Wesley Neighbors
Beautifies Its Community

Keeping Our Neighborhood Beautiful

Maintaining the beauty of neighborhood has been a Wesley Neighbors objective from day one.

Our main thrusts are through encouraging property maintenance, gardening, and litter cleanups. Wesley Neighbors provides gardening tips in its newsletters, sells daffodil bulbs every autumn, urges property owners to maintain their properties properly, and reports unkempt properties to city authorities for legal redress.

Improving the Neighborhood's Beauty

The first four of our featured photos show Wesley Gardens in 2006 after a spring and summer of planting, mulching, pruning, weeding, and watering by dedicated community volunteers. The remaining photos were taken in May 2005.

After four years of planning an fund raising, Wesley Neighbors began its entrance-beautification project in the winter of 2005. A landscaping contractor who proposed a reasonable plan was engaged to make it happen. All necessary permits and approvals as well as support from area businesses were obtained in advance. Major work began in February 2005 and was completed by mid spring 2005. Additionally, a water spigot for watering the plants was installed, and the Neighborhood Watch sign that has been there for more than 20 years has been repaired and repainted.

In addition to enlarging the original flower bed that has been there for decades, the new landscaping features new dogwoods, crepe myrtles, azaleas, and daffodils. Shrubs are compact and/or dwarf, need no pruning, and are more drought resistant. Although they might look small, they will fill out over the next few seasons. There are soft-touch hollies (no thorns), dwarf nandinas that will change color in fall, chardonnay pearls that have a small white flower in spring, small soft yellow-green sedums along the wall that will spread and droop over the wall, and cotoneasters that will be more of a ground cover on the Weigel's lower side of the bed.

All this year's gardening has been done by unpaid volunteers who have consistently given their time and labor to this important community beautification project.

Removing Litter

As a suburban neighborhood sandwiched between two busy state highways, the Wesley neighborhood is vulnerable to litterbugs (irresponsible vermin who carelessly tarnish every street in the city). Our first general litter cleanup in partnership with Keep Knoxville Beautiful generated 25 large garbage bags of litter. By establishing an ongoing anti-litter team, the volume of litter is not allowed to accumulate. Each member of the team has adopted a specific area and keeps it clean regularly.

Our participation in Keep Knoxville Beautiful's annual Great American Cleanup has been so successful that we expanded it outside our boundaries to the West Knoxville Library (where we hold our monthly meetings) and the West Hills Elementary School (the public school for our young children).

Each year, our Great American Cleanup is held on a spring Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. We meet at the intersection of Wesley Road and Stockton Drive, form three teams, and fan out from there. One team clean Wesley Roads, another cleans the West Knoxville Public Library, and one team cleans the West Hills Elementary School. Gloves, bags, safety vests, and police patrols are provided. To volunteer, use the feedback form on our home page.

Annual Daffodil Sale

Every autumn, Wesley Neighbors sells Dutch daffodil bulbs (actually from The Netherlands) to raise funds and beautify the neighborhood. In springtimes to come, the Wesley neighborhood will sparkle with beautiful daffodils.

Neighborhood Maintenance

In the first year of existence, we had numerous inoperable vehicles removed from the neighborhood, numerous unmowed lawns cut, and several shabby houses repaired. Mailing courteous letters to property owners who are not maintaining properly has successfully resolved all but the most vexing problems. The City of Knoxville codes-enforcement Department has been very supportive of our efforts to maintain the beauty of our neighborhood.

Photo Gallery

Summer Flowers Bloom in the Wesley Gardens

Click on the images to see larger sizes.







Photos by Jack Creed
Great American Litter Cleanup
	Volunteers cleaned up 20 bags of litter from the Wesley neighborhood, the West Knoxville Library, and the West Hills Elementary School on Saturday March 25, 2006. Left to right: Anna Beth Meccia, Linda Stack, Kathryn Kinnard, Jim Boehms, Christian Schlank, John Heins, and Jack Creed. Photo by George Heins.
	Volunteers cleaned up 12 bags of litter from the Wesley neighborhood, the West Knoxville Library, and the West Hills Elementary School on Saturday April 16, 2005. Left to right: Ed Nicholson, Kathryn Kinnard, Harry Harper, Linda Stack, Bill Stack, Jim Davis, Jim Boehms. Photo by John Heins, who also participated.