Part of Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, NY, July 2010
The Allentown Association Community Garden provides a gateway from Buffalo’s Main Street to the quiet side streets and lush gardens of the Allentown neighborhood.
2010-07-19: Added foliage section.
Part of Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, NY, July 2010
Echeveria setosa, Mexican Fire Cracker, in the Desert House of the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens
What a treasure these conservatories must be during Buffalo’s winters. Or on a rainy day like we had Friday. But we visited Saturday, with beautiful, if uncharacteristically warm, weather.
The perennial and shrub gardens outside were also beautiful. We didn’t have time to visit the arboretum.
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Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, NY, July 2010
Flickr photo set
2010-07-23: Added Garden Stumbling
2010-07-17: Added Erie Basin Marina Trial Gardens
2010-07-16: Added Twentieth Century Club
2010-07-14: Added Allentown Association Community Garden and 35 North Pearl Street
2010-07-12: Added links to articles in The Buffalo News
Links and placeholders for all the places I visited and saw during my stay in Buffalo.
Hidden Treasure (Cary Street)
Hope Blooms (The Victorian, 200 South Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY)
Gardens of Allentown:
Cottage District
Urban Roots
Japanese Garden, Delaware Park, Buffalo, NY
Bird Avenue
Erie Basin Marina Trial Gardens
Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens
Lockwood’s Greenhouses
Hosta Heaven
Lancaster Avenue Gardens
Brunch at Jim’s
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Flickr Collection of Sets of photos from my trip
Garden writers and bloggers LOVE Buffalo gardens , Garden Walk Buffalo
Buffalo’s Gardens Speak for Themselves, Buffalo Rising, 2010-07-13
The Buffalo News:
Part of Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, NY, July 2010
Today’s Garden Bloggers Buffa10 visit to the Japanese Garden in Buffalo’s Delaware Park coincided with a Celebration of the reopening of the Garden.
The siting of this garden is unfortunate. NY State Route 198 slices through the Park, crossing Mirror Lake, on the bank of which the garden is situated. Even when you can direct your gaze to block out the bridge and movement of cars and trucks, the rush and roar of traffic crossing the lake is constant.
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Hope Blooms, 2010-07-09
Hidden Treasure, 2010-07-09
Part of Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, NY, July 2010
Hope Blooms, The Victorian, 200 South Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York
Like Cary Street, The Victorian, at 200 South Elmwood Avenue, is also located just around the corner from the Buffa10 hotel. It’s one of the headquarters for Garden Walk Buffalo. It’s also one of the homes of AIDS Community Services of Western New York. Hidden behind the building is Hope Blooms, “a garden by, and for, people living with HIV/AIDS.”
A complete volunteer effort, “Hope Blooms” was built as a unique garden “by and for” those living with HIV/AIDS. Having been featured in a full page photo in the Garden Walk Buffalo Book, it is recognized as one of Buffalo’s significantly beautiful gardens. Christopher Voltz, ACS’ Director of Marketing and Special projects volunteers his weekends, all summer long, to build and maintain this garden.
Clients and patients help plant the garden and its flowers are used to supply fresh bouquets of flowers to client services areas in our offices every week.
This simple gesture is greatly appreciated by ACS’ clients and patients. It is ACS’ belief that a warm and welcoming environment for its clients is of great importance. Whether one is living with cancer, diabetes or HIV disease, everyone deserves to be treated with the utmost respect. These bouquets and this garden are simple ways to demonstrate this to the thousands of individuals and families we serve.
Hope Blooms, AIDS Community Services of Western New York
Garden Walk Buffalo
Garden Bloggers Buffa10
Part of Garden Bloggers Buffa10, Buffalo, NY, July 2010
63 Cary Street, Buffalo, NY
Right around the corner from the Buffa10 hotel, the Embassy Suites Buffalo, is a cul-de-sac named Cary Street. I discovered it by accident when I was trying to find the entrance to the hotel when I drove into Buffalo yesterday. I missed the entrance, and pulled into the first street I found to turn around: Cary Street.
The homes are detached cottages of modern construction, but in Buffalo’s vernacular brick Victorian style. No two houses are alike. And most of them have beautiful front-yard gardens.
Today I’m driving from Syracuse to Buffalo, New York, to attend Garden Bloggers Buffa10, the third annual meetup of North American (U.S and Canada) garden bloggers. The first was two years ago in Austin, Texas. I attended last year’s Chicago Spring Fling and had a blast.
