Vacuuming Leaves Is Safer and Cheaper Than Blowing Them

Your pile can only get so big before you need to stop and do something about it. You created a lot of dust and pollution making that pile, but now you’re at the same place you were after a half-hour of blowing. You need to bag them up, or get them on a tarp and drag them off. (Don’t even think about burning them—it’s illegal almost everywhere now). After a half-hour of this drudgery, those leaves are laughing at you. READ MORE HERE >

Forest Hills Tea Garden

At the back of the historic Forest Hills Inn at 1 Station Square lies a long-lost architectural gem, the Forest Hills Tea Garden. Opened in 1912 behind an ornate gate, the Tea Garden hosted everything from weddings to dinner dances. Though the remains of the tea garden remain today, most residents probably are unaware of its history. According to Michael Perlman, an author and historian who has been raising money and awareness to preserve the Tea Garden, the structure is just a shell of its former self, though it has the potential for restoration and revitalization. Perlman, a fifth-generation Forest Hills resident, spoke with Untapped New York about the history of this mostly forgotten but rich historic site.

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Cate Blanchett vs Leaf Blowers

Cate Blanchett vs leaf blowers is the only celebrity feud I care about pic.twitter.com/O3ChMWLNLO

— Bob (@tweetsbybob_) April 21, 2024

Forest Hills Stadium Concert Noise Controversy

The nonprofit Forest Hills Gardens Corporation and a group of nearby residents have sued the Forest Hills Stadium and West Side Tennis Club owner, saying the Queens concert venue has repeatedly violated the city’s noise code and created a huge public nuisance. 

Gothamist 6.11.23 | These Forest Hills Stadium concerts made residents most angry

Brooklyn Vegan 5.22.23| Forest Hills Stadium sued by neighbors with noise complaints

Queens Chronicle 11.16.23| Residents sound off about stadium noise

FOX News 10.25.23 | Forest Hills Stadium in Queens faces lawsuit over noise complaints

CBS News | Forest Hills Stadium in Queens faces lawsuit over noise complaints

Daily News 12.13.23| Residents sue Forest Hills Stadium over concert series noise complaints

Reddit 5.20.23 | Queens neighborhood torn apart by Forest Hills Stadium concert controversy
Reddit 12.14.23 | Residents sue Forest Hills Stadium over concert series noise complaints
West Side Tennis Club | America's most historic and iconic showcase for tennis. The club has been the site of some of the sport's most memorable moments.
Forest Hills Stadium | A historic outdoor music venue that has welcomed fans to the picturesque New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens for nearly 100 years. 

Concerned Citizens of Forest Hills | Concerned Citizens of Forest Hills is a not-for-profit that advocates for reasonable limits on concerts at the Forest Hills Stadium.

CCFH Petition | Mayor Adams, Queens Borough President Richards & Council member Schulman: Please Listen to Local Residents Regarding Concerts at the Forest Hills Stadium!

CCFH Advocacy Fund | Please support our advocacy for reasonable restrictions on the concerts at the Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, NY.

Lawn Care Goes Electric: Why it’s time to switch to a new generation of clean, quiet electric lawn equipment

Gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment is noisy and dirty The air pollution and noise pollution generated by gasoline-powered lawn equipment are hazardous to human health...

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Forest Hills Greenmarket

Located in front of the Forest Hills Post Office, this neighborhood Greenmarket boasts a variety of locally grown, fresh products. Throughout the season, the market will offer free cooking demonstrations, kids activities, and the opportunity to mingle with neighbors, all while getting to know the regional farmers who grow your food. Come back each week to learn about the benefits of eating what is fresh and in season. READ MORE HERE >

NYC Compost Project at the Queens Botanical Garden

Visit www.nyc.gov/wasteless/compost to learn about the Leave It On the Lawn Workshops. Grass Clippings are 85% water and 5% nitrogen. leaving grass clippings on the lawn not only prevents waste, it returns water and nutrients to the soil—reducing the need for fertilizer. These workshops provide step-by-step instructions on mulching.

compost helpline: (718) 539-5296

email: compost@queensbotanical.org

web: www.queensbotanical.org/compost

The Brian Lehrer Show: Bans on Leaf-Blowers

WNYC's Brian Lehrer Interviews Jessica Stolzberg, the Montclair-based writer, who talks about her town's seasonal ban on gas-powered leaf blowers and argues for banning them altogether, for the sake of the planet and the people who use them. LISTEN HERE >

NYS Senate Bill S1113A

Senate Bill S1113A from the 2021-2022 Legislative Session relates to prohibiting the use of gas-powered leaf and lawn blowers during certain months seems to be gathering some momentum.

Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 1300-d to read as follows:§ 1300-d. Gas-powered leaf and lawn blowers. No person shall operate a Gas-powered leaf and lawn blower for any purpose between May first and September thirtieth. Any person who violates the provisions of this Section shall be subject to a civil fine of not more than one hundred Dollars. § 2. This act shall take effect on May 1, 2024. READ MORE HERE >

8 Essential Elements for Planning a Cottage Garden

A cottage garden says, Come in. Wander. Stay awhile. It's freewheeling, not formal; generous, not stingy. Its abundance may be what you notice first: Vines clamber up porch posts, roses twine across arbors, flowers overflow their beds in the company of herbs and other edibles. "Cottage gardens are personal and embracing," says Lisa Moseley, a Santa Monica, California, designer who has created quite a few. She adds that almost any style of home can get a charm boost from traditional cottage plants: old-fashioned hollyhocks and delphinium, iris and hydrangea, catmint and pinks, selected, of course, for local growing conditions and deployed en masse. READ MORE HERE >

Change.org petition: Traffic Safety in Forest Hills Gardens

The volume and speed of traffic and the disregard for our rules and street signs create a direct risk to the lives, health, and safety of the members of our community; damage our quality of life; reduce property values; and lead to unnecessary costs to the Corporation and its members. It is only a matter of time until one of these vehicles kills or maims someone. READ MORE HERE >

Change.org petition: End Gas Leaf Blower Pollution in New York: Support Senate Bill S1113

New York State Senator John Liu (D-11)'s Senate bill S1113 would eliminate the use of gas leaf and lawn blowers from May - September in an effort to address the health, environmental, and social justice impacts of these dangerous devices. In the Assembly, Assemblyman Dinowitz (81st District) has introduced the companion bill, A5375. READ MORE HERE >

‘Are leaf blowers bad for us?’

On the topic of leaf blowers, I situated myself by reading an article by James Fallows, a writer for The Atlantic who worked with neighbors on a successful effort to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in Washington, D.C. He offers a helpful explanation of the air pollution generated by the two-stroke engine found in many blowers: “It’s simpler, cheaper, and lighter than the four-stroke engines of most modern cars, and has a better power-to-weight ratio. But it is vastly dirtier and less fuel-efficient because by design it sloshes together a mixture of gasoline and oil in the combustion chamber and then spews out as much as one-third of that fuel as an unburned aerosol.” READ MORE HERE >

PLANTING CALENDAR FOR FOREST HILLS, NY

The gardening experts at The Old Farmer's Almanac have done the homework for you! Our planting tool is personalized down to your zip code, pulling from a database of thousands of weather station reports, and using the "days until harvest" for the most popular vegetables grown in the home garden. Then, we determine when to sow indoors, transplant, and seed outdoors based on what's best for each vegetable. READ MORE HERE >

A Forest Hills Gardens Favorite: Hicks Nurseries

Finest Selection of Plants, Pottery and Outdoor Furniture for Your Home & Garden. The Destination for Quality Home, Garden & Outdoor Living Solutions Since 1853. Trust In Hicks. A Short Drive Away. Plants, Trees, Shrubs. Open 7 Days. Largest Nursery on LI. Since 1853. READ MORE HERE>

New York Proposal 2, Environmental Rights Amendment (2021)

New York Proposal 2, the Environmental Rights Amendment, is on the ballot in New York as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 2, 2021.
A "yes" vote supports adding a right to clean water, clean air, and a healthful environment to the New York Constitution's Bill of Rights.

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Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers: the End is Nigh

This is a one-time post to pull together resources, links, and info on a topic I’ve followed for a long time. Check out the two photos below. One, of chronic congestion on freeways in my Southern California homeland. The other, of familiar modern “gardening” practices. Which do you think is overall a greater contributor to certain kinds of air pollution, carcinogenic emissions, lung disease, and hearing loss, in our nation’s most populous state? 
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The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Leaf Blowers

 “Using a two-stroke engine is like heating your house with an open pit fire in the living room — and chopping down your trees to keep it going, and trying to whoosh away the fetid black smoke before your children are poisoned by it.”
READ MORE HERE >