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Black Bottom Garden Center co-op works to make difference in Detroit

By and David Komer online producer
Published  May 21, 2021 8:51pm EDT
Detroit
FOX 2 Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A garden center in the Black Bottom area of Detroit is now open every weekend. and for special holidays as this co-op works to make a difference in the city.

"One, it's Black-owned, two, it's all Black ladies owned and three, it is in the north end," said Carol Trowell.

Black Bottom Garden Center makes a difference in Detroit

The ladies took a 16-week co-op class with Detroit Weath Community Fund and started their own garden center on a the six acre property of Oakland Avenue Urban Farms. Their co-op is about a quarter of an acre.

The Black Bottom Garden Center is made up of a group of six women ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s, selling everything for your garden.

The ladies took a 16-week co-op class with Detroit Weath Community Fund and started their own garden center on the six-acre property of Oakland Avenue Urban Farms. Their co-op is about a quarter of an acre.

"Our mission is to not only bring fresh herbs and vegetable transplants to the city of Detroit, but to bring beautiful flowers to our community," said Marya Ferguson. "To help beautify it and to help educate people in our community about how easy it is for them to garden at home."

They got a stipend of $1,800 but have made their own investments in this venture, selling: herbs, annuals, some perennials, potted plants, hanging baskets, and worms while paying homage to the Black Bottom community of Detroit.

"We not only want to make the area more beautiful but to inspire other people to come down here and open up their businesses so it's thriving again," Ferguson said.

Right now they are working on rehabbing a building to move their merchandise from a hoop house to the cover of the historic edifice.

"It was Red's Shoe Shine and in the back was a speakeasy where Diana Ross, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and several others (went)," Trowell said.  

T-shirts and face coverings are boosting the group's business and their image.  

The building needs hundreds of thousands of dollars of repair, but they're slowly raising that money. 

For more information:

Black Bottom Garden Center on Facebook HERE, on Instagram HERE and email at blackbottomgardencenter@gmail.com

To donate on the Cash App, use $BlackBottomGC and to donate on Paypal use blackbottomgardencenter@gmail.com.