Prologue
Text and photos by EVG
Since last summer, the tree well on Avenue A just south of Sixth Street has been a mucky cesspool of stagnant water, soggy bread, and other snacks for pigeons adjacent to the block-long Con Edison substation.
On warm days, when the winds are just right, you can smell the fragrant pit nearly a block away — an aroma that smells like decaying rodents, sewer water, and stale bread.
Despite the muck, life found a way last summer ...
On Dec. 31, we noticed something remarkable: someone had tilled the plot, turning the earth and providing hope. And after
the most recent MulchFest in Tompkins Square Park in January, someone even put down a fresh bed of chips.
We've never seen anyone drop off the pigeon smorgasbord, but we haven't spotted the person (or people?) tending to the plot either.
Until last week.
Hope Springs Eternal
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Last week, you may have noticed that someone had been giving the mucky tree well some TLC. I spotted East Village artist Siobhan Meow working here with a shovel and asked her about the project.
"I decided to adopt a tree well!" she said.
She has named it the Noel Reed Memorial Tree Pit after her friend Noel Reed, aka Leon Deer, aka Mr. Twilight, "who died much too young." He was a dancer with the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black and worked for Con Edison as a welder.
"I noticed last summer that this amazing cornstalk is growing here. Just the one cornstalk. And then when it was gone, it smelled so bad here in the summer," she said. "All the pigeons…there was so much pigeon guano, which is really good for plants."
Carrying a shovel from her garden, she said, "I turned it over, added some compost from my rooftop garden, some soil from an abandoned outdoor restaurant shack planter, and then a layer of Christmas tree shavings, mulch from the park."
What does she see for the tree pit? "Shrubs only. Nothing over 12 feet tall. I'd love to see a pussy willow in there. But don't feel too precious about what you put in it. It needs earthworms, too. Nightcrawlers. The best worms."
She's putting out an open call for plants, hoping someone will donate roses or shrubbery. "I don't want to be too controlling," she said
She plans to maintain the pit to be more "civically conscious and to get some exercise."
We're looking forward to seeing this formerly soggy, bread-ridden plot come to life this spring.
