Coffee compost for jittery worms

Happy plants. Nervous worms.

Tom, sheesh. He's a Garden Walk gardener (and dedicated GW committee member) for many years. He's got a great garden, and one of the only swimming pools on the Garden Walk. He's also added about three tons of coffee grounds to his plant beds recently. That's not a typo -- three TONS! That makes for some very hepped-up worms, just boring through that soil. They never sleep.

Coffee grounds, compost & composted manure -- Mmmmm!

Tom has been collecting coffee grounds nearly every day, for a long time, from Spot Coffee on Elmwood Ave. One of their barristas, with a coffee blog, wrote a post about Tom's coffee compost, much better written, with more detail, than I ever could. Read it here.

Tom's another Buffalo gardener who's been slowly eliminating the grass from his good-sized urban yard. (It's a trend here). He even quotes GardenRant / GardeningWhileIntoxicated's Elizabeth - "Grass is nothing but a big fat pain in the ass." I can just hear those carefully-rendered words spouting mellifluously from her.

Elimination of grass was the goal -- no more mowing!

On a hot day, when you're about three houses away from Tom's, you can start smelling the coffee. Once all the grounds have been mixed into the soil, he then mixes a 50/50 of two other composts -- Bumper Crop (organic compost) and Garden Magic (composted manure). Both are odor and weed free. I suggested he mix in some sugar and cream.

Other local coffee houses have plans for their used coffee grounds. Cafe Aroma on Bidwell Parkway donates their grounds to the Massachusetts Avenue Project; Sweetness 7 on Grant & Lafayette sends theirs across the street to the Grassroots Gardens greenhouse. Starbucks on Elmwood said that they bag their coffee grounds and are happy to reserve a bag for any gardener who asks. Do coffee houses in your area do anything useful with their grounds that you know of?

Buffalo gardener quoted in Wall Street Journal on Hellstrips

Great Garden Walk Buffalo gardener Ellie was quoted in the Wall Street Journal last week in an article about hellstrips, the area between road and sidewalk.

Garden Ranter Susan Harris, who's actually been in Ellie's garden, was
shown in her Tacoma Park hellstrip of grasses in the same article.

From the article:
Ellie Dorritie, a retired postal worker in Buffalo, NY, says the full sun exposure in her planting strip allows her to garden with different plants than what she can get away with in her much shadier yard. Her garden scheme? "Cram it in," she says. "I ask, 'Does it bloom? Will it fight for space?' If the answer is yes, it goes in."

To read more about hellstrips/treelawns/boulevards and Ellie, read the article, visit here. The slideshow is here.

Frank Lloyd Wright rocks!

The Darwin Martin House, one of Buffalo's many Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures, is offering up salvaged stones from buried sections of the old foundation, excavated before portions of the house were reconstructed. If you're local (or willing to pay a LOT for shipping costs) the stones make a great addition to your garden -- and they're only $10 a piece -- or three for $20!

And they come with provenance! Each stone comes with a card that reads:

Original Foundation Stone from the Martin House Complex
This piece of stone was salvaged from buried sections of original foundations for the Martin's pergola and conservatory (1904). 

It was recovered during an archaeological dig (2002) of the foundation after the apartment building built on top of it was demolished. 

The foundation was composed of mortared, rough pieces of locally-quarried Onondoga limestone.

You better hurry though, if you want some. They're actually, genuinely, going fast. I was there today, as were some friends that had been there yesterday and they were down as much as 20% in the last two days. And they only have these pallets left and then there are no more.

Bring gloves. Bring someone that likes lifting heavy things. I bought six. Three for my rock garden and three to give as "hostess gifts" when going to parties or dinners. Some of my friends that aren't gardeners, are architects. And some are both, and would appreciate the odd hostess gift of a rock.

The stones can be purchased at The Wisteria Shop, the gift store within the Martin House's rebuilt carriage house. Go to the counter first and pay, then pick your rocks -- they come in a good range of sizes -- from mini-boulder to head-size.  Depending, of course, on the size of your head.

