In the first year, Judy Horan planted eight pink geraniums. Now, just four years later, her garden encompasses the area from the front door of her Amherst condominium, around the corner to her deck. It continues beyond a huge evergreen where she has a small vegetable garden. Oh, and she has a garden on the other side of the driveway, too. “I was bored,” said Judy, who is retired. “But this is it. It’s not going to get any bigger.”…...
The flowers in the garden beds are beautiful, but it’s the flowers painted on the lawn that get noticed first at the home of Karen and Bernie Farrell of 78 Brunswick, Lancaster. The flowers were painted by Karen, who has started her own business called Lawntastic, where she does custom painting on lawns. Their front yard was on display during the eighth annual Lancaster Garden Walk on Saturday and Sunday, July 16 and 17. Karen got the idea for her…...
When Jim Tarantino moved 22 years ago into his home at 1069 Eggert Rd., Amherst, there wasn’t much of a garden. His major concern was erosion in the part of the backyard that slopes down to what is now Kadimah School of Buffalo. He built the retaining wall and planted whatever he could to hold down the soil, happily accepting cuttings from other gardeners. In the photo at left, these lovely plantings are actually outside his fence; his yard is to…...
Last week, we left you this conundrum: A shady front yard at 87 Newman Place, Buffalo. Murray Brothers Nurseries, which has 350 varieties of shade-tolerant hostas, ready to do a makeover. A homeowner who wants color– but no hostas! Work on the front yard was completed last week, and we won’t keep you in suspense a moment longer. Yes, the homeowners love their newly designed front gardens! And yes, the designer used hostas, but you have to look hard to find…...
When it comes to gardening, “We’re only limited by our imagination.” That’s what Tom Carlucci tells the inmates he teaches at Wyoming Correctional Facility. Carlucci shared his own garden with visitors during the ninth annual Snyder-CleveHill Garden View. The event was held Sunday, July 9 in the the Snyder and Cleveland Hill neighborhoods. The garden walk was sponsored by Univera Healthcare and the Harlem Kensington Cleveland Community Association. Carlucci is a vocational instructor in horticulture at the Wyoming Correctional Facility…....
by Connie Oswald Stofko Japanese iris are easy to grow in the Buffalo area, and evidence of the beautiful blooms you can get were on display Sunday at the Western New York Iris Society’s show “Spectacular Elegance.” The show included Japanese iris and any other beardless iris; the society’s June show was for bearded iris. At left is an example of a specimen with multiple buds on one stalk, which is a new breeding trend for Japanese iris, said Maria…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Patience. That’s what you need if you want a yard and gardens like those at 84 Woodward, Buffalo, the home of Melissa and Bill Maldovan. The Maldovans’ gardens were decades in the making. The couple shared their lovely landscape with visitors during the 14th annual Parkside Garden Tour on Sunday, June 26. Both husband and wife have gardening backgrounds. Melissa has taken horticulture classes and Bill did landscaping in high school and college. When their three…...
Art Aigner, a reader from Elma, asked, “How do I prevent my iris blooms from laying over?” Mark Van Buren of Zehr’s on the Lake Farm Market and Nursery offered a couple solutions. The problem may be that that the rhizome or root or “toe” of the plant isn’t deep enough. Van Buren said that 50 percent of the rhizome should be exposed and 50 percent should be under the soil. He suggested staking the iris with small bamboo stakes…
by Connie Oswald Stofko Kerry Ann Mendez, garden designer, author and consultant, will kick off the festivities for the National Garden Festival on Friday, June 24 with a talk on “Tips for Low-maintenance, High-impact Perennial Gardens.” You can also join her that day for a tour of the perennials and shrubs at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. (See details of the opening day activities at the end of this article.) Mendez has written two books. The Ultimate Flower…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Feel fortunate if your birthday is in June. Your birthday flower is the rose, which is called the world’s favorite flower, according to an exhibit last summer at the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. Roses were in such high demand during the 17th century that royalty used roses and rose water as legal tender to purchase other items or to pay debts. Luckily, today even we common folk can buy roses as cut flowers or…...
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