My grate find

A friend called me up and said her neighbor had a great big old rusty grate out by the curb for heavy trash pickup. She couldn't use it and wanted to know if I could. I think I was there before she hung up the phone.

The grate has a sort of Turkish-inspired design to it, along with a patina of age (by which I mean it's got some rust and pieces missing).

I took the grate, not 100% sure what I'd do with it, only knowing that I'd use it somewhere. I also think that since the outside of the house acts as "walls" for my outdoor space, it's prime area to treated like in interior wall–with artwork.

So I hung it on the house. I have plans to build my version of an "outdoor kitchen" here, around my grill. It's being worked on as we speak, so to speak. It's going to be less of an outdoor kitchen and more counter space around the grill, as a typical grill (and by typical grill, I mean affordable grill) lacks any adequate flat surface area. There's barely enough room for a plate, barbecue sauce, and a couple utensils. Where is one to rest their gin & tonic?

I'll put a planter beneath it and plant something (next year!). I'll plant some things I'd want near the grill (basil, rosemary, a barbecued ribs tree), but want something to crawl up the grate. Maybe morning glories? Passion Flowers? What would you suggest? It's got to be an annual (in zone 6) as the planter probably won't be deep enough to overwinter anything.

A hike in the Niagara Gorge-ous

For father's day this year I wanted to have a picnic and hike the Niagara Gorge. The gorge is the area from below the Falls to where the Niagara River ends–flowing into Lake Ontario. We hiked the American side. Haven't hiked the Canadian side. Maybe next Father's Day. They celebrate Father's Day in Canada, don't they?

We start the hike (roughly–there's some backtracking) at the Whirlpool Rapids. It's one of the top ten most dangerous rapids in the world, rated 6 in a rating system that goes from class 1 to class 6, with extreme currents, extreme drop (52 feet in less than a mile) and extreme volume of water (100,000 cubic feet per second). Boating of any kind is prohibited by law.

After that, it's the Whirlpool itself, where the Niagara River takes a 90 degree, counter clockwise turn. Then the river narrows–and the water speeds up–through the Devil's Hole Rapids.

The hike itself along the banks of all this natural excitement is an old-growth forest below the cliffs. The manicured paths are easily navigable and wend their way around boulders and chunks of cliffs that have fallen since the glaciers receded, just a few years back.

Among the man-induced visuals found during the hike are the 1913 Whirlpool Areo Car cable car; the Niagara Power Project, a hydro-electric dam generating a good bit of power for the east coast; the Whirlpool Jetboats and the occasional thrum of helicopters. You never really feel too far from civilization.

We've hiked great trails all over the place–Muir Woods amongst the redwoods in California; the Swiss Alps around Zermatt; the hills above Lake Como, Italy; Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii; Volcanoes National Park, the Big Island, Hawaii; Acadia National Park, Maine; Lands End & Dover Cliffs, England; and all over the Caribbean. From my perspective, this ranks among them as one of the best hiking trails in the world.

And one of my favorite parts? It's only about a 20-minute ride from my house to the Devil's Hole State Park parking lot.

The rest I'll tell in pictures.

Spanish Aero Car cable car, climbing above the Whirlpool. It's an antique. Built in 1913.


Rock-strewn paths are pretty easy to navigate.


Some of the deadliest rapids in the world. When we hiked here last fall, there were three suicidal morons on wave-runners running these rapids. No one died that day. It's not so much the surface rapids that are dangerous, it's the downward pressure created by the narrowing and deep river–and the volume of water–it's been known to keep bodies "tied up" below the water for weeks before giving them up.


Lots of flora along the roughly four-mile trailways.


Yes, that's my daughter, sitting by the world's deadliest rapids.


The Whirlpool Jet fighting the rapids to get upstream. They are allowed to be on the rapids in this part of the river. We've been on this boat three times. It's a blast. Totally safe–not even seat belts are required. But you do get wet. Very, very, very wet.


Coming down the rapids. They were too busy here, screaming, to wave hello to us.


More deadly rapids. This would NOT be the way to swim across to Canada.


Old-growth forests, with groomed paths. It would be great to have tour guides/arborists that could talk about the forest. Without that, it's just enjoyable to walk through.


And 308 stairs back to the top of the gorge. But who's counting?

