After posting on Buffalo’s pothole situation yesterday, I decided to canvas the East Side this morning, in search if some monstrous potholes to document via the 311 phone app. While I did not find any significant potholes, I did come across a number of beautiful community gardens, including a new greenhouse near the corner of Jefferson and Glenwood.
Just down the street from the greenhouse, at the corner of Glenwood and Dupont, I spied a substantial community garden with raised beds. Later on, I went to the Grassroots Gardens website, to see if it was one of theirs, but it didn’t appear to be. If you ever want to see a mapped out listing resource for all of the Grassroots Gardens, click here.
Still in search of potholes, and not finding much luck (believe it or not), I happened upon another inspirational site known as the Rosa Gibson Garden of Love – 108 Wohlers Avenue (listed on the Grassroots Gardens site). Although I have paid a visit to this garden in the past, I ended up finding new inspiration, as I usually do. This garden has incorporated discarded car tires into just about every planted element on the site.
The tires, all painted white, have been converted into planters, from which the flowers and the bushes grow. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade. As I scoured the various streets surrounding the Rosa Gibson Garden of Love, I noticed dozens of homes that had emulated this little tire trick – there were white, blue, and green tire planters all over the place. Obviously, at some point someone got sick of seeing discarded tires along the side of the roads, and decided to do something positive with them.
Before winding down my pothole search, which didn’t yield much, I came face to face with a real surprise, located at 387 Glenwood Avenue. The corner building has been completely made over, and now broadcasts signage that reads “Thompsons Market – The Market Place”. Unfortunately it appears as if some of the siding has already peeled off towards the top, but hopefully that will be addressed soon because other than that, The Market Place looks great! After scouring the web, and placing a couple of phone calls, my search for information regarding the market came up empty. I’ve reached out to council member Darius Pridgen (Ellicott District), to see what he knows about the project – hopefully I will have some news to share… or maybe a reader has the inside scoop?