It’s been a whirlwind (in a good way!) the past couple of weeks thanks to my involvement in an incredible project with a local non-profit organization, Keep Knoxville Beautiful (KKB).

As a member of KKB’s board of directors, I’ve had the privilege of spearheading its inaugural Beautification Mob. We descended first on a beat-up looking landscape in downtown Knoxville. The building — currently occupied by Enterprise Rental Car — is an iconic landmark in the area but the landscaping wasn’t doing the building justice.

First, I put together a landscape design for the space. Our goal was to include plants that were easy to maintain while still offering a clean and eye-catching look.

Next we unleashed a mob of hardworking volunteers to install the new landscaping. Check out this time-lapse video of all the work we did!

Now that it’s all finished, I think our initial design worked well for the space, and I’m so proud of everyone who supported this project — either financially or with their hard work on the day of the event.

It’s such a fantastic (and humbling) feeling to join with strangers and friends in the community to take on a project that adds a little beauty to a world in which we sometimes focus on the bad in things rather than the good.

If you missed it all, here’s a quick look at just some of the awesome coverage we got:

• Beautification mob will improve Old City … (WBIR, 5-8-2014)
• Beautify Knoxville (Knoxville News Sentinel, 5-8-2014)

KKB is planning to continue projects such as these. If you’re interested in volunteering, contact KKB at info@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org. And if you’re ready to do a Beautification Mob on your own home, check out our services page or contact us to talk about your own beautification design.