Left to right: Cornell Cooperative Extension Erie County Master Gardeners Sally Cunningham and Phyllis Witherspoon Lobbins; Jess Abbott and Barbara Cavanaugh at Garden Walk Buffalo; Martin House curator Susana Tejada, garden writer and historian Abra Lee, East Side Garden Walk participant Walter Myles, and GBN emeritus board member Catherine Lincoln.
It’s not just garden tours, it’s a blooming movement
By Lauren Newkirk Maynard
As the new steward of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com, Gardens Buffalo Niagara (GBN) is going all in.
We’re serious about earning your trust as a go-to information source for gardening in Western New York.
Who and what is GBN?
Established in 1995 by a group of home gardeners looking to start a self-guided walking tour, Gardens Buffalo Niagara is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization with a mission to support community change through gardening.
Read our story.
Learn more about our mission and values.
What does that mean?
Simply put, we build relationships around gardening. We support and celebrate gardens and gardeners throughout the eight counties of Western New York with a growing network of neighbors, community and civic organizations, and local businesses.
Here’s how we do it…
Our self-guided walking tours include the nationally recognized Garden Walk Buffalo (America’s largest garden tour), East Side Garden Walk, Open Gardens and Urban Farm Day. Combined, these events bring tens of thousands of visitors to Buffalo each summer, generating millions of dollars of revenue for the city.
GBN also nurtures creativity, education and environmental awareness through a gardening lens.
Our Artists in Gardens program spotlights artists, musicians and other performers, and we host unique group tours, a Conservation Day at Bidwell Farmers Market, and WNY’s best Garden Art Sale.
We also provide financial support for community gardens. The GBN Lunenfeld Beautification Grants award thousands of dollars a year for community groups of all sizes and budgets, helping you get your gardening ideas off the ground or expand your existing gardens.
This year we funded nearly $40,000 for 33 community gardens! Read about the 2026 recipients.
Dozens of partners help us with this work, including the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, Cornell Cooperative Extensions, Visit Buffalo, Explore Buffalo, the City of Buffalo, Erie County, Grassroots Gardens, The Tool Library, and many more.
Here’s the full list of our sponsors and supporters (several of whom advertise on this website). We’ll make sure you know where (and how) to shop!
What you can do
Check out our mission and vision to see what guides us.
Garden Walk Buffalo (July 25 and 26) and East Side Garden Walk (July 18 and 19) are looking for gardeners now. If you live and garden inside the footprints of these events, sign up for free to show off your garden, or grab some friends and a map to tour the gardens and meet your neighbors. You don’t have to be experienced, and all gardens are welcome.
Don’t live within the footprints? You can register your garden for Open Gardens, a regional showcase of WNY’s premier gardens open to the public on select days in July. (You can also be an Open Gardener if you live in Buffalo.)
Look for special bus tours, national and local speakers, and educational events in these pages in the coming months.
Wait, there’s more
Become a monthly subscriber! For $3 a month, get local gardening news delivered to your inbox, with special prizes, offers and sneak peeks of upcoming events.
Become a volunteer! We are always looking for friendly folks to help out on committees and at our events.
Join our community on social media. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.
How can we help you?
What would you like to know? Tell us your interests and questions, and we’ll get you the information and advice. We have Buffalo’s best local gardening experts on hand to weigh in.
Gardens Buffalo Niagara is proud of what we’ve become over the past 30+ years, and we have so much more to offer! We can’t wait to meet you and garden together.
From top left: Gardeners and community leaders Cheryl Harris and Mary Van Vorst at Urban Farm Day; a geodesic pergola on Linwood Avenue; members of Middle Highland Block Club, a past Lunenfeld grant recipient, planting street corner containers; visitors to the Futures Academy Community Garden.
Left: The Hopkins/Dunlap 16th Street garden.
Lauren Newkirk Maynard is a home gardener, writer and editor of Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com. She has served as a board member of Gardens Buffalo Niagara since 2019.
