NEW ORLEANS — We all know that driving around the city is anything but a smooth ride thanks to a long list of potholes.
One neighborhood that sits on the corner of Milan and Constance Street decided to do something productive with their pothole by planting a garden in it.
Desiree Bezuidenhout, one of the pothole’s gardeners, says it all began in May when several neighbors got together, poured potting soil into the giant hole, and filled it with corn seeds and watermelon seeds.
“We would walk by the pothole everyday, check it out, and eventually there were cornstalks growing, and the it just started overflowing with watermelons,” says Desiree.
Another neighbor put a cute scarecrow in the pothole on top of the orange cone that sits deep in the hole, almost sight unseen.
Desiree says that pictures of the garden took social media by storm.
“We posted the pictures of the actual watermelons. We managed to get one that was really big and cut it up so we could taste it. We put that on Facebook and yea, it just really got a lot of traction really quickly,” says Desiree.
She’s not the only one getting attention from her creative pothole ploy.
Over the years, other residents have come up with innovative ways to fill these dangerous road cavities.
During our special “Pothole of the Day” segment, we’ve seen folks put giant blow up dolls in the potholes, Christmas trees, Mardi Gras beads, and more.
One man even decided to set up a TV and grab a few beers to lounge and watch a Saints game from a pothole.
A fan favorite is the narrow, yet deep pothole that a man jumped into with a pair of goggles and a snorkel, and the water was over his head.
That’s deep!
“The potholes are definitely a big issue here. The community here in New Orleans see this, this issue as a problem that they think that the only way to fix it is to do it themselves and that’s not fair. It shouldn’t be our problem to fix. The government needs to see this and just find a better solution to this problem,” says Desiree.
Desieree says she hopes they can grow a full sized watermelon, but a lot of folks who pass by are picking them from the garden.