Garden Walk Buffalo

It's that time again!
You're all invited to Garden Walk Buffalo, the largest garden tour in the U.S. Large doesn't mean much though–it may just be the best garden tour in the country. But that's subjective, I'm the president of the whole shebang. There's 20 or more committee members that meet year 'round to make this happen. And another 75+ that volunteer the weekend of the Walk to "person" the three headquarters we have throughout the area. And 341 gardeners.

You'll also get to see LOTS of unique garden art. It's sort of like visiting a museum with 341 garden tableaux set up.

Oh, and it's totally free. Even the shuttle bus is free. Garden Walk is Saturday & Sunday, July 25 & 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. It's self guided, no tickets required. All you need is a map (online version found here). Then start touring. Go at your own pace. That's it.

If you'll be attending the Walk, we have a party for you.
There will be a small party for visiting Garden bloggers in the garden of Elizabeth of Garden Rant/GardeningWhileIntoxicated. Yes, you'll have a drink or two in the Gardening While Intoxicated garden. Leave a comment below to let us know you'll be coming and we can send you details.

You'll see plenty of great ideas for you to take home. Bring a camera.

What will you see on the Walk?

• Flower, rose, vegetable, herb and organic gardens; Japanese, English and water gardens; butterfly, pocket, container and rock gardens; sidewalk and community gardens.
• Multiple-level decks, pergolas, espaliers, outdoor kitchens, grape arbors, lighting schemes, fountains, wall murals, sculpture, koi ponds, waterfalls, potting sheds, carriage houses, playgrounds, playhouses, treehouses and a putting green.
• Victorian homes, Civil War-era cottages, secret houses hidden from view and turn-of-the-century mansions, homes by Frank Lloyd Wright and McKim, Mead & White, buildings by H.H. Richardson and Eliel and Eero Saarinen, parkways and traffic circles laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted.
• The place Teddy Roosevelt took the oath of office, the spot where President McKinley ultimately died, award-winning urban sculpture, unique shopping and dining galore.
• Erie Basin Marina University Test Gardens, testing plants not yet on the market, for seed companies from around the world.
  

Who will attend?
Tens of thousands of visitors are expected from around the U.S. and Canada. Since everything is free, and no tickets required, we can only guesstimate the number of visitors. We figure between 40,000 and 50,000 based on the number of maps handed out and downloaded from the website–assuming two people per map. That might be low. Suburban ladies travel in packs of three or more.

Garden Walk Buffalo better than the Philly Flower Show?
Terry Ettinger (arborist, nursery professional, horticulturist, garden column writer, host of a garden radio show and YNN-TV's garden guy AND greenhouse manager of SUNY-College of Environmental Science & Forestry's greenhouses) seems to think so. After a radio interview he did with me, a listener writes in to Terry's column, in Central New York's Eagle community papers, asking if Garden Walk Buffalo is worth a visit. Terry states, "Worth it? Without hesitation, Garden Walk Buffalo is the best horticulture-related event I've ever attended-including the Philly Flower Show!" He is exuberant, even when depressed, and talks with exclamation points. But we consider this high praise from a guy with so many garden credentials.

You can even see my garden.

What will you take away?
Ideas. Inspiration. Enthusiasm. An you'll get to meet the gracious gardeners that love to share their gardens and, on occasion, even plants. You'll gain a completely different idea of how rich and creative this community is with their small, urban spaces. We've been told it's like getting a Ph.D. in gardening in two days.

This year's poster, seen up top, was selected from more than 80 entries submitted to a poster committee. Photo by Anne Gareis, design by Sue Hough of Travers Collins & Company, digital magic by Don Zinteck, printing by Dual Printing, Inc.

Signs of the times – And it's Garden Walk time!

This is cool. One of the streets in Buffalo that has benefited greatly from the enthusiasm, encouragement, PR and traffic of Garden Walk Buffalo, is unquestionably Sixteenth Street, in the Cottage District.

To celebrate the fact, and to brighten up the street even more, they have installed these banners of past Garden Walk poster artworks. If you're in Buffalo, and you like these banners, let me know and I can connect you to the Sixteenth Street folks. They can fill you in on where you can get these banners for your street too. They (and Garden Walk) would love to see these repeated on other streets throughout the city.

This was their idea, their block club money, their coordination to get them produced, and their work to install them. They contacted each of the artists that created the artwork first, to get their permission & blessing. Then I created the files to send off to their printer. I designed most of the posters on which the artwork was used. This was my donation to the Sixteenth Street efforts. Then, they spent a bit of time on a weekend on ladders adding the curly-cue supports & hanging the banners.