Hours are Mon-Fri 10-4:30; Sat 11-4; Sun 1- 3:30; closed Tuesdays. 

Here's my rock garden. Rocks from trips to Niagara Gorge; Erie Basin Marina;
Plymouth, MA; and the German Alps, and now, the Martin House.

Hurry. I've already sent an email about the stones to the Garden Walk gardeners. This week, I'll be sending the email out to the 6,500 on the Garden Walk eNewsletter list.

Natural Bonsai in post-industrial Buffalo, a kayak ride through time...

Tree growing from a pylon in the Buffalo River.

While out for a pleasant day of kayaking, we came across these former pier pylons sporting their own ecosystem. Each was growing different plant, or combination of plants. From a distance, they looked like they were purposely planted. I guess they were, if the occasional bird or wind blew some seeds this way. You can debate whose plan that is.

Egads! that might be purple loosestrife!

The intrepid assistant groundskeeper coming upon the USS Little Rock. They don't stand a chance against her.

The Buffalo Fire Department's Edward M. Cotter fire boat, built in 1900. It is considered to be the oldest active fireboat in the world and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

Lots of abandoned factories and grain silos along the route.

The reason why Buffalo smells like Cheerios on a pleasant day.

A great combination...

A great combo – Persian Shield and just about anything else. I first was introduced to Persian shield (the purple, sharp-leaved plant above) by Elizabeth of Gardening While Intoxicated. I thought, given its purple, metallic sheen, and dark green, almost black highlights, it would be a hard plant to match up with another. I've found quite the opposite. It's hard to find a plant it doesn't complement or contrast well with. Here it's with a red/yellow coleus of which I don't have the name. I have it in baskets and window boxes around the house mixed with other coleus and myriad other plants and it looks great. Next year, more Persian shield.

Bird's eye view

Recently, while atop the garage, I took this photo of the garden. My garden looks better the farther away you are. At least the potager garden looks good from here. With all the structure from the boxwoods, paths, and rose standard, you can barely tell the vegetables are just barely scarping along.

This was earlier in the summer, but I just ran across the photos. This is when my arbor hit peak color for the year. Soon after this, the purple verbena in the baskets burned up and were replaced. I think they need to be watered in these baskets about every half-hour.

A disappointment...

I had so much hope for this antique screen planted with mandevilla. It looked beautiful in my head. After three months this is all she's giving. The flowers are beautiful, but sparse. What am I doing wrong?

My first wisteria bloom!

The vine (a member of the pea family!) is only two years old. I expected to wait a lifetime to see a first bloom, from stories I've heard over the years. I also heard to buy one that has a bloom on it already, if planted, it will bloom its first year. Well, it didn't - but in year two, it has.

James Baggett, editor of Country Gardens magazine was here over Garden Walk Buffalo this summer and told me that you can tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese wisteria by noting which direction the vine twines -- Chinese wisteria vines spiral clockwise, Japanese wisteria vines spiral counter-clockwise. Mine, according to its spiraling, is Chinese. I have no idea how this knowledge benefits me, but there it is.

My Buffa10 Blogger Meet-Up photos

Let me see if I can do this - Michelle (WildOnesNiagara), Dee (Red Dirt Ramblings), Sarah (Toronto Gardens), Carol (May Dreams Gardens), Gail (Clay & Limestone), Layanee (Ledge & Gardens), and I think the hatted person up on top of the hill may be Aldona (Toronto Botanical Gardens). Hope I got them all right. Here you can see them, adding color to the Shadrack garden in Hamburg, NY. Wow - a shot without a Susan!

I'm away on vacation currently and haven't had much time for posting. I'm finally getting around now to posting my photos from Buffa10, the Garden Bloggers Meet-up here in Buffalo in July. To see all my photos, please visit here: http://gallery.me.com/charlierj#100358 . There are much better photos on other's posts on Buffal10, which can be found here: http://buffa10.blogspot.com/. I was busy running around, and half the time, forgot I had my camera on me.

