Breathing new life into Buffalo, one petunia at a time!

Buffalo? you say-why would you want to go to Buffalo? Isn’t it covered in snow and not much else? Wrong….There’s something in the water in Buffalo and I suspect it may be the gardening bug.

 

Stunning Cone flowers

This once mighty and by all accounts wealthy city has in recent years fallen upon difficult times but is currently undergoing major urban renewal and it’s being lead by many in the community who are just crazy about gardens and gardening and all things green and that got my attention. So, I packed my suitcase again, labelled it  ‘USA or Bust’ and headed 11,333 miles or 18238 km which included three plane changes and an 8-hour train ride!

Lovely buildings on every corner
Buffalo Theatre district
Even the office building are into plants
Great spot for a meal-we ate here twice!

I attended the 2017 Garden Writers Association annual symposium which was held at The Buffalo Convention Centre at the beginning of August and the news is all good.

My friend from Arizona, Horticulturist, Arborist, and Blogger, AZ plant lady and I spent a couple of wonderful days exploring (walking, lots of walking) the city together before the conference. We ate twice at the same place-it was so good and we also snuck in some doughnut holes at Tim Hortons.

Like many cities, Buffalo has great bones, clean wide streets and really beautiful architecture, an interesting and diverse food culture, lovely lake views, theatres, good soil (important for us gardeners) and another magical, essential ingredient passionate people- willing to beautify their city and showcase it to the world in order to re-build it and give it a new identity.

A Farmers Market in the main street was in full swing during one of our morning walks. The blueberries were the biggest I have ever seen and they tasted so juicy and sweet.

Don’t these look delicious?
Farmers market baskets
Eat your greens
Juiciest blueberries I have ever tasted
I can’t un-smell these beauties

We stumbled across a small but very worthwhile community education garden at Canalside and under a freeway overpass where edibles and perennials for beneficial insects were thriving in raised beds. Each bed contained decorative garden ephemera as well as practical information to show adults and children, how easy it can be to grow veggies in their homes in small spaces.


Canalside is also home to test gardens and magical views of the eastern end of Lake Erie.

Lake Erie and the test gardens

Rebuilding Buffalo one petunia at a time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our conference took place the week after Garden Walk Buffalo, which is an annual event with more than 400 (!!!!) gardens open to the public on one weekend. More than 350 garden communicators gathered to visit the best of these gardens and more.

Buffalo is on the precipice of something great, I’m looking forward to seeing how this hidden gem of a city emerges from its cocoon like the butterflies that are being encouraged by its gardeners.

If you are visiting Niagara Falls then why not jump over the US border and check out Buffalo in August-the gardens are just lovely.

 

Special Thanks to the local GWA organising committee and for all the gardeners who shared their gardens with us for #GWA17

https://gardensbuffaloniagara.com/events/garden-walk-buffalo/

 

 

Our Neighbor Has A New Head Gardener

We have lived in the same place for generations and it’s unusual but we are very grateful that we have had the same wonderful neighbors for what feels like forever really, they are just like us and speak a bit like us. They enjoy the same TV shows as we do, similar tastes in music, they enjoy art, sport and generally have the same core values as us. They believe in a peaceful life. We have loved living harmoniously with them, they collect our mail when we go on holidays, water our plants and generally they keep an eye out for our kids and we do the same for them.

Recently, though our dear neighbors employed a new Head Gardener. He’s quite different from the old Head Gardener that our neighbors had for eight wonderful years but someone in that family must have seen enough value in him to employ him. So, the neighborly thing to do is to give him a go, right? That’s what we do on our side of the street. Generally, we are pretty easy-going kind of folk.

Here's the neighbours' new Head Gardener
Here’s our neighbors’ new Head Gardener

So far, The new Head Gardener has been doing an awful lot of deconstruction work but in his haste to weed out the “nasty” weeds that he doesn’t want, he has also pulled out many beautiful flowers and shrubs which had been nurtured by the previous Head Gardener. Apparently, most of his experience has been with golf courses and rooftop gardens in high rise buildings.

