By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Twenty volunteers brought some $21,000 of landscape design, trees, sod, and shrubs to two neighborhoods last weekend as part of a grassroots effort to give some new homeowners the yards of their dreams. But there was another reason that prompted the workers to give of their time and talents: the opportunity to bring beauty to neighborhoods that need a leg up.
The three homes, on Griggs SE, Nelson SE, and Elmwood NE, had been sitting vacant. Michelle Gordon, a realtor with Keller Williams, helped low-income buyers purchase the homes. The new owners can afford to improve the homes, but not the yards.
"When you have someone move into a home in a city neighborhood, having attractive landscaping will have a domino effect on the neighborhood," Gordon says. "It also boosts the homeowner's confidence level and that helps them be better homeowners, better parents, better at community involvement."
Gordon enlisted the help of landscape architect Jason Haywood of Signature Landscaping, who volunteered the designs and donated plants. Other volunteers came from local nonprofit Our Kitchen Table and the homeowners' rounded up friends and family.
The volunteers planted a variety of plants, including Japanese maple, spirea, and carpet roses. They spread mulch, laid sod, hauled away junk left by the previous homeowners, and tore down a swing set and tree house.
Gordon contacted the Women's Council of Realtors for help in continuing the project next year. The council has set a preliminary goal of landscaping 100 yards. Gordon will chair the event, and hopes to include landscapers and volunteers from all over the city.
Source: Michelle Gordon, Keller Williams Realty;
Photo: Some of the volunteer crew (Courtesy Photo)
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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