I won't even try to name bloggers in the photo here. That's Cheryl with the camera.

Pat (Common Weeder), Michele (Garden Rant), Bonnie (Vintage Garden Gal) & Xris (Flatbush Gardener) all in my yard.

Martha Sewart Radio has a new gardening blog. And it's not always pretty.

Photo by Stacey Hirvella

Sometimes it's even gross. Martha Stewart Radio has launched a new garden blog -- At Home in the Garden -- a spin-off of the Martha Stewart Radio Blog which covered way more than just gardening. But, just a warning, it can be sometimes be ugly.

The container garden on the MSL rooftop in NYC.

So far, they've covered blossom-end-rot; spiders; and hopelessly-tangled, tumbleweed-looking garden hoses. Yeah, they cover other cute & pretty stuff, like bunnies, clever use of morning glories, some flower arranging and even the benefits of turkey vultures (not to the benefit of the bunnies). But I can more relate to hose frustration, spiders that build the same web in the same place overnight (every night), and stupid tomatoes with blossom-end-rot.

One of the contributors, Stacey Hirvella, a Senior Associate Garden Editor for Martha Stewart Living, was here for Garden Walk Buffalo this year. The site launched the week she got back to NYC from Buffalo. There's three other contributors -- Andrew Beckman, Tom Borgses, and Tony Bielaczyc -- all with serious garden credentials beyond their experience with MSL. And the best part of having four contributors is -- new posts every day -- a feat nearly impossible for and individual blogger (with a their own business, family, friends, travel, and on many community non-profit boards & groups).

Stacey, with my daughter, on the MSL rooftop garden.

There's even a great post titled, Gardening is Contagious that mentions Garden Walk Buffalo and has photos Stacey took while here! Check it out! My wife & daughter visited the MSL studios while on a recent trip to NYC and took these photos on their rooftop garden. They came back with tales of prop rooms photographers dream about and pet frogs found in purchased plants & foods. Told you it wasn't pretty there.

If you drop by, leave a comment, and say Jim sent you.

North Parade Front Yard Garden Competition - everyone wins!

Photo by Ed Healy

When you have a garden competition, there's supposed to be a winner, right? Well, in this case, everyone wins.

Someone from the media takes a photo of homeowner
Darlene Hunter and Joe Han, of The English Gardener.

I attended the awards ceremony for the National Buffalo Garden Festival Front Yard Garden Competition a few weeks back. It also happened to be the Western New York State Nursery & Landscape Association's (WNYSNLA) annual picnic, in MLK, Jr. Park, a Frederic Law Olmsted-designed park, right across the street from the 19 newly-renovated gardens. It was really, really nice. A back-patting ceremony between competitors complete with tents, picnic salads & stuff for grillin'.

For many of the awards, homeowners and landscapers either went up together, or in place of one another. Plenty of hugs from grateful homeowners, and my best surprise of all, from grateful landscapers glad to have helped and gotten involved in the process.

I do however, think that the only real award, that is the most deserving of any given, was by the North Parade Block Club to all the landscapers, presented to Neil Stern, president of the WNYSNLA. Here is the text of that letter:

The residents of North Parade Avenue would like to formally thank you 
for the wonderful work that was performed on our front yards. 
With your artistic talents, you were able to rearrange the earth and 
transform our front yards from ordinary to extraordinary. Each front yard 
displays a different theme, which compliments that home and enhances 
the character of each house. You have given us more than we 
could give ourselves at this time, and it is our intent to 
maintain and preserve the beauty of your work.

We are all overwhelmed with your generous gifts of landscapes
and hardscapes. your gifts of providing professionalism, courtesy,
dedication and diligence in record-breaking heat are humbly accepted
and greatly appreciated. If not for your generosity, this "History making Event"
could not have occurred. Thank you for going beyond our expectations.

