“I took a plot where even grass wasn’t growing because there was too much clay and turned it into this,” said Marilyn Rodgers of 81 Johnson Park, Buffalo. She shared her colorful garden during Garden Walk Buffalo last year. This year the event will be held July 28 and 29. Rodgers’ garden is another example of grassless front yards that are so charming. They seem to be turning into a symbol of Buffalo-style gardening. Her front yard was mostly clay,…...
You don’t have to have grass in your front yard. I loved the grassless front yard of Anne Gareis, which I saw on Garden Walk Buffalo in 2011. A spectacular evergreen takes up most of the space in the front yard. She could have planted grass in the space around the tree, but instead she extended the garden from the front of the house to the tree. “Grass is boring,” Gareis said. Ferns, hostas and other shade-tolerant plants fill in…...
A 20-foot blue spruce, along with a birch, crab apple, dogwood and Japanese maple, are part of what is essentially a giant container garden built on top of a narrow asphalt driveway in Buffalo. Ellie Dorritie of 415 Summer St. shared her gardens during Garden Walk Buffalo on July 30 and 31. More than 350 gardens were on display during the event, which is the largest garden tour in the nation. Dorritie’s back garden includes brick pathways, which you can…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko You can visit all of Cherie St. Pierre’s gardens in Eggertsville as part of the Open Gardens program of the National Garden Festival, but one is so different than the others that we had to give it an article of its own. While St. Pierre’s home and an adjoining property have traditional yards, her rental property across the street at 3887 Bailey has no grass in its front or backyard! She loves gardening, but the retired…...
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