aviary and street clock in garden in Amherst NY

Help this reader: How should she prepare her garden for her first garden walk?

by Connie Oswald Stofko Here’s a question I received from a reader: Hi Connie, thanks for your newsletter, it’s always so informative! I have entered the Amherst Garden Walk this year. As a part-time transplant Buffalonian, I am unsure of what will be blooming on July 11, the day of the walk. I like a good challenge, however I’m thinking I bit off too much? Are there tips, a web site to guide, anything to assist the process of  coaxing…...

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Jerry Powarski in his garden in West Seneca

Get tips on going big from this West Seneca garden

by Connie Oswald Stofko Go big. That’s the lesson I took away from the gardens of Jerry Powarski of George Dr., West Seneca. Powarski gave me a sneak peek last week as a preview of the West Seneca Tour of Gardens, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19. The garden walk season kicks off this weekend with the 10th annual Lewiston GardenFest, which will be held 10 a.m. to 5…...

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Lewiston GardenFest

Tip: Plant Egyptian walking onions & mark your calendar for Lewiston GardenFest

by Connie Oswald Stofko Carol Ann Harlos will give a talk on herbs at the 10th annual Lewiston GardenFest, which will be held 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 20 and 21, on Center Street in Lewiston. I asked her to share one tip as a preview. “Plant Egyptian walking onions,” Harlos said without hesitation. Why? “Because they walk through your garden!” she said. The plants get bulbils or bulblets at the top of the stem, the…...

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gobike tour with Garden Walk Buffalo Niagara

Tour Buffalo gardens by bike on June 20

You can tour some of Buffalo’s most beautiful gardens on the GObike City Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 20 as part of Garden Walk Buffalo Niagara (formerly National Garden Festival). This will be a fun and relaxed seven-mile tour of some of Buffalo’s most beautiful gardens in and around Allentown. It includes a box lunch. The cost is $30 for the public or $25 for GObike Buffalo members. There is a limit of 30 people,…...

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steps in Whittemore garden in Hamburg NY

A natural slope adds interest to colorful shade garden in Hamburg; garden walks are coming!

by Connie Oswald Stofko A natural slope combined with raised beds add interest to the Hamburg yard of Barb and Dave Whittemore. “There are seven steps to the top deck,” Dave pointed out. “We really have vistas with this. The elevations make a world of difference. That’s one thing I really enjoy.” A screened-in seating area is perched at the top of the garden looking down on the main part of the yard. “You can sit up there and see…...

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big planter on deck in Buffalo NY

Create a no-bending, no-kneeling garden like this one in Buffalo

  by Connie Oswald Stofko JoAnn Yager has a small garden along the fence in her backyard, but the plants there struggle. “They never grew,” she said, “and it was too hard bending and weeding.” This year she tried something new. Her reward is that she is surrounded by flowers and herbs and vegetables, plus she eliminated all that bending and kneeling. Her trick? She used containers on her back deck. Yager shared her tips during the Black Rock &…...

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A lot of garden is packed into small Buffalo yard– ponds, falls, hot tub & many plants

by Connie Oswald Stofko The description of this yard on the Garden Walk Buffalo map summed it up perfectly: A lot of garden crammed into a tiny space. Bruce and Renée Adams of 533 Auburn, Buffalo, have a backyard that is about 36 feet wide but only 20 feet deep, yet they manage to squeeze in two ponds, a stream, a patio table and chairs, a hot tub and lots and lots of plants. I visited their home during the…...

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slow-growing low-maintenance garden

Slow-growing shrubs create low-maintenance garden; backyard is full of perennials

by Connie Oswald Stofko Barb Ciesla and her husband Henry had a front yard with a line of yew bushes straight across the front. She wanted something more interesting and decided to redo the entire front. “I’m 60 years old and I don’t want to do it all again,” Ciesla said. “I don’t want to have to redo it in five years because things got too big. I wanted things that grow very slowly.” She spent the entire winter researching…...

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Lighting adds ambiance to Moroccan-themed garden in Tonawanda

by Connie Oswald Stofko Great lighting set the mood for a Moroccan-themed garden during the nighttime garden walk of the Ken-Ton Garden Tour held this past weekend. The event also included a daytime garden walk. Richard Levy of 122 Pickford Ave., Tonawanda, chose a Morrocan theme because his father’s family is from that part of the world. His grandparents were born in Istanbul. At left, a gazebo was draped with rich-looking colorful fabrics. He looked at 100 or 200 photos…...

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title for video on Snyder-CleveHill Garden View

Clay, tree roots & shade: Get tips in this video

by Connie Oswald Stofko I love Western New York gardeners. I tried waiting out the rain Sunday, but it just kept getting worse, so around 1 p.m. I made my way out to the Snyder-CleveHill Garden View, a garden walk that covers parts of Amherst and Cheektowaga. I stopped at the home of Terrie and Jerry Newman at 194 Lamarck Dr. The description on the map said they had struggled with clay soil, something that a lot of Western New…...

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