© Keep Saraland Beautiful. All Rights Reserved. Website design and hosting by North Mobile Internet Services, Inc.

KeepSaralandBeautiful

11 May

Next Meeting

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.
More Info More Info
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!
Recycling Ideas Recycling Ideas

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.
More Info More Info
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, Paul Stanley and Veronica Hudson

KSB GARDENING NEWS FROM JAMES MILES

March 2023 The unseasonably warm weather has our plants blooming, greening up ahead of their normal times, and making gardeners want to start springtime activities. Don’t fall victim to initiating things that could be detrimental to your plants too soon. Don’t fertilize your turf at this time, fertilize Bermuda, St. Augustine and Zoysia mid to late April and Cen- tipede in May. Use post-emergent herbicides with caution (read the label), and keep an eye out for delayed frost damage from back in December. You may have to perform some fol- low up pruning as plants green up and you see limbs that do not. Winter weeds are starting to mature and take over, you will need to mow to reduce the competition and hopefully prevent them from producing seeds. I did notice some adult mole cricket activ- ity the last week of February. Make a note of where you saw such activity to target in June with a treatment. Last year I was introduced to a plant that I never thought about growing. I had eaten the fruit purchased from grocery stores on many occasions and never was overly impressed. I met a gardener last year that has been growing this plant for years and shared the fruit from his plants with me, WOW! I was pleasantly surprised. This new to me plant is Dragon fruit cactus. It is known by several common names, such as night-blooming cereus, strawberry pear, and more. This cactus is easy to grow and requires more water than most cacti. Dragon fruit does not tolerate subfreezing temps, so you will need a plan for frost/freeze protection. You will need 2 different types to insure pollination. There are 5 types that I am familiar with, red skin – white flesh, red skin – red flesh, red skin - purple flesh, yellow skin – yellow flesh, and yellow skin – white flesh. That being said, there are more types out there. This plant needs full sun and a well-drained soil. These plants can get rather large so space them more than 3 feet from structures and other plants. Many gardeners grow the cactus but don’t get them to fruit. One reason is the blooms open at night and depend on nocturnal pollinators like moths and bats. These pollinators are not common in houses or other protected structures, resulting in lack of pollination. You can use a cotton swab to pollinate them yourself. If you start plants from seeds, it will take about 7 years to fruit production, and no cer- tainty as to the fruit characteristics. Cuttings on the other hand can produce fruit in 1 year or less. I planted some and look forward to a new experience with these plants. Like most pro- duce, the fresh home-grown product is so much better than what you purchase from stores. Enjoy the outdoors!
Litter Cleanup Supplies for Saraland More Gardening Tips More Gardening Tips

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.
Congratulations to Taco Bell at 827 Saraland Blvd for winning the quarterly “Beautification Award” from Keep Saraland Beautiful.
BEAUTIFICATION AWARD WINNER

Click to View

© Keep Saraland Beautiful. All Rights Reserved. Website design and hosting by North Mobile Internet Services, Inc.

Welcome to Keep Saraland Beautiful

KeepSaralandBeautiful

11 May

Next Meeting

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 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!
Recycling Ideas Recycling Ideas More Info More Info

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.
More Info More Info
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

March 2023 The unseasonably warm weather has our plants blooming, greening up ahead of their normal times, and making gardeners want to start springtime activities. Don’t fall victim to initiating things that could be detrimental to your plants too soon. Don’t fertilize your turf at this time, fertilize Bermuda, St. Augustine and Zoysia mid to late April and Centipede in May. Use post- emergent herbicides with caution (read the label), and keep an eye out for delayed frost damage from back in December. You may have to perform some follow up pruning as plants green up and you see limbs that do not. Winter weeds are starting to mature and take over, you will need to mow to reduce the competition and hopefully pre- vent them from producing seeds. I did notice some adult mole cricket activity the last week of February. Make a note of where you saw such activity to target in June with a treatment. Last year I was introduced to a plant that I never thought about growing. I had eaten the fruit purchased from grocery stores on many occasions and never was overly impressed. I met a gardener last year that has been growing this plant for years and shared the fruit from his plants with me, WOW! I was pleasantly surprised. This new to me plant is Dragon fruit cactus. It is known by several common names, such as night-blooming cereus, strawberry pear, and more. This cactus is easy to grow and requires more water than most cacti. Dragon fruit does not tolerate subfreezing temps, so you will need a plan for frost/freeze protection. You will need 2 dif- ferent types to insure pollination. There are 5 types that I am familiar with, red skin – white flesh, red skin – red flesh, red skin - purple flesh, yellow skin – yellow flesh, and yellow skin – white flesh. That being said, there are more types out there. This plant needs full sun and a well-drained soil. These plants can get rather large so space them more than 3 feet from struc- tures and other plants. Many gardeners grow the cactus but don’t get them to fruit. One reason is the blooms open at night and depend on nocturnal pol- linators like moths and bats. These pollina- tors are not common in houses or other protected structures, resulting in lack of pollination. You can use a cotton swab to pollinate them yourself. If you start plants from seeds, it will take about 7 years to fruit production, and no certainty as to the fruit characteristics. Cuttings on the other hand can produce fruit in 1 year or less. I planted some and look forward to a new experience with these plants. Like most produce, the fresh home-grown product is so much better than what you purchase from stores. Enjoy the outdoors!
More Gardening Tips More Gardening Tips

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.
Congratulations to Taco Bell at 827 Saraland Blvd for winning the quarterly “Beautification Award” from Keep Saraland Beautiful.
BEAUTIFICATION AWARD WINNER

Click to View