Community organizations clean up Washington Bottoms Park

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – Several community organizations have come together to clean up a park in Midtown Memphis.

In an effort to beautify the city, a nonprofit development organization, Works Incorporated, has partnered with MidtownMemphis.org and Memphis City Beautiful to clean up Washington Bottoms Park.

“We are really doing all of this to pull this property out of its dilapidated state,” said Mary Baker of Works Incorporated.

Baker says a year ago the park was filled with burns and driving people away from the area. They worked to change that with the help of volunteers.

“We’re planting native trees to provide nesting and food and shade and everything, but we’re also restoring what we call pollinator grassland,” Baker said.

She said this area needed people. She brings people there because it’s isolated. Volunteers of all ages worked together to remove scorch and flat trees.

“Here the sun cover is going to kill Johnson Grass and in the spring we’re going to pick that up and we’re going to plant sunflowers, and we’re going to have a beautiful garden of sunflowers here,” said Emily Bishop, with MidtownMemphis.org.

Volunteers say it’s about taking care of the house.

“I believe in making our city beautiful because it represents how we are as a nation and how our city is to us, basically a representation of us,” said Delilah Fields, a student and volunteer at the ‘U of M.

Organizers say they hope people will continue to preserve the community for years to come.

“The stresses of life, we all need a natural place like this to go once in a while,” Baker said. “But if you live in a depressed area, you need it even more.”

“We want the place where we live to be neat, clean and hopefully shady with lots of new trees planted,” Bishop said.

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