Our trees need to be watered. After this tough summer I've seen many neighborhood trees waste away, and we can prevent this from happening this winter as well.

Here's a message from the local listserv:

As our trees go into winter dormancy, it is critical that they are well
irrigated before the leaves fall off this fall. Otherwise, they will
probably not leaf out in the spring and the trees will die.

PLEASE WATER YOUR TREES WITH 20 GALLONS OF WATER (ONE FULL GATORBAG)
ONCE A WEEK FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS - THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL TO
HELP ENSURE THEIR SURVIVAL THROUGH THE WINTER. If your neighbors are
away and your hose is long enough, please water their trees as well.

Add this activity to your weekend list of things to do. Should only take a bit of time out of your day but will help to preserve the tree canopy for the year ahead.

Join us Saturday, October 13th for the Shaw Monthly Clean Up. This is our third month out as we continue these mini clean ups that focus on targeted areas of the community. We choose a few streets to focus on and pick up litter, weed treeboxes, and other tasks to keep the community clean.

We'll be focused on the O street corridor through the heart of Shaw. Starting at 11th street and going down to 5th.

Here are the details:
Saturday, October 13th
9:00 AM
Meet up at 11th and O Streets

Also, we are doing a frequent litter-picker card! Get your card stamped three times and get a free prize.

View the flyer and share with your friends.

First, my apologies about the delay on this recap. Work projects have been keeping me busy this week. So, here's the wrap-up from last Saturday's Shaw Monthly Clean Up. Overall we had a great clean up and a solid turn out of participants. Nine people came out to help pick up trash and litter along the O Street corridor. We started at 11th street and worked our way down to 4th street. Mainly we focused on trash and litter, but we also took some time weeding and cleaning up a few treeboxes.

This was our third clean up and I think these are becoming pretty successful activities. We are gaining lots of lessons learned and fine-tuning every month. For November I think we'll choose a more focused area and really work to blitz that area to sustain a lasting clean environment.

PHOTOS FROM OCTOBER 13, 2007

The clean up team walks down tree-lined O Street.

James' parents tackle the corner of 7th and O.

James tackles a trashy lamppost. These things are notorious!

Mark & Abby work between 5th and 4th on O street.