Rain barrels, bee festival & wildflower series

It’s time to set out your rain barrel or buy a rain barrel If you brought your rain barrel in over the winter, now is a good time to set it out again. And if you don’t have a rain barrel, now is a good time to get one. Not only do rain barrels help the environment, they can provide a convenient source of water in parts of your garden where a hose connected to a tap on the house…...

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pond in Riverside area of Buffalo NY

Pond in Buffalo evolved from space that held garage for Model T Ford

How this pond was created is a long story that involves a garage built for a Model T Ford, two kids’ fascination with WWI and a couple who know how to rescue great items from the trash. The story starts in 1995 at the home of Michelle and Jim Schmitt at 253 Crowley Avenue in the Riverside area of Buffalo.They had an old garage that had been built for a Model T. It even held some Model T parts, including…...

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Hang feeder now to welcome hummingbirds to Western New York

Hummingbirds will be arriving soon in Western New York. Get ready for them by hanging your hummingbird feeder now. “It may still be a bit early, but you really want the feeder up ahead of their arrival so that they find a food source as they are coming through,” said Penny Durnin of North Tonawanda, moderator of the Hummingbird Forum. “There will be very few natural resources available to them for a while.” If you want to track the hummingbirds’…...

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cut dead perennials in spring in Buffalo NY

Warm weather! What you can– & can’t– do in your garden now

Clean up your yard, but leave the mulch in place When the forsythia is in bloom, that’s a good time to cut back your rose bushes and take the mulch off your garden beds, said  Dawn Trippie-Thompson, owner, with her husband Ken Thompson, of Thompson Brothers Greenhouses, 8850 Clarence Center Rd., Clarence Center. That’s a rule of thumb she learned in horticulture coursework at Niagara County Community College. Forsythias usually bloom in late April or early May, so even the…...

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Impatiens are dying; choose alternative shade plants instead

by Connie Oswald Stofko For decades, impatiens has been the go-to flower for the shade. But now that a blight is wiping out these wonderful flowers, you’ll have to rethink your plant choices for shady gardens. Some garden centers won’t sell impatiens at all this year, while others will grow a limited supply but will sell them without guarantees. Don’t expect to find impatiens at all next year. What should you plant instead? A couple of local events can help…...

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Talks coming up on 45 gardening tips, & more great items

Get 45 gardening tips in 45 minutes I will present “45 Gardening Tips in 45 Minutes” at two upcoming events, both of which are open to the public. Monday, April 15: Smallwood Garden Club meeting at 7 p.m. at Forest Elementary School, 250 N. Forest Rd., Williamsville. Monday, April 22: Earth Day talk at 7 p.m. at the North Tonawanda Public Library, 505 Meadow Drive, North Tonawanda. This is a fast-paced presentation– I have to average one tip per minute!…...

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patio furniture from pallets in Western New York

Use trash to make vertical garden, plant tags– even furniture!

Items that normally might have been thrown away found new uses in a student exhibit in March at Plantasia, Western New York’s premier garden and landscape show. Aluminum cans became plant tags, coat hangers helped support vining plants and pallets became an A-frame vertical planter and an entire suite of patio furniture! The exhibit was created by students in the horticulture programs at Niagara County Community College (NCCC) and the adult education program at McKinley High School as well as…...

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clematis on mailbox in Lancaster NY

Lancaster sets mini garden walks, & more items too good to miss

Mini garden walks scheduled during Lancaster’s Old Home Days Old Home Days, an event that was last held in Lancaster 100 years ago, is being resurrected and is scheduled for June 30 through July 6. The Lancaster Garden Walk will take part. In addition to its main walk, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 20 and 21, the Lancaster Garden Walk will hold three mini-walks as part of Old Home Days. The…...

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Broccoli from Burpee

It’s almost time to plant cool-weather veggies in Buffalo area

You’ll be able to plant cool-weather vegetables soon, said Julie Emerling, who is in charge of herbs and vegetables at Lockwood’s Greenhouses, 4484 Clark St., Hamburg. People know the rule of thumb is that you wait until Memorial Day to do most of your planting. That’s because for many of our plants, we need to wait until the danger of frost has passed and we have warm weather. The vegetables that we’re talking about today should be planted earlier because…...

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International honor given to the National Garden Festival in Buffalo

Buffalo’s National Garden Festival was among garden festivals from around the world to receive international recognition last week at the Garden Tourism Conference in Toronto. Other award recipients traveled from Japan, France, Portugal, Italy and Australia as well as from across North America. “More and more eyes around the world are being opened to the fact that Buffalo is a premier gardening tourism destination,” said Sally Cunningham, director of the National Garden Festival. In the photo above, she is in…...

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