by Connie Oswald Stofko An iron headboard and foot board give another meaning to the term “garden bed” in this yard at 224 East Prospect Ave., Hamburg, where Kathleen Winter shared her gardens during Buzz Around Hambug on Saturday and Sunday, July 14 and 15. This part of Winter’s front yard is one of the few sunny spots on her property. Her side and back yards are under a canopy of tree branches, which is delightful during the hot weather…
In German, “garten” means “garden.” “It’s fate, I guess,” said Evelyn Garten. “I married a garden.” Her gardens surround a log home she and her husband built themselves, log by log, 54 years ago. She shared her gardens with the public during the Grand Island Garden Tour on July 14. The event benefitted the preservation of Historic Trinity Church. She and her husband were renting a place in Buffalo 54 years ago when he was downtown and saw a small…
Container plantings add color to the garden surrounding the backyard patio of Mary Murrett, who shared her gardens at 178 Hirschfield, Williamsville, during the Village of Williamsville Garden Walk on June 30. She has fun designing her containers as she goes along. “I go nuts at the nursery,” Murrett said. “I take one of these, and one of these and one of these.” When she gets all her plants home, she sets a piece of plywood across a carpenter’s trestle…
The weather was seasonably warm on Sunday, and that made the cool, blue pool below look even more appealing. Michael and Claudette Rivera of 268 Crescent, Buffalo, shared their lovely landscape during the 15th annual Parkside Garden Tour on June 24. Their home was built in 1913 by the Kelly family that established Hens and Kelly, a local upscale chain of department stores that operated from 1892 to 1982. Mike likes to use plants that go with the time period…
Spring is an overlooked time for gardens in the Buffalo area. It seems we spend our time waiting and preparing for the end of May, the traditional time to plant tender annuals, and we forget to pause and enjoy the beauty of spring gardens. With perennials, you can have successive waves of blooms in your garden starting in early spring, said Fran Evans of Hamburg, who is a Master Gardener with Cornell Cooperative Extension Erie County. I visited his garden…
We promised to tell you more about annuals that will work well in your Buffalo area garden. Today we’re going to talk about a black annual, a drought-tolerant annual and a shade annual with colorful leaves. Bonus: If you love impatiens for shade, try a new variety that you can plant in sun. These tips are shared by the staff at Lockwood’s Greenhouses, 4484 Clark Street, Hamburg, NY 14075. Lockwoods will exhibit at Plantasia, which will be held at the…
Fairy gardens have such a wide appeal, it’s easy to see why they’ve become such a hot new trend in the Buffalo area. Fairy gardens are great for people with limited space, for people who want to share gardening with a child, or for people who just like being creative. “Basically, a fairy garden is a miniature garden planted in a container or in the landscape,” explained Mark Yadon, vice president at Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouses, 118 South Forest Rd.,…
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…
Many gardeners feel they must get their garden planted by Memorial Day weekend or they’ve missed some sort of deadline. They think that if they go to a garden center now, they’ll see nothing but shriveled-up specimens on a discount table. Surprise! It’s still planting season in Buffalo and Western New York, and garden centers are full of fresh, new perennials and trees that you can plant right now. Plus, you get instant color and instant flowers because these fully…
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…
© 2012 Buffalo-Niagara Gardening. All rights reserved.