KeepSaralandBeautiful
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, 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!
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.
Click to View