neighborhood beautification

Every morning I run through my neighborhood. I used to like the track at the nearby middle school but I find that I like checking out my neighbors' yards more than counting laps. This morning my nosey-ness paid off. Halfway down the first street on my normal route I saw some small, wavy elephant ears peeking out of a yard waste bag. Being a gardener with no shame, I opened the bag and pulled out a good-sized cluster. I decided they would be kind of hard to hold while running, so I doubled back to drop them off at the house. While walking down the sidewalk I noticed the sad state of the drainage ditch located on the side of my house. I live on the corner of a relatively busy Gainesville street, and the drainage ditch was full of garbage and fallen tree limbs. Knowing the city was unlikely to clean it up anytime soon I decided to make it my project for the day (after my run, of course.)

After breakfast I spent an hour or so filling a kitchen garbage bag and my recycle bin with garbage and glass bottles. Then came the hard work. It took five wheelbarrow loads to get all the limbs out of the ditch. This is what I ended up with:
I had some neighbor's children offer to help me with the last few loads, which made it feel more like a neighborhood project. Many neighbors who walked or drove by made positive comments about our work. That certainly made me feel good. I hope our work encourages nearby streets to follow suit!