Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com

What wrapping paper can you compost and which will contaminate your soil?

by Connie Oswald Stofko It’s so exciting to see beautifully wrapped gifts, but what happens to all of that wrapping paper once the gifts are opened? Can your compost it? You can compost some kinds of wrapping paper, but many kinds contain heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and arsenic that will contaminate your compost, said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara County. “Those heavy metals don’t break down and could end up in your vegetable garden,”…...

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Dec 19, 2017

Coming up in 2018: a new look for Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com

by Connie Oswald Stofko This is our last issue for 2017, but when we come back in mid-January, you’ll see a new look for Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com. The website will be cleaner and more attractive. The Events will be easier to read. And the Gardening Directory will make it simpler for you to find the kind of gardening products and services you are looking for. You’ll still get all the great gardening information you’ve come to expect from the online gardening magazine for…...

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Dec 19, 2017

Weather garden: focus on wind, rain

by Stephen Vermette, Department of Geography & Planning, SUNY Buffalo State In a previous issue, I introduced you to a weather garden, which vividly demonstrates how sunlight, temperature, wind and rain affect plants in different ways. It does this through the choice of plants, as well as through fun and useful ornaments such as thermometers, wind vanes and rain gauges. That first article focused on sunlight. In the second article, I focused on temperature. Today we will look at the…...

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Dec 19, 2017

tomato cages turned into Christmas trees

Reuse tomato cages as a Christmas decoration

by Connie Oswald Stofko My neighbor, Helen Waterhouse, saw some cool Christmas decorations in our neighborhood. They look like small Christmas trees. “I bet you could make them using a tomato cage,” she said. We took her dog Fluffy for a walk down our block, and Helen pointed out the decorations. On closer inspection, we found they were indeed made from tomato cages! Helen decided to try it and found it worked well. I took some photos a couple weeks…...

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Dec 12, 2017

Explore temperature in a ‘weather garden’

by Stephen Vermette, Department of Geography & Planning, SUNY Buffalo State Last week I introduced you to a weather garden, which vividly demonstrates how sunlight, temperature, wind and rain affect plants in different ways. It does this through the choice of plants, as well as through fun and useful ornaments such as thermometers, wind vanes and rain gauges. Last week we looked at the element of sunlight. Today we will look at temperature. In a future issue, we will look…...

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Dec 12, 2017

Variety of new trees replace infected ash trees through Leaf a Legacy project

by Connie Oswald Stofko The City of Buffalo used to have stately elms lining block after block– until Dutch elm disease wiped them out. Many of the elms were replaced by ash trees, but now the Emerald Ash Borer has taken its toll on the ash tree. The good news is that 64 of the ash trees on a section of Delaware Avenue were recently replaced through a Leaf a Legacy project, and the groups involved made sure that the…...

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Dec 12, 2017

‘Weather garden’ displays effects of sun, heat, wind, rain

by Stephen Vermette, Department of Geography & Planning, SUNY Buffalo State Let me introduce you to something new – a weather garden. A weather garden vividly demonstrates how sunlight, temperature, wind and rain affect plants in different ways. While these weather elements are a part of every garden, the key to a weather garden is displaying and learning about the specialized links between weather and plants. It does this through the choice of plants, as well as through fun…...

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Dec 5, 2017

Outdoor arrangement uses fresh-cut greens

Here’s an outdoor arrangement to welcome visitors to your home. This idea comes from Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouses, 118 South Forest Rd., Williamsville. Greens are placed upright in a plastic pot and decorated with a big red bow and pine cones. The greens are fresh-cut and locally grown. There’s soil in the pot to hold the branches in place. Rain will keep the soil wet, adding more weight and helping keep the pot stable. The arrangement looks charming in the…

Dec 5, 2017

Help me stay in business– Please sign petition for net neutrality

by Connie Oswald Stofko I love bringing you great gardening tips every week, and I want to keep doing it. But if net neutrality goes away, Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com might not be able to stay in business. Net neutrality maintains a fair and level playing field for small businesses as well as large businesses. When you surf the internet, you have equal access to whatever website you want to go to, including mine. But on Dec. 14, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)…...

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Dec 5, 2017

Three ways to hide ugly items in your garden

by Connie Oswald Stofko What I want you to notice about these photos are actually the things you can’t see. In the first photo, you don’t see an air conditioner. Instead you see a garden. This was in the yard of Pat Noonan of Hamburg, who shared her landscape on the Hamburg Garden Walk in 2017. I stood right in front of this garden and didn’t know there was an air conditioner there until it was pointed out to me…....

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Nov 28, 2017