.

/grumpy PSA

Comments

[ruxxell.livejournal.com]

yeah hey whats the deal with this? i still have an xmas tree out back. is there a different day for vegatation pick up than there is for trash? what day is it, or where can i find out what day it is for my neighborhood?

HELP ME!

Go to the city website

[msr-tim.livejournal.com]

Look at the yard waste pickup schedule at the city website.

http://www.somervillema.gov/section.cfm?org=environ&page=266

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry you're stuck with the yard waste.

Yeah, yard waste pickup is generally mid-April through the end of the year. We should be getting our 2008 environmental services guide in the mail any time now.

(The where you can take them is the DPW yard on Franey Road. I would think that a single yard waste bag would work pretty well in a folding shopping cart, but as I have a car, this assumption is mostly theoretical on my part, although I have been contemplating going to the hazardous waste days -- also not yet -- with a push cart because that would amuse me.)

Sorry about your yard waste doom.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to stick 'em in the garage and hope they don't get wetter than they already got last weekend. I have more to fill, in fact. No way I'm schlepping them anywhere!

[ron_newman]

Is it open on Saturdays or at other times when ordinary people are not at work? If so, then yeah, it's not an especially long walk with a shopping cart from Ball Square.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

What they said.... So it really wouldn't even be very far for you to drag the bags over to the DPW if you wanted to, just a few blocks. But I'm sure the boy would help. :)

And indeed, the City sends out a schedule for yard waste pickup, but since the last one was sent a year ago, you've probably forgotten about it, or it's somewhere under several layers behind a magnet on the fridge. (I think I pulled mine off the fridge and tossed it in February or so.) But they are pretty strict about it and you could probably potentially get a ticket for getting it wrong.

(On the "up" side, I just managed to get the fees waved on a parking ticket I never got, so that instead of paying a surprise $60, I only have to pay a surprise $25. Yay?)



PS: HTH!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

These lawn bags don't fit in my granny cart. Much too big. And I'm not in possession of a stray Shaw's cart (maybe someday, after I've aquired 187 diseased cats and am kicked out on the street). Really, I think I'll just put them in the garage. They'll be fine for a month there, and I have at least 3 or 4 more bags to fill up before the front yard is ready for gardening. You should come over and plant with me. It's fun.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they'll be fine in the garage, and that way you won't get fined.

And sounds like fun. Also, you should come over and plant with *me*. :) I really ought to start my seeds...

Yet another side effect of global warming:

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

The city needs to schedule pick up a month earlier. Or, you were just really early with your yard clean up.

If you can put them up on something, they'll definitely be fine. Try to keep them off the concrete floor. Even a few slats of scrap lumber will work well. A lot depends on how moist the waste was to begin with, but I'm going to guess it was fairly dry. Be careful if it is really dense and moist like grass trimmings, because it will begin to compost on you.

Re: Yet another side effect of global warming:

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, I had to clean up the leaves because it looked like hell. These weren't fluffy October leaves. They were wet clots of half-decayed leaf matting that had been sitting there all winter, slimy underneath and gray on the outside. It was disgraceful. I figure the bags will be fine in the garage for now. They won't quite be fermented by April 15. :-)

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I know you're feeling grumpy about it but it doesn't seem so insurmountable of a task to deal with it. For many people it would be a relatively trivial task and if it happened to coincide with some free time they'd help you with it in exchange for something like lunch. You need only ask.
To me personally, I look at what you described and say to myself that that's one (full) load on bicycle and would be fairly easy to move somewhere within somerville. I've done a lot more for neighbors and friends and asked just the same, all for cost/benefit of meeting and socializing with people. For many people and communities, being social and paying it forward (and typically some token of lunch, dinner or alcohol) is a standard currency. I see that as much the type of neighborhood that I would want to live in.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, if anyone with wheels would like to come get them (the leaves are wet and I can't even lift the bags, let alone carry them on a bike), I'm glad to do their mending or hemming on my sewing machine.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Funny how trash/yard waste pick-up works in Somerville. They picked up the 2 bags that my husband left out last week. This after I told him not to bother because they hadn't started pick-up yet. I think if they're in the mood they simply throw it in with the trash (have seen this with recycling).