Buffa10 runs from tomorrow, Thursday, July 8 through Sunday, July 11, in the middle of Buffalo’s all-garden blowout, Garden Walk Buffalo, the largest garden tour in the U.S. With more than 350 gardens on display, we’ll only get to visit a handful in our four days.
I have my new business cards, made from my Flickr photos, in hand to give out to my gardening tweeps and bluggies. All but four of the images come from Brooklyn. I collected the set of 20 photos, so those of you getting one of my cards can identify the image.
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Chicago Spring Fling, 2009-05-29
Garden Bloggers Buffa10
The Garden Writers and Bloggers Are Coming!, Garden Walk Buffalo
Native Rhododendrons blooming in BBG’s Native Flora Garden, May, 2009
Celebrating Our Backyard: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Presents Native Plant Month, July 2010
Brooklyn, NY—June 29, 2010—This spring, the results of a 20-year study of the flora of the New York metropolitan region by Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) found many native species locally extinct or in precipitous decline. During the month of July, BBG will highlight the region’s native flora, displaying its beauty, explaining its importance, drawing attention to its plight, and providing simple ways to help in its restoration. BBG’s knowledgeable horticulturists and scientists will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the power of the native plant through field trips, workshops, and other insightful classes and lectures.
In 1911, the “Local Flora Section” was the first garden to open to the public at BBG. Since then, the Garden has maintained its commitment to the study and conservation of locally native plants, most recently through its multiyear New York Metropolitan Flora project (NYMF), in which nearly every species growing within a 50-mile radius of the city was cataloged and mapped. Many of the native plants in the study—which found a significant number of species in perilous decline—are propagated in the Native Flora Garden, as the Local Flora Section is known today, in an effort to conserve them.
JULY 2010: NATIVE PLANT MONTH PROGRAMMING AT BBG
TALK: Bringing Nature Home
Thursday, July 8 | 6:30 p.m.With as many as 33,000 species imperiled in the U.S. alone, it is clear that citizens must change their approach to gardening and landscaping if they hope to share space with other living things. Join ecologist and author Doug Tallamy to learn about the key role native flora must play in the restoration of our landscapes. Only by supporting a large, healthy diversity of insects that coevolved with native plants can we keep herbivores in balance and gardens aesthetically pleasing. Fee required; advance registration is recommended but seats may be available at the door. Call 718-623-7220 or go to bbg.org/classregistration.
CURATOR’S TOUR: The Native Flora Garden with Uli Lorimer
Thursday, July 8 | 5–6 p.m.Limited space: register now! Curator Uli Lorimer will lead this tour of BBG’s 99-year-old Native Flora Garden, which represents nine local plant communities, including the distinctive kettle pond and pine barrens habitats. Get behind-the-scenes insight into this extraordinary garden and how it has evolved since 1911. Learn about the visionary work of BBG’s founders in researching and documenting native plant life, both in the Garden and the greater metropolitan area. Fee and registration required; call 718-623-7220 or go to bbg.org/classregistration. Registration deadline: Wednesday, July 7.
FIELD TRIP: Native Plants and Restored Natural Areas: A Field Trip to Staten Island
Saturday, July 10 | 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
It turns out that the city’s smallest borough is big on natives! This day trip, led by restorationist Cindy Goulder, begins with a private guided tour of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the NYC Parks Department’s 13-acre nursery and greenhouses on Staten Island. See how hundreds of native plant species are propagated and grown from seed and learn principles underlying native plant cultivation. The Sweetbrook Stream and Wetland Restorations help recover the ecological health and function of urban waters, thanks to the indigenous wetland and upland plant species intentionally placed to increase local plant diversity and wildlife habitat. The Salt Marsh Restorations at Old Place Creek have reestablished many acres of tidal marshes after centuries of displacement by agricultural and industrial uses. Learn how invasive plants were removed and zones of marsh and maritime woody plants reintroduced to this estuarine community. Fee and registration required; call 718-623-7220 or go to bbg.org/classregistration. Registration deadline: Wednesday, July 7.
