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autumn blues
Andrea Childress
September 30, 2025
Happy Tuesday, Mulchers! I was so thrilled to hear from so many of you last week about your interest in joining the organizing team 💚
In case you missed it, Mulch’s organizing team is growing! We’re looking for people who can help us with our branding and our social media content. We are 100% volunteer-led. If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, just respond to this email and I’ll shoot you some more info!
If you’re new to the newsletter, hello! We’re an open-source club of passionate individuals working together to repurpose NYC’s unused/open spaces as gardens, living walls, and plots made wild again.
Mulch Metrics
Mission: Bring New Yorkers together to rewild NYC
Values:
😊 Lighthearted. We lead with humor and fun.
💥 Action-oriented. We talk less and do more.
🕸️ Decentralized. We’re nimble and process-light.
Structure:
Open-source, volunteer-led club.
I’ve been anxiously watching my bell peppers slowly ripen on the plants, knowing they aren’t going to make it through the cold weather this week.
It got me thinking about what to plant for the fall. I’ve already pulled up my cucumbers and tomatoes, and to be perfectly honest, I’m just not feeling the autumn garden. I’m very fortunate to have a large rooftop space to work with, but man, the vegetable garden this summer was more work than I wanted to put in.
I talked with my mom about my garden burnout. She mentioned that October is a great month for bulb planting! The bulbs can settle in and put down roots during the winter while I enjoy a nice break, and come spring, I can rediscover my love for the garden when the flowers start to bloom.
Most people consider tulips and daffodils, but I’m thinking about planting some native bulbs like trout lilies and wild hyacinths, in the spirit of rewilding my own little deck. Both plants thrive in partial shade, so if you have a space like that to grow your own, I think you should go for it!
Wild hyacinth (left) and yellow trout lilies (right) are both native bulb plants that you can plant this fall and enjoy their blooms in the spring.
Events
Billion Oyster Project x Mulch Collab
We are partnering with a giant in the NYC environmental/re-wilding space, Billion Oyster Project! Get ready to get your hands dirty working at the shell pile on Governors Island. Friday, October 3 · 9am-1pm
Show some tree love! Celebrate City of Forest Day by mulching, planting bulbs, and restoring local tree beds in East Williamsburg. Saturday, October 4 · 11am - 2pm
Rewilding Micro Challenge
Saturday is City Forest Day, so in celebration of that, I’d love to challenge each of you to find a sidewalk tree bed near you and give it a little TLC. Take five minutes to clear away litter, plastic, or debris from the soil around a tree near you. A tidy bed helps the tree breathe, improves water absorption, and makes the block more inviting. Bonus points if you add a handful of fallen leaves back in as natural mulch—it’s like tucking the tree in for fall 🍂
That’s it for this week.
Make sure to join the conversation on Discord or join the community on Reddit to share your own rewilding efforts, get tips from the community, and to find events in your area.
See you out there — one garden at a time 🌱 🪴
The Mulch Team
Did a friend send you this email? I’d love to have you join us! I send an email each week full of rewilding inspo and community highlights, so that you can be rooted in the fact that we are real people making a real difference in this city.