Sixteenth Street, as little as ten years ago, was what you might call a "transitional" street. Transitioning to what, I don't think anyone knew. An area of the city originally populated by Buffalo's Italian community, it had seen better days. Older housing stock in need of repair; absentee landlords; aging owners that were unable, or lacked the initiative to take care of their front yards; nefarious renters; and shady-goings-on happening at the end of the street and on neighboring blocks. I feel safe in saying this, as I owned a home on Sixteenth Street from 1991-2001.

As with most streets like this, there were bright spots–a few nice neighbors and VERY reasonably-priced homes. We owned a double. After we took out from the mortgage what the tenent contributed, the mortgage was LESS than what we were paying in rent previously.

After having gone on Garden Walk, visiting gardens its first few years, I looked at my garden and said, "Hey, my yard is as good as half of these!" and put our Sixteenth Street house on the Walk. Even though literally thousands of people were visiting the Cottage District's Little Summer Street, just a half block away, our house, the only house on on Sixteenth Street on the Walk, wouldn't even get two dozen visitors. The street had that kind of "reputation."

After we had our daughter, we sold the house to moved, ostensibly, to a better school district. We made the couple that bought our Sixteenth Street house promise to be on the Garden Walk. They were not previously gardeners (and still claim not to be). But they not only have been on the Walk, they encouraged neighbors to get involved, and helped start a block club. Each year they, along with the block club (and a particularly generous avid gardener on the block) help to "redo" one front yard garden for an elderly neighbor. They've applied for (and gotten) multiple Garden Walk Beatification Grants–installing street side planters, hanging baskets and these banners. Two Sixteenth Street representatives are on the Garden Walk committee.

This is a completely different block than when I lived there. Housing values have gone up. People are working on the houses–interiors and exteriors. People are spending more time on their porches (they used to just drag the living room furniture out to them to watch a bills game). Everyone knows everyone else and looks out for each other. I was visiting there over the weekend and every one greets each other with a smile and wave. This did not happen ten years ago. There are 11 house on Sixteenth Street on Garden Walk this year!

Is all this because of Garden Walk? No. It's because of the people. These banners are in honor of their pride in Garden Walk and are a punctuation for a revitalized block. And this is spreading. There are now more and more streets "deep" on the West Side of Buffalo that are getting on the Garden Walk bandwagon–caring more for the aesthetics of their neighborhoods and homes, getting involved on Garden Walk, taking advantage of our Beautification Grants and reveling in Garden Walk's own version of "Urban Greenewal."

This is what I'm most proud about as president of Garden Walk Buffalo–helping foster neighborhood pride, increasing home values and increasing a sense of community in neighborhoods that might not otherwise have had something to band together for. And then showing it off to a regional (and now national) audience.

And, by my moving off Sixteenth Street, I think I helped make it a much better street.

A garden to follow, part 2

The Buffalo News has been following the progress of the garden of Jennifer & Jim Guercio, as they head crashingly toward their deadline of maximum gardenosity, Garden Walk Buffalo. The News' three part series is actually following the work being done to the home they own and rent out. It's just about behind their own home, on a different street. Part one of the series can be found here.

The complete article and a short video can be found here. What's great about this particular "installment" is the instruction Jennifer gives for laying patio bricks in a short video. She demonstrates how to set bricks in place with "gloves, a trowel, a mallet, strong knees, strong back and a Celebrex at night."

The article series, by Buffalo News writer Anne Neville, is great promotion for Garden Walk, but I especially like the informative video. Jennifer makes for a good "teacher" and shows how easy it is to lay a brick patio for almost anyone (if not for the repetitive aspect of the procedure she demonstrates around 1,500 times to finish off her patio project).

There are also some great tips at the end of the article from Jennifer, a few she's shared with me over the years, including using bungee cords to train branches upwards, rather than pruning for redirecting branches upwards and reshaping trees.

Buffalo gardens in "Easy Weekend Gardening" magazine

Left: 75 Lancaster is on page 10, across the street, 72 Lancaster is on page 31.

Two Buffalo gardens are represented in this month's issue of Garden Gate's Easy Weekend Gardening magazine. Whereas the owners of the gardens might take issue with the "easy" part, I'm sure they're delighted to be featured again in a Garden Gate publication.