Most of all, we thank you for the rejuvenated pride in our community;
the elimination of boundaries, which brought not only the residents of
North Parade Avenue closer together, but our community, which is now
linked to adjoining communities. We have greeted new friends and reunited
with old friends. We are gaining knowledge and sharing the experience --
all this through something as simple as the natural beauty of a garden.

Respectfully submitted, The Residents of North Parade Avenue

Mike Shadrack checking out something (probably food).
To the right of Mike is Mary Van Voorst, coordinator for the
NBGF garden tours and Open Gardens events,
two more HUGE aspects of the NBGF.

This declaration was printed, matted and presented in a large frame -- all the residents of the street signed the matte around the letter. And it went out to these fine folks that happen to be generous landscapers. If you live in Western New York and ever need the services of a landscaper, you too, cannot lose by choosing the kindest, most generous and hard-working landscapers in the community:

Beaver Landscaping, Inc. (759-7044)
Beyond the Basics Property Services, Inc.
Birch Grove Landscaping & Nursery, Inc.
Dore Landscape Associates
Elbers Landscape Service, Inc.
The English Gardener, Ltd
Johnson's Nursery
Menne Nursery Corp.
Murray Brothers Nurseries, Inc.
T. O'Donnell Landscaping
Pace Landscaping
S & R Greenleaf Landscaping

NBGF chairperson, Sally Cunningham with Joe Han.
Director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy,
Thomas Herrera-Mishler to the left (in tie) and Heidi Gee,
right, Certified Nursery & Landscape Professional.

The competition received additional support from various local businesses and organizations, including, but not limited to: Armor Fence Company of W.N.Y., Bedford Greenhouse, Bee News, Belgard Hardscapes, the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, Cooper Ridge Gardens, Gilson Gardens, Inc., Johnstons Evergreen Nursery, Lakeside Sod Supply Co., Inc., Landmasters, Localedge, Lockwood’s Greenhouses, New York Green Roof, Northridge Nursery, Oaks Concrete Products, Russell's Tree & Shrub Farm, LLC, Unilock, Inc., Wright Frontier Arborist Services, and the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation.

I can give you a rundown of the winners of the multiple categories, but I think it's more important to let you know WHO offered awards. Because I think, in many ways that says more about our community than the awards themselves -- printed on parchment, run through a printer and slapped in a frame. Awards were given by:

Second from the left, in tan shirt, is Otis, with the Olmsted
Parks Conservancy & community liaison
for the Front Yard Garden Competition.

• The general public (People's Choice award had over 1,000 votes!)
• Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy
• Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens
• 8th District Federated Garden Club’s
• Buffalo Green Fund/Buffalo in Bloom
• Buffalo Museum of Science 
• Buffalo Spree
• Niagara County Community College Horticulture Program (including a Student Favorite Award and Superhero Award given to Dore Landscaping for having taken on SIX front yards on their own!)
• Media Choice Awards (from all three local network affiliates -- ABC, NBC & CBS -- when's the last time THEY did something together!?)
• Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
• WNY Hosta Society
• Chairman’s Award for Sustainability (NBGF Chairperson Sally Cunningham had to single out a landscaper that went the extra steps needed to provide for long-term success of the new tree plantings)
• WNYSNLA

Homeowners were given before & after photos of their front yards. I was glad to have had the smallest part of making this event happen. I plan on visiting the neighborhood often, to see what we've done and how it unfolds over time.

This year's Garden Walk Project

A toast to the wisteria.

Knowing that the five weeks leading up to Garden Walk Buffalo were going to be filled almost every day with some sort of gardening event by the National Buffalo Garden Festival, I kept this year's project simple -- no multiple-weekend-long-complicated structures, no new perennial beds, no ladders, paint, digging, masonry, nails or hard labor -- just some plumbing supplies and a coupla' bottles of wine.

