By Dennis Lynch
It was a chipper leaves-taking.
Brooklynites bid their Christmas trees goodbye by chucking the once-festive arbors into wood chippers during the city’s 20th Annual Mulch Fest on Jan. 9–10. The chips were flying around eight Kings County greenswards as the departments of parks and sanitation teamed up to crush the borough’s boughed rubbish into plant food for the city’s parks and gardens.
Workers let locals keep a few bags of their erstwhile decorations, a boon for one budding green thumb who got his parents to lug their log to Owl’s Head Park, a Bay Ridge mom said.
“It was my son’s idea to go — he has a garden in the backyard, so we picked up some mulch for that,” Cynthia Breimoen said of her six-year-old son. “It’s a great program — gives people a chance to clear out their Christmas trees and takes some of that work away from the sanitation department.”
Workers pulverized just over 30,000 trees citywide, slightly more than last year, according to a parks department spokeswoman.
Another Ridge gardener said she didn’t haul a tree, but she enjoyed the fruits of previous years’ labor.
“I’ve given my tree many times but never taken any before this year,” said Cecile Nugent, who went with her boyfriend Vinny McKeon. “We have just a small garden, so we each took two bags.”
The Department of Sanitation is taking trees left on sidewalks until Jan. 15.