One garden, is on page 10, under the title of "A balancing act." With some great hints about how to keep a garden casual with plant choices, yet formal in its structure. It shows the front porch of 75 Lancaster Avenue. If you click here, the front porch staircase in the garden can be seen in their little slide show as the first "place-holder" image. This garden was also featured in Better Homes & Garden's Garden Ideas and Outdoor Living. Past posts about this garden in magazines can be found here, here, and here.

The other garden is on page 31, under the title of "Growing a fabulous fence." It has some good suggestions on how to take advantage of a fence with plantings and to promote privacy. This garden is at 72 Lancaster Avenue. The OUTSIDE of this fence has been featured on the covers of both Garden Gate magazine and People, Places, Plants, and has appeared, in bits, in other publications by Garden Gate. This is the first a photo of the INSIDE of this garden has been published. Past posts about this garden in magazines can be found here, here, and here

And the wild thing about these two gardens? They are directly across the street from each other. On the page 31 photo, if you look through the gate, you can see the white fence of the garden on page 10. The view across the street for these two gardens are each other. Both are popular garden stops during Garden Walk Buffalo. In full disclosure, this is also my street. I live at the other end. The street is only one (long) block long. We jokingly refer to their end of the street as "Upper" Lancaster.

Again, as is Garden Gate's editorial policy, the gardens are not attributed–no gardener credit, no city mention and not even zone information. The tips shared are great, there are usually plants lists, but seems that at least mentioning the climate zone would be useful. These are not gardens to be replicated in much warmer than our zone 6 designation. The ideas behind the design still do, but the plants won't necessarily.

We're very proud of the magazine-worthy gardens on our street. Well, until the city catches on that it's a very desirable street–then our assessments will go up. More.

How many magazine worthy gardens are on your street?

Need your input on a Fling in Buffalo in '10

There's a couple options when it comes to the date we settle on for Garden Bloggers Buf-fling '10 / Buffa10 / Buffalo Fling '10 / Flinging Buffalo '10 / Buffalo Shuf-Fling 2010 / BuffaFling '10 / BufFling '10 / A Fling in the Buff '10, or whatever it's called.

To Walk, or not to Walk
Basically the options come down to two–have everyone gather during Garden Walk Buffalo, or not (probably a few weeks in advance of the Walk).

Chicago Spring Fling planners took on this spectacularly good looking group in '09. Photo by Flatbush Gardener.

The benefit of having a Fling before Garden Walk Buffalo is more time spent as a group with focused activities, like a few garden visits, most likely speakers. Maybe some side trips that are garden-related, like a hike, botanical garden tour or visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake or the Canadian Botanical Gardens in Canada (Does everyone have passports?). This would be more along the lines of the Chicago Fling, but with maybe more learning/speaker opportunities.

Garden Walk Buffalo attracts between 40,000 and 50,000 visitors from around the U.S. and Canada.

A benefit of having a fling during Garden Walk Buffalo (July 24 & 25, 2010) is there would be more than 340 creative urban gardens for you to visit (all free, with free shuttle buses). It's overwhelming, but the Buffalo crew could point you in the direction of the must-see gardens. You could tour 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at your own pace and do it in groups, or on your own. We'd meet up Saturday and Sunday evenings for dinners & a party to talk gardens. It's the largest garden tour in the U.S., and if the majority of potential Flingers were interested in attending, we want you to have that opportunity. We'd still have (part of) Thursday and all day Friday for group focused activities, speakers, botanical garden visit and/or a select garden tour.

During Chicago's Fling, I heard both sides from a few different people. Some suggested each Fling city find what's unique to them and make it their own–no two Flings being alike.

Unique to Chicago–urban gardens and great public spaces like the Lurie Garden.

Others liked very much the chance to see some gardens, but commented they wished there'd been more sharing of information on writing, blogging softwares, copyright concerns, how to get published, photography and more.

Please vote in the upper right hand corner survey if you're considering attending. Please leave a comment either below here, over at Gardening While Intoxicated, or if you'd like some privacy, email BuffaloFling (at) yahoo.com.

We'd like to settle this as quickly as possible to get you a date to plan around, and hotel arrangements started. And you can arrange to have the spouse, children or squirrels to take care of your garden while you're away.

I've always wanted a Fling in the Buff. But that's just me.