Garden Walk Buffalo - first stats are in

Crowds like this were consistent for two days at this intersection, the appropriately-named Summer Street.

Garden tourism expert, Richard Benfield, Professor of Geography at the University of Central Connecticut, was here for Garden Walk Buffalo this year. He's got a forthcoming book, titled Garden Tourism, that makes him a leading authority on this unheralded aspect of tourism in the U.S. -- 'cause no one else has a book on it.

Anyone read Chinese?

Yes. That's my house. In a newspaper. In Chinese. Some gracious garden visitor dropped this off to one of headquarters during Garden Walk Buffalo this past weekend. Apparently it is from a Cleveland area Chinese-language newspaper. I have no clue as to what it says. In the left column, it does say in English, "Buffalo," "Garden Walk Buffalo," and other descriptors -- like rain garden, cottage garden, and rock garden. It mentions Marvin Lunenfeld (founder of Garden Walk Buffalo),  and the Elmwood Village. Other than that, it's greek to me.

MMC at MSL in NYC & THX to GWB Committee

Here's Margaux Meursault Charlier, with Stacey Hirvella, Senior Associate Garden Editor, Martha Stewart Living, rooftop, at the Martha Stewart Living offices in NYC this morning. Wife & daughter are in NYC and Long Island for a week as I get back to doing work that pays bills, as opposed to the garden event stuff that's occupied a majority of my billable hours for the last five months.

Garden Walk this weekend was another smashing success. I'll be posting about the Walk over the next couple weeks. I've talked to a few of the GW committee members already today and we're all sort of hung over, but jazzed about the weekend.

Everybody in Buffalo should be thanking the Garden Walk committee members, that work year round, for hosting an event that is really starting to make an impact on how Buffalo is perceived by out-of-towners (and in-towners for that matter). This is no longer a small garden tour, it is a national tourism draw. Buffalo's rustbelt/snowbelt image will not be changed by any politician, it will not be changed by an ad campaign or clever tagline, and it will not be changed by the national media. It will be changed by these people:

Garden symposia, contests, parties, dinners & mega tour

Wild week continues.

Garden Symposium

First up, a Garden Symposium, this Friday, July 23 at Forest Lawn Cemetery as part of the National Buffalo Garden Festival. Speakers include Professor Richard Benfield, speaking about the great botanic gardens of the world, he is author of the forthcoming book, Garden Tourism. Landscape Architect Virginia Burt on how to create sacred spaces. Sandra Sparks will speak on the Women and Gardens of Forest Lawn.

First, 60 garden bloggers, then a photo shoot, then 2,000 visitors. Oy.

I've had just about the busiest (and best) time over the last two weeks. Not moments after I help plan, plot & shepherd 70 garden writers and bloggers around the country to Buffalo's gardening sites & institutions, I then have to focus on having a good-sized photo shoot in my garden for this coming Friday. Then, there's this little thing of helping throw the largest garden tour in the country, taking place on Saturday and Sunday. We're expecting 50,000-plus people for the tour -- 2,000 of which will plod through my garden. Can you imagine prep work? And my angst?

Garden Bloggers' Posts on Buffalo gardens...

 "We all know I love buildings, but in Buffalo I swooned." - Susan Cohan, NJ, Miss Rumphius' Rules

"Who knew that Buffalonians were so serious about gardening?" - Helen Battersby, Toronto Gardens 

"Greetings from Buffalo, one of the best-kept secrets among garden cities in the country!" Susan Reimer, The Baltimore Sun

"There is an energy surrounding Buffalo which is palpable to gardeners in particular." - Layanee, RI, Ledge and Gardens

"One of the richest cities in America at the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo has Frederick Law Olmstead-designed parks and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings to spare, as well as charming neighborhoods and the most attractive housing stock of any city I've ever visited.  Getting "oohs" and "aahs" out of even jaded gardeners in the midst of this 18-carat setting would probably not be hard under any circumstances.  But Buffalo's gardeners are an amazingly high-spirited, playful, and brave group.  One of my favorite gardens cheekily mixed a David, a Diana, a stone Buddha, and a big honking garden gnome." - Michele Owens, Saratoga Springs, Garden Rant

A single post may appear under many categories, depending on images and mentions within the post.

