Guerilla Beautification

I haven't blogged bout this in so long! So here's to a huge blog post.

So since the brainstorming of ideas, I researched everything and found that I was geared towards the beautification of the neighborhood involving teens. A little keynote presentation I did about my whole idea so you can get a better picture of it.

Now I'm kind of looking into details and notes I've done: 

Desired outcomes

·      Teen involvement

·      Beautification of existing/vacant lots that have been outgrown

·      Plant pretty things

·      Clean up yards

·      Grown up volunteers help

Systematic approach

·      Go in and clean someone’s yard

·      “Leader” asks the owner first and notify the neighbors so kids are safe

·      Leave behind a “You just got guerrilla” (or something similar)

·      Make sure owner of the yard is ok with it first before just doing it

·      One day activity

·      Small groups

·      How will plants live if people just cut over them?

·      Ask owners what they want from their yard (how much can be changed, how much effort they will put into keeping it clean, etc.)

Basic components

·      Cutting tools (lawn mower, gardening shears, etc.)

·      Planting tools (shovel, extra dirt, plants, etc.)

o   http://www.bhg.com/gardening/yard/tools/no-cost-or-low-cost-garden-tools/

·      Getting teens participation

Artifacts

·      Graphic stickers to spark interest in teens (links back to the council to find more information)

·      Graphic posters with one word (also links back)

·      Postcard sized information

·      How do they keep it underground but still spread information with no texting/phones/emails

I've also talked to Soil Service people and asked which plants would be really good and are perennials. The lady I spoke with was super nice and I approached her more with like I'm interested in planting rather than I'm doing a project. She was super nice and helpful and told me mums, asters, and pansies were really low maintenance and you don't have to plant them every year and they come back on their own (as long as they have enough sun). She also gave me lots of good edible plants that you can put in your lawn like kale, cabbage, blueberry bushes, and raspberry vines. She said it was good to plant during the fall because the ground is warm so the roots latch on better. All these plants will stand winter and come back during the spring so that's good. I also walked around the perennials section and wrote down some pretty looking plants that I saw common in other people's yard that takes little effort to maintain. The price in general was pretty cheap. If you want to start from seeds, it's only like $2 a packet. And they have already grown 6" pots that are $4. The biggest ones I saw that were reasonable were only $10.

I've also tried getting in contact with the Master Gardeners of Greater KC and they refuse to pick up their phones and I've left messages. Gonna keep trying.

I've also emailed the lady who is head of the teen programs and I'm going to go talk to her today about how to get teens involved.

I'm also going to email the beautification people at Ivanhoe to get more of what they do and how many tools they have available for the teens to work with.