Fallingwater

Last weekend we went on the trip of a lifetime. Okay, my lifetime. I am a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan. Somehow that has rubbed off on my daughter (11). She wants to be an architect (she's got four female architectural mentors in our circle of friends). For her birthday trip (we don't give gifts for birthdays, we make memories by going on trips together) she wanted to go to Wright's Fallingwater, in Bear Run, PA (a five-plus hour drive from Buffalo). This brought tears of joy to a father's eyes.

The first built-in planter. Outside, on the approach to the house, built-in planters are incorporated into the bridge over the creek. These planters are sort of a bridge themselves, bridging the woodland path to the stone work of the house foundation.

I will spare you my impressions of the 1937 house, and how Wright redefined how one can live in a house, and how a structure can be one with its environment, how to incorporate innovation while at the same time utilizing centuries-old craftsmanship. I won't even belabor the point that this building, as with most Wright buildings, still looks futuristic–after almost 100 years! It's been said Wright is the only American-born person considered a genius. But now I'm gushing. Maybe I'm not sparing you much.

Skipping you all the design commenting I could blather on about, I will concentrate on how, at Fallingwater, he incorporated the setting into the house and the house into the setting, with plants. The house was built for Edgar Kaufman, of Pittsburgh's Kaufman's Department Stores (now Macys).

Rhododendrons are everywhere. They are native here and there are hundreds and hundreds around the property.

First off, as you walk from the visitor's center to the house, you are struck by the seemingly thousands of native rhododendrons. They literally surround the path and property. If I do get there again, I have to make sure it's when the rhododendrons are in bloom. You also notice the structure of the stone in the woods–the horizontal, blocky, masses of layered stone cantilever over each other, in a cubist fashion, along the path to the house. By the time you get the first glimpse of the house, you can see where he stole the "vernacular" for the building–from the creek bed itself. The cantilevered terraces jut into the trees, maximize its setting and multiply the living space of the home.

The cutting garden on the walk to the house.


On the way to the house, you pass the cutting garden. Every room of the house has flowers. Every room. Having an organic, natural element in each room was mandatory in a Wright house. That being so, he ensured it in most rooms by creating built-in planters inside and even on the exterior of the house.

Before you even walk in, plants/planters greet you at the doorway. The stone was quarried on-site.

Rather than fancy artglass, as can be found in other Wright homes, nothing obscures the view of the outdoors from the inside. Even the corners of the rooms are glass butting glass. With most rooms cantilevered, outside walls are not weight-bearing. Wright took advantage by having the corners of rooms disappear. From any room, with windows open, you hear the waterfall below. A boat-like stairwell, covered with glass doors takes you right down to the creek for a swim from the living room.

Originally, the Kaufmans wanted the house sited across from the falls to take advantage of the view. Wright suggested the house be part of the waterfall. It made the cover of Time magazine in January, 1938. And history was made. Fallingwater is a piece of art that can be walked through.


A built-in planter in the living room, on either end of the built-in sofa.


The inside view, looking outward from Mrs. Kaufman's bathroom.


Mrs. Kaufman's terrace looking toward her bathroom window with the plants. No need for blinds or screen or draperies here.


Their son's room terrace hosts an herb garden. This is the upper-most terrace on the third floor.



The "back door" which leads to the guest house gets this semi-circle indoor/outdoor built in planter with a moss garden.


The window pane actually cuts the planter in two.


The moss garden planter from outside.


Opposite the indoor/outdoor moss garden planter is its inspiration – moss and ferns growing on the rocks the house is built around


On a little-used terrace, a small tree peeks around the corner. Above it is a roof-line built-in planter with trailing vines.


The spring-fed guest house pool, in the woods, surrounded by rhododendrons. Wisteria arbor above.


Even the pool has a built-in planter.


Gratuitous shot of the rimless open windows.


Gratuitous shot of the expansive living room.


Gratuitous shot of one of the sitting areas of the living room.


Gratuitous shot of the fireplace and the existing boulder that was incorporated into the floor.


Gratuitous shot of another sitting are of the living room. All furniture, textiles and art are original to the Kaufmans from when they lived there.


Gratuitous shot of the stairwell from the living room to the creek.


Gratuitous shot of the guesthouse living room.

Potager Progress

On bloom day, I got so many comments about the rose standard, I thought it would be a good time to show it in the context of its setting–in the middle of the raised-bed vegetable potager garden.

