by Connie Oswald Stofko
What do you do when your front lawn is hard to mow because it’s sloped at a steep angle? Turn it into a terraced garden!
That’s what a gardener on Garden Walk Buffalo did. See more below.
You can learn so much from the gardeners on Garden Walk Buffalo. The problem is that there are so many gardens and so little time.
But you don’t have to wait until the weekend of the walk to get a map.
Get Garden Walk Buffalo map early
There will be about 400 gardens on Garden Walk Buffalo, and you have only two days to visit. Plus Garden Walk Buffalo now covers more ground– the Parkside and Park Meadow neighborhoods are now part of the walk!
To help you plan your weekend, you can have the printed Garden Walk Buffalo 25th anniversary map mailed to you ahead of time.
Make a donation of $15 or more before June 15 here and you’ll get a map mailed to you by the third week of July. Donations received after June 15 will receive next year’s map. See all the details here.
Garden Walk Buffalo will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 28 and 29.
If you can wait until the weekend of the walk, you can pick up a copy of the map for free.
Tips for a sloped yard
When Maria Hernandez moved into 201 Prospect St., Buffalo, the front yard was all grass. She turned the entire front yard into a garden for a simple reason.
“We couldn’t mow it!” Hernandez said. “To mow that, it was a trick.”
It seemed easier to get rid of the grass.
“Let’s just do plants,” Hernandez decided. “Let’s make this house a happy home.”
They terraced the yard, holding the soil in place with pavers.
“That solved our problem,” she said.
Her sister-in-law, Zoraida Matos, lived across the street and gave Hernandez tips.
“She got me started on gardening, picking out the right flowers,” Hernandez said.
They also took horticulture classes together at McKinley High School.
“I learned what types of flowers are good for sun or good for shade,” she said. “That’s major.”
Mulch and compost are generally two different things.
You can top dress with compost to keep your soil healthy. If you use compost, you probably don’t have to fertilize. How do you know if you need to fertilize? Get your soil tested to see if lacks certain nutrients.
Mulch is used to keep weeds down, hold moisture in the soil and be decorative. Here’s an article on using bark as mulch and an article on using mulch to keep weeds down. I suggest laying down sheets of newspaper or cardboard around your perennials, then covering the newspaper with mulch. That will help keep the weeds down. There are many kinds of mulch, such as wood chips, bark, shredded bark, straw, whole leaves and chopped leaves. And yes, you can use compost as mulch. If you’re having problems with weeds, try laying down newspaper first.
I hope that helps.
I normally use “Garden Magic Compost and Manure” for my flower beds but it’s a hit or miss with weeds so I’ve been trying different brands for compost- I just abhor weeding. What is the best mulch In WNY? I don’t like the dyed black mulch due to allergies.
Also do you still need to fertilize when you’re mulching your flower beds?
Gardeners have all been pushing compost, compost, compost but which kind??? What brand?