Now, thanks to her planning, the circle features hydrangeas, viburnum and "tons and tons" of butterfly grass and black-eyed Susans. One year, it was home to hundreds of monarch butterflies.

"I really like to beautify our neighborhood, and I really like the thought of the environmental impact it has," Mrs. Butler said.

The transplant from Michigan heard about the city's GreenScape program when she moved to Annapolis. And she was interested.

"I decided 'My goodness, the city is going to give you the money - there's no reason we can't do it.' So I just took the initiative and did it, and it's been successful," she said.

Each year for the past three or four years, Mrs. Butler has planned and organized her community's GreenScape project.

She works with a landscape architect to come up with the ideas, using native plants - the city provides a list of appropriate plants. "I wanted it to be all balanced, and the colors to be nice, and to collect butterflies," she said.

She spends hours creating flyers and e-mailing her neighbors, looking for volunteers, and carefully making what she describes as a "plan-o-gram" to show where each plant should be planted. She also works carefully to stay within the $300 allotment the city provides per project for plants and supplies.

Then for two days, she and her volunteers do the actual planting.

"I think Annapolis does the best job - this is the only place I've ever lived that gives so much money back to the community."

After spending a few years working on the circle, Mrs. Butler and her volunteers planted 12 white pines at another location - at the corner of Hilltop Lane and Primrose Road.

"This year we had a ton of rain and the trees are looking really good," she said.

Pam Desko, who met Mrs. Butler while serving on the August Woods board of directors, said Mrs. Butler was very concerned about always making sure the community was in good shape. "She's always very much into nature," she said. "What I really liked was that she took it upon herself to kind of be the liaison for our community with the GreenScape program."

Ms. Desko has volunteered with Mrs. Butler during the two-day planting push in the spring. "She'll just organize the whole thing, she's very pleasant to work with. She's very good, very energetic."

The most difficult aspect of working with the GreenScape program is finding others to help with the planting. "It's getting people to show up. This year I've had the smallest turnout ever," Mrs. Butler said.

She also volunteers for Cats R Us out of Arnold, a group that traps feral cats, has them spayed or neutered, and gives them their shots, before releasing them again.

Mrs. Butler loves gardens, but it's her husband who is the actual gardener. Last fall, when the city offered free daffodil and tulip bulbs, he planted 300 of them in the circle.

"He's the gardener, he loves it. I'm the planner and organizer," she said.

The Butlers have extensive gardens in their backyard, with plants to attract butterflies.

"I love looking at them; they just give me joy every day," she said. But she's not content to just plan her own gardens.

"It's the bigger picture. We're all a part of this big world, so we all have to take care of it. I'm always the person picking up the trash. ... We just have to give back, take care of the planet."

Mrs. Butler is already planning for next spring. She hopes to continue work on the corner of Hilltop Lane and Primrose Road, adding bushes and flowers to the trees she already planted.

"I'm really hoping we get a lot of volunteers next year," she said.

For information on volunteering with Mrs. Butler, call 410-267-0529.

Do you know a good "Volunteer of the Week?" E-mail hroth@capitalgazette.com.