From the side: beans on the left just getting started. Tomatoes along the back. Some unenthusiastic basil and dill in the front. It sits beside my steppable grasses checkerboard, which I hesitate to show because it's so weedy right now. To the far right are more roses climbing an arbor over the front of the garage.

I've posted plenty times about the potager (most recently here), inspired by a trip to the formal vegetable gardens of Villandry, in France, a few years back. The potager is divided in four sections, with space for climbers, or support-needy plants, in the back along a copper lattice. Each section is divided by a pea-gravel path and miniature boxwoods. The boxwoods were planted just last year, so they've not grown together to form solid walls. That's the plan, god-willing.

The rose was purchased as a standard, it's variety is "Polar Joy."


The Villandry gardens contain much symbolism, with rose standards representing the hunched-over monks at constant toil in the gardens. Mine? The best description I've heard of mine is from NellJean's comment from my bloom-day post–it looks like a "bouquet on a stick." I can live with that.

There's also a dwarf apple espalier starting around the outside of the raised bed, planted just last year. It's knee-high, intended to surround the front of the garden. That's a slower-going project. Stole that idea not only from Villandry, but I saw it at Monet's garden in Giverny as well. Don't know who he stole the idea from. With the problems of my dwarf apple tree on my diamond-shade espalier (dusty mildew & galls) I'm a bit nervous for these little guys. But I press on.

You can see the young dwarf apple espalier in the foreground. It also served as a rabbit snack in the spring as they chew the weaker branches. You can also see my happy clematis in the background

That's just the plants going into the garden design. The vegetables planted include lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes (this is my first year with trying heirlooms), arugula, dill, peppers, basil and green beans. The gardens of Villandry were filled with Swiss chard and kale, and other vegetables that are full of color and spectacular to look at, but not vegetables we would ever eat.

This weekend is the first harvest of lettuce. Second planting is going in this weekend too. I may have to cheat and buy plants to fill in before the thousands come through for Garden Walk.

Traffic Circle #2–Another Round

Buffalo is blessed with an urban landscape designed by none other than Frederic Law Olmsted, inspired in large part by the parkland, boulevards, and squares of Paris. Our system of parks, parkways and traffic circles make up one of his largest bodies of work (completed around 1896).

From any direction, this circle makes for a pleasing substitute for the former asphalt runway this intersection was when I came to Buffalo in 1980.

One of the most compelling aspects of the parkways are the traffic circles incorporated into many of our neighborhoods. Last post on a traffic circle I did was Gates Circle, the traffic circle at the end of my street. This time, I chose Ferry Circle at the intersection of Richmond Avenue & West Ferry Street, 'cause it looks particularly nice this time of year.

The original circle was much smaller. The circa 1909 light standard, probably gas fed, was taken away in the 1930s. The 6,500 lb. reproduction, a twin to the light standard in Symphony Circle, the traffic circle just up the street, was installed in 2002.

The original circle on this site was built around 1870 (accommodating horse & carriage traffic) In 1920, it looked like the photo to the left. In the 1930s it was completely paved over. In 1980, when I came to Buffalo, it was just a huge intersection with insufferable red lights and a congestion-causer. There was nothing in the center of the intersection–just a huge expanse of asphalt pedestrians feared to cross. My old house was not too far from this circle and I drove around it nearly every day. The new circle is a vast aesthetic improvement over the past intersection.

I'm liking the purple, green & orange combos this time of year.

In 2002, ground was broke to remake a circle, including an exact replica of the light standard that was originally there. Partners in this resurrection were the City of Buffalo, Erie County, Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Richmond Neighborhood Association, the Symphony Circle Steering Committee, Kleinhans Community Association, Colgate Industries, and the Rupp Foundation.
Olmsted's idea of the circles and parkways was to serve as a means for a visitor to travel from one park to another (Delaware, Cazenovia, Front, South Park, Riverside, and Martin Luther King, Jr. parks) without leaving the park setting, as well as extending the parks into the city.

Wish a plant list existed for the circle. Others could benefit from its design.


The circle's gardens had the soil replaced, compost, organic fertilizers and mulch were added. Grass areas were aerated and mowed at a higher level than would normally be done. A drip irrigation system was installed. Herbaceous and woody perennials were planted to improve soil and reduce water runoff.

One thing sadly lacking on the otherwise insightful Olmsted Conservancy website