Categories are divided into Allentown Gardens, Cottage District Gardens, Lancaster Avenue, Lockwoods Greenhouses, Urban Roots, National Garden Festival Front Yard Garden Contest, Erie Basin Marina Trial Gardens, Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens, Olmsted's Delaware Park's Japanese Garden, Shadracks Hosta & Daylily Garden, ACS Hope Blooms Gardens, 20th Century Club, Bird Avenue Ballard/Olinsky Garden, Comments on Buffalo, Garden Walk Buffalo, Cary Street, North Pearl Licata/Bigelow Garden, Lancaster Avenue Charlier Garden, Niagara falls and Photo Collections.

Listen up. I'll be on Martha Stewart Radio tomorrow morning.

I'll be on, live, around 7:30 a.m. (EST) on the "Morning Living" program, hosted by Kim Fernandez and Betsy Karetnick. They're interested in sharing info on Garden Walk Buffalo with their listeners. I'm expecting deep probing questions, like, "When did Garden Walk start?" and, "What can people expect to see?"
You can read their RadioBlog here. Stacey Hirvella, Senior Associate Editor for Martha Stewart Living is an occasional gardening contributor to the blog. She visited Garden Walk Buffalo last year and is an ardent supporter of the Walk.

It may be the only garden tour to ever get a standing ovation...

 

It was just the Allentown gardens that are on Garden Walk Buffalo...

 

Drinks in the garden of my co-coordinator for the weekend, Buffalo Spree Editor, GardenRant.com contributor and GardeningWhileIntoxicated blog writer, Elizabeth Licata...

Garden Bloggers to take over Buffalo!

A year in the planning, and here I am, the night before, making name tags. Over the next four days, 72 garden bloggers, from 23 different states and Canada, are arriving for a visit to Buffalo's great gardening sites and private residential gardens.

The prevailing hope is that they'll have a good time, have some good meals and blog about our gardens & hospitality in a positive light. And provide an unprecedented amount of PR for Buffalo's great gardens & gardeners.

Here is a list of the blogs of the gardeners coming for a visit. Check them out over the course of the next four days (and beyond) and see what they have to say (and show) about the Erie Basin Marina Test Gardens, The Cottage District, the Delaware Park Japanese Garden, Urban Roots Community Garden Center, Lockwood's Greenhouses, the Shadrack hosta garden, the Front Yard Garden Competition, the Botanical Gardens and the Lancaster Avenue gardens. If you agree, or disagree with something in a post -- leave a comment -- bloggers love getting comments.

Buffalo's Front Yard Garden Contest off to a great start

Back in December, it was a dozen of us sitting in a room. We're brainstorming ways to leave a permanent legacy of the National Garden Festival. Permanent over-sized planters for all the host sites for events? Killer baskets of annuals for Bidwell Parkway (like you'd see in Niagara-on-the-Lake)? An awesome community garden in a very public spot? The idea was to keep in the spirit of what Garden Walk Buffalo has done with their Beautification Grants by improving a neighborhood or common area.

Eastside Garden Competition, the changing of a neighborhood, starts tomorrow

I started a garden blog so that I could promote Garden Walk Buffalo and Buffalo's gardens. You know, take a nail out of Buffalo's coffin by letting the rest of the world know that rustbelt/snowbelt isn't all we have going on here (actually that rustbelt/snowbelt thing is all in the minds of people that DON'T live here). I could not be happier that we're getting there, and this week could be a turning point.

This week, it seems, is the culmination of all the efforts of the National Buffalo Garden Festival. It's the busiest garden week in Buffalo! 50,000 visitors for Garden Walk Buffalo in two weeks will be a walk in the park compared to this week.