CLASS: Great Natives for Tough Places
Sunday, July 11 | 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.Discover how to turn tough urban spaces into a natural haven! This workshop, led by garden designer Joan McDonald and based on the BBG handbook Great Natives for Tough Places, identifies gardening challenges caused by city buildings, impermeable surfaces, rainwater runoff, construction, and other disturbances that compact and degrade soil. Students will explore solutions with five spectacular designs using unusual native plants chosen for their ability to thrive in urban environments. Students will receive a copy of Great Natives for Tough Places. Fee and registration required; call 718-623-7220 or go to bbg.org/classregistration. Registration deadline: Thursday, July 8.
WORKSHOP: Gardening with Native Plants
Tuesday, July 13 | 6–9 p.m.
Why are native plants important, and which ones are best for a garden? What does “native” really mean, anyway? Explore these questions with native plant authority Uli Lorimer, curator of BBG’s Native Flora Garden and learn how a garden can reflect the region’s—even a densely populated urban region’s—spectacular natural environment. Fee and registration required; call 718-623-7220 or go to bbg.org/classregistration. Registration deadline: Monday, July 12.
CLASS: Edible Native Plants in Brooklyn
Saturday, July 18 | 2–5 p.m.Limited space: register now! Wild ginger, spicebush, fiddlehead ferns, wild leeks—these are just a few of the delicious vegetables and seasonings native to the region. Unlike conventional crops, many of the northeastern edible native plants are excellent for shade gardens, and most are perennials that will feed people year after year. Learn from local food specialist Leda Meredith which edible native plants will thrive in a garden and how to grow, harvest, and use them. Fee and registration required; call 718-623-7220 or go to bbg.org/classregistration. Registration deadline: Thursday, July 15.
Contact: Kate Blumm, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
718-623-7241 | kblumm@bbg.org
Prunus maritima, Beach Plum, blooming this past April in the Pine barrens section of BBG’s Native Flora Garden
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Where to begin?! Check out my Native Plants reference page, also available from the menu at the top of the blog.
The Parsonage at the Flatbush Reformed Church is the proposed site for a new communal garden. 
This Wednesday, June 16 at 6pm
Are you a gardener, or have you always wanted to get your hands in the dirt?
Sustainable Flatbush is collaborating with the Flatbush Reformed Church to create a new community garden!
Join us in a creative brainstorming session to plan this new neighborhood green space!
WHAT: Community Garden Visioning Meeting
WHEN: Wednesday June 16th at 6pm
WHERE: Flatbush Reformed Church, 890 Flatbush Avenue (at Church Ave.)
Refreshments and childcare will be provided!
What to expect at the meeting:
* see the garden location!
* contribute your ideas for what the garden will be
* what we can grow (flowers? herbs? vegetables?)
* how we can best use the space we have
* how we will build and maintain the garden
* learn how you can get involved!
Sign up here to attend a Visioning Meeting and keep up-to-date on news related to the garden.
For more information: 718-208-0575 / info@sustainableflatbush.org
Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in our Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.
The Flatbush Reformed Church is a welcoming, inclusive and ecumenical Church located in the heart of Brooklyn.
A section of the wall filled in by participants in the first Visioning Workshop on June 6.
Help Envision a New Garden: Sunday, June 6, 2010-06-02
New community garden — not at Brooklyn College, Helen Klein, Flatbush Life, 2010-06-08
Flatbush Reformed Church
Sustainable Flatbush
CAMBA
Flatbush Farm Share CSA
Garden Snail along the Shady Path, May 2010
I was contacted on behalf of an urban nature educator who needs snails. She has a project this weekend on Governor’s Island to create snailariums. Who knew?! She got some snails, but not enough.
We are a neighborhood with a surfeit of snails. With yesterday’s rain, and more predicted today, it should be a good time to collect. If you’re interested in participating, see the original request from Wild Gotham Fran on the Brownstoner Garden Forum:
I am teaching a workshop at the Figment Arts Festival (6/11-13) on Governor’s Island on how to upcycle a shoebox into a posh house for a common garden snail. I am an urban nature educator and have a web show called Wild Gotham that focuses on everyday wildlife in NYC. If you have excess snails, I would love to come get them at your convenience or you could drop off at my house in Park Slope. Snails will be displayed at Figment and afterward released into my backyard where, along with all the others, they will devour my plants. Thank you in advance.- Fran
Tree Snail, Hattie Carthan Community Garden, Bed-Stuy, October 2008
