Meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 12 noon at the Saraland Chamber Offices.
Welcome to Keep Saraland Beautiful
Keep Saraland Beautiful Yard of
the Month
Selections will rotate monthly to different parts of the city. The yard must have some seasonal color and one or more specimen trees. For full criteria and pictures of past Yards of the Month click the button below.
Adopt-A-Spot
Adopt-A-Spot is a part of Keep Saraland Beautiful, Inc. Our mission is to improve the natural beauty of Saraland with landscaped green spaces along Saraland Boulevard and Industrial Parkway and to improve civic pride in the business district of the City of Saraland.
The Keep Saraland Beautiful organization received its national certification as an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful in December 1999. This is a non-profit public education organization dedicated to preserving the natural beauty and environment of America and improving the waste handling practiced at the community level. It is a community based approach to changing the attitude and practices relating to litter and waste handling. The prime purpose of the Keep Saraland Beautiful program is to improve the aesthetic and ecological value of the city through litter control/prevention, proper handling of solid waste, beautification, public education awareness, recruitment of volunteers, and promotion of voluntary recycling. The program coordinates the cleanup efforts of the city as well as interacting with local business owners and managers. The programs targets "eyesores" throughout the city and seeks community resources to improve such sites as streets, rights of way, parking and vacant lots, loading docks and refuse areas. By having a local Keep America Beautiful affiliate we have access to a network of ideas that have worked and are working for other communities. The concept of changing the community for the better and increasing the community's pride can have long lasting benefits.
Our Mission
To encourage people living and working in Saraland to personally contribute to the improvement of the community
Recycling Ideas
KSB wants everyone to send us your ideas on how to reuse the center of paper towels - toilet paper rolls - wax paper etc. Let us see how many uses we can come up with!
Residential Recycling
The City of Saraland has two types of residential recycling. The free SINGLE STREAM RECYCLING containers are located on Station Street and residents must take their recycling items to the collection station. Curbside Single Stream Recycling cost is $5.00 per month per resident and picked up every Tuesday.
Mayor Dr. Howard Rubenstein, Council Chair Joe McDonald, Council Members: Newton Cromer, Wayne Biggs, Natalie Moye and Veronica Hudson
Mayor Dr. Howard Rubenstein, Council Chair Joe McDonald, Council Members: Newton Cromer, Wayne Biggs, Natalie Moye and Veronica Hudson
KSB GARDENING NEWS FROM JAMES MILES
September 2023Last month I wrote about the severe heat and drought effects on our landscape plants. In my 35 years in agriculture, I have not seen such widespread negative impacts from the heat and drought as I have observed this summer. Some of the surprising things I noticed were some large mature trees not only dropping leaves and/or wilting but actually dying. Yes, some are experiencing dieback for limbs, but I am referring to the entire tree suc-cumbing to the environmental stress.Some other observations would be in cotton, peanuts, and soybean fields. I passed a few fields at the end of August that looked as if they’d been sprayed with an herbicide, though that was not the case. I spoke with a few growers during the last week of August, and they were as surprised as I was about the effects on some of their fields. One peanut grower told me that he dug a few peanuts up to check the condition. He said that they were so dry that they were already rattling in the shell, and that’s not good. I have always supported and encouraged others to support local growers and farmers. This year may be a bit more critical for some, Mother Nature has not been kind to them. This spring, in mid-March we had a severe freeze that damaged crops and in late summer extreme heat & drought conditions damaged crops. These folks need a home run to make ends meet.We are starting September off with much-needed rain so hopefully, we can get some relief from this grip of severe drought and heat. As I have mentioned in several past articles, September is our transition month for gardening. Soil moisture is key to success, both short and long-term. Here is a link to the drought monitor to help you keep track of our situation. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ This month’s gardening tasks include: apply fire ant baits, renovate annual flower beds with fall plants, and roque out spent vegetable plants & weeds to prepare for fall vegeta-bles. I have started receiving plant catalogs via email. This is a great time to sit in your land-scape and make note of areas you want to enhance, change, etc. Document the amount of sun/shade, neighboring plants, size of area, etc. This will help you make wise choices of plants for the right place.A few months ago, I attended a field day and one of the topics was Roses. I must admit, in the past roses have not been in my top 20 plants to plant in my landscape. I have a few Knockout roses, but that’s it. After hearing this speaker, I was intrigued by his presenta-tion. He started his presentation with a few horticulture facts, one fact that stuck with me is that Roses are the #1 best seller in the nation. Another tidbit he shared was that folks think of roses as high maintenance, but if you plant the right type and right variety, they are not any more demanding than any other plant. Some keys to success are: research the varieties, prune them properly & timely, plant with proper spacing for the variety of choice, and plant in full sun. One variety that he spoke about is “Peggy Martin”. This is a climbing rose with few problems, I may have to give it a try. The American Rose Society website is loaded with a wealth of useful information if you are interested in doing some homework.A friendly reminder, our 2022-2023 Fishing license expired August 31st, make sure to renew before your next trip.Enjoy the outdoors!
Free Supplies to Help You Pick Up Litter!
We have a new Keep Saraland Beautiful project, buckets with litter supplies that residents can pick up at the Chamber of Commerce office for free. The buckets have 2 litter grabber sticks, 2 pairs of gloves, two pair of safety glasses, 2 safety vests, and a roll of trash bags. We ask that residents get one bucket per household, use the contents to pick up litter, then the items are theirs to keep. We would love them to post pictures on our Facebook page. All they have to do is go in during business hours and ask for litter supplies.
Keep Saraland Beautiful is proud to recognize “ Belle Bouquet and Florist” for winning the Quarterly Beautification Award. This family owned business has been serving Saraland and surrounding areas since the 1970’s with quality gifts and flowers for all occasions.
Meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 12 noon at the Saraland Chamber Offices.
Keep Saraland Beautiful Yard of
the Month
Selections will rotate monthly to different parts of the city. The yard must have some seasonal color and one or more specimen trees. For full criteria and pictures of past Yards of the Month click the button below.
Adopt-A-Spot
Adopt-A-Spot is a part of Keep Saraland Beautiful, Inc. Our mission is to improve the natural beauty of Saraland with landscaped green spaces along Saraland Boulevard and Industrial Parkway and to improve civic pride in the business district of the City of Saraland.
The Keep Saraland Beautiful organization received its national certification as an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful in December 1999. This is a non-profit public education organization dedicated to preserving the natural beauty and environment of Americaand improving the waste handling practiced at the community level. It is a community based approach to changing the attitude and practices relating to litter and waste handling. The prime purpose of the Keep Saraland Beautiful program is to improve the aesthetic and ecological value of the city through litter control/prevention, proper handling of solid waste, beautification, public education awareness, recruitment of volunteers, and promotion of voluntary recycling. The program coordinates the cleanup efforts of the city as well as interacting with local business owners and managers. The programs targets "eyesores" throughout the city and seeks community resources to improve such sites as streets, rights of way, parking and vacant lots, loading docks and refuse areas. By having a local Keep America Beautiful affiliate we have access to a network of ideas that have worked and are working for other communities. The concept of changing the community for the better and increasing the community's pride can have long lasting benefits.
Our Mission
To encourage people living and working in Saraland to personally contribute to the improvement of the community
Recycling Ideas
KSB wants everyone to send us your ideas on how to reuse the center of paper towels - toilet paper rolls - wax paper etc. Let us see how many uses we can come up with!
Residential Recycling
The City of Saraland has two types of residential recycling. The free SINGLE STREAM RECYCLING containers are located on Station Street and residents must take their recycling items to the collection station. Curbside Single Stream Recycling cost is $5.00 per month per resident and picked up every Tuesday.
Mayor Dr. Howard Rubenstein, Council Chair Joe McDonald, Council Members: Newton Cromer, Wayne Biggs, Natalie Moye and Veronica Hudson
KSB GARDENING NEWS
FROM JAMES MILES
September 2023Last month I wrote about the severe heat and drought effects on our landscape plants. In my 35 years in agriculture, I have not seen such widespread negative impacts from the heat and drought as I have observed this summer. Some of the surprising things I noticed were some large mature trees not only dropping leaves and/or wilting but actually dying. Yes, some are experiencing dieback for limbs, but I am referring to the entire tree suc-cumbing to the environmental stress.Some other observations would be in cot-ton, peanuts, and soybean fields. I passed a few fields at the end of August that looked as if they’d been sprayed with an herbicide, though that was not the case. I spoke with a few growers during the last week of August, and they were as surprised as I was about the effects on some of their fields. One peanut grower told me that he dug a few peanuts up to check the condi-tion. He said that they were so dry that they were already rattling in the shell, and that’s not good. I have always supported and encouraged others to support local growers and farm-ers. This year may be a bit more critical for some, Mother Nature has not been kind to them. This spring, in mid-March we had a severe freeze that damaged crops and in late summer extreme heat & drought con-ditions damaged crops. These folks need a home run to make ends meet.We are starting September off with much-needed rain so hopefully, we can get some relief from this grip of severe drought and heat. As I have mentioned in several past articles, September is our transition month for gardening. Soil moisture is key to suc-cess, both short and long-term. Here is a link to the drought monitor to help you keep track of our situation. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ This month’s gardening tasks include: apply fire ant baits, renovate annual flower beds with fall plants, and roque out spent vegetable plants & weeds to prepare for fall vegetables. I have started receiving plant catalogs via email. This is a great time to sit in your landscape and make note of areas you want to enhance, change, etc. Document the amount of sun/shade, neighboring plants, size of area, etc. This will help you make wise choices of plants for the right place.A few months ago, I attended a field day and one of the topics was Roses. I must admit, in the past roses have not been in my top 20 plants to plant in my landscape. I have a few Knockout roses, but that’s it. After hearing this speaker, I was intrigued by his presentation. He started his presen-tation with a few horticulture facts, one fact that stuck with me is that Roses are the #1 best seller in the nation. Another tidbit he shared was that folks think of roses as high maintenance, but if you plant the right type and right variety, they are not any more demanding than any other plant. Some keys to success are: research the varieties, prune them properly & timely, plant with proper spacing for the variety of choice, and plant in full sun. One variety that he spoke about is “Peggy Martin”. This is a climbing rose with few problems, I may have to give it a try. The American Rose Society website is loaded with a wealth of useful information if you are interested in doing some homework.A friendly reminder, our 2022-2023 Fishing license expired August 31st, make sure to renew before your next trip.Enjoy the outdoors!
Free Supplies to Help You
Pick Up Litter!
We have a new Keep Saraland Beautiful project, buckets with litter supplies that residents can pick up at the Chamber of Commerce office for free. The buckets have 2 litter grabber sticks, 2 pairs of gloves, two pair of safety glasses, 2 safety vests, and a roll of trash bags. We ask that residents get one bucket per household, use the contents to pick up litter, then the items are theirs to keep. We would love them to post pictures on our Facebook page. All they have to do is go in during business hours and ask for litter supplies.
Keep Saraland Beautiful is proud to recognize “ Belle Bouquet and Florist” for winning the Quarterly Beautification Award. This family owned business has been serving Saraland and surrounding areas since the 1970’s with quality gifts and flowers for all occasions.