Getting down and dirty-The previous Head Gardener at work
Getting down and dirty-The previous Head Gardener at work

It’s a funny thing really, we were hoping that he would wait just a little bit, perhaps give things a light prune and have a good look at everything again, after the winter, when the spring revealed the good work done by the previous gardening team.

T
Our neighbours garden in the winter
The previous Head Gardener-he was there for 8 years
The previous Head Gardener-he was there for 8 years

There are many things worthwhile keeping in our neighbors garden, that’s for sure, you see our neighbors have always had a beautiful garden and there are treasures currently buried in the snow. We have enjoyed so many BBQs and gatherings there, swam in their pool, prayed with them as they farewelled their family members who have passed away and helped them when they were sick and needed our support or just a helping hand. We are big on mateship in our neighborhood and that’s what mates do, they are there for one another in good times and in bad.

Our neighbours garden
Our neighbors garden

The other day, however, a very strange thing happened, Our Head Gardener called and reminded the new Head Gardener across the street, that we had an agreement with the previous gardener to take care of the potted plants which we had been looking after, as they had been disposed of when their previous owner from a neighbouring suburb, moved without a trace. They have no home to be returned to. The new Head Gardener said that he thought this was a really “dumb idea” as he said he has enough potted plants and is scared that the ones we have been looking after may have weeds that he doesn’t want. We offered to check thoroughly for weeds and remove them but he’s still not happy. We hope that he will see reason and honor the agreement. So that we can make a plan to house more pot plants from other neighborhoods. Our Head Gardener wishes that the new Head Gardener at our neighbors’ place would be a little more polite, after all, our families have been neighbors for a very long time.

Our Head Gardener
Our Head Gardener called the neighbors’ Head Gardener for a chat the other day

The new Head Gardener is advocating to build a large new walled garden so that we may not be able to wave so easily to our other neighbors across the street, who incidentally have the best Taco and Tequila parties.

We love Taco and Tequila night
We love Taco and Tequila night

While we love a beautiful walled garden especially when it is covered in abundant flowering vines and espaliered fruit trees, we are worried that we might not be able to visit so easily with our neighbors as we have always done in the past.

Walled garden-we love these
Walled garden, we love these!

The new Head Gardener does not seem to want to make friends with any of our other neighbors’ friends either and he has been quite nasty to some of the people who can help him get his new job done better. The people who look after the parks, gardens and national monuments might be able to help him if he was a bit nicer to them. I hear he tried to shut down their communication on Twitter, luckily they found another way.

He has employed two under-gardeners, who seem to do most of the talking, one of whom just can’t seem to get our Head Gardeners’ name right.

The new Head Gardeners' assistant, doesn't seem that into gardening
The new Under-Gardener doesn’t seem that into gardening
Another Under-Gardener-nice sunnies
Another Under-Gardener-nice sunnies

We will keep smiling and being polite to the new Head Gardener, he’s new to the job, after all, and it’s our way. We don’t like to make a fuss.

We are hoping that he won’t chop down any trees at our neighbors’ place, we love those giant oaks and magnolias they have growing there. We respect the history these represent in our neighbors garden.

Side view of our neighbours garden
Side view of our neighbors garden

Apparently, the new Head Gardener has a four-year contract, hopefully if we stay friendly with our neighbours (they have a big family) that the Head Gardener will learn to listen to his employer a bit more and not be so hasty with decisions to throw everything out before checking to see the good things that were planted in the garden by the previous Head Gardener and his sweet wife.

The previous Head Gardener had a very sweet wife who loved to help him out
The previous Head Gardener had a very sweet wife who loved to help him out

We hope that we can still spend time with our neighbors and enjoy their beautiful garden, despite their new Head Gardener. If we show him how friendly we are, he may just come around. You never know, there’s a lot at stake we really need to make this work. It’s our neighborhood and we want it to be harmonious for our children to play and grow up in as we did and our parents before us. We love our neighbors garden almost as much as we love our own.

Front view of our house and gardens
Front view of our house and gardens
A view of our garden
A view of our garden in the springtime

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