By Connie Oswald Stofko The front porch “is like another living room,” said Doug Lilley of Livingston St., Buffalo. “I love sitting out here. It’s peaceful.” When he bought this 150-year-old double seven years ago, the upstairs porch was rotting and needed to be replaced. An addition to the back of the house was rotten and Lilley had to lop off the entire addition. The backyard was so overgrown, it was hard to walk back there. Now the house…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Have you gotten any rain lately? If so, lucky you! I’ve been hearing forecasts of thunderstorms, and I happily anticipated having my rain barrels refilled. But we got only lightning. There was barely enough rain to dampen the porch– and the areas under the plastic lawn chairs stayed dry! We’re significantly below average for precipitation, said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara County. The last summer that was comparable to this was…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko First, let me say that I sincerely hope you and your loved ones are safe. Since this is a gardening magazine, we’ll talk about what the Snowvember storm means for your garden, but I do want to let you know that I understand how serious this storm was. It was dangerous. People were injured and people died. There was property damage, too. Even if you got through it unscathed, it was scary. My thoughts and prayers…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko We had a bit of warm sunshine this weekend and it was wonderful to do some outside chores. My husband raked the autumn leaves off the front lawn and I yanked a few early weeds from garden beds near a sidewalk. But there still isn’t a lot you can do in your garden yet, said Teresa Buchanan, general manager at Lockwood’s Greenhouses, 4484 Clark St., Hamburg. “I would tell people to use care in their gardens…...
I visited the yard of Jim “Wak” Nowicki during Garden Walk Buffalo in July. He had lots of interesting elements in his summer garden, including live fish in bowls suspended from tree branches, which we’ll talk about more toward the end of this article. But he doesn’t relegate his creativity to the summer months. He took a few moments out of the tour of his summer gardens to give me a sneak peek at his Halloween decorations that were stored…...
After having their house built five years ago, Paul and Debbie Acquisto of 270 South Lane, Grand Island, enlisted the help of landscapers to get them started with their garden design. They shared their gardens during the Grand Island Garden Tour, a new garden walk that was part of the National Garden Festival this year. It was held July 6 and 7. Even though they worked with landscapers, the couple didn’t attempt to do everything at once. Every year they…...
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