The Red Tutu and the Garden

I'm not sure there is anything better than seeing a gardening ballerina in a red tutu.  We had a 3 o'clock date this afternoon to meet our neighbor, Misha, in the traffic circle and do some clean up and gardening.   We found a lot of interesting things in there including roly-polies, beetles, centipedes, a snail, and some random car parts.

One of the first things I noticed about out neighborhood when we first moved in was how dumpy and overgrown everything was.  There was trash in the traffic circle (or roundabout), weeds growing along our fence, and general neglect everywhere.  It really was kind of a bummer.  Surprisingly, there are a lot of people in our neighborhood that actually do care about beautifying the area.  I  know this because almost every single person who walked, biked, or drove by stopped to profusely thank us or talk to us about what we were doing.  As it turns out, a little weeding can go a long way in building community with the people who live around you.  It really seemed to encourage a lot of people, which was a fun bonus to learning about plants from my neighbor, checking out cool bugs with the kids, working on my tan for summer, and getting a free workout...