PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Volunteers in lime-green t-shirts are part of Pittsfield Beautiful, a group dedicated to maintaining gardens in parks around the city.

"Our city needs gardens. It needs flowers. It needs to have that welcoming presence," said volunteer Claudine Chavanne. "And we love what we do. We love getting our hands dirty."

They're re-planting the flower beds at Redding Park, a small piece of land next to Berkshire Medical Center.

Diane Wetzel said this is a project they've been looking to do for a long time. Wetzel said, "We started a year ago, in February, so it's been quite a while. It wouldn't normally, but because of COVID, we couldn't plant, and we probably couldn't have gotten the plant material that we wanted."

With dozens of new plants going into the ground, Wetzel said a lot of work goes into deciding what to plant, and where to plant it.

"We're bringing in quite a few weigela, some hostas, and each one has its own specs," Wetzel said. "We need the hosta for shade, we need the weigela for the sun. We have two different kinds of weigelas, different sizes, different colors."

Friday is the group's first planting day of the season. Chavanne said it's just a warm up for their biggest day of the year, a city-wide flower planting event on June 6, with dozens of volunteers.

"We transform the downtown and surrounding areas in just two hours," Chavanne said. "We add color and interesting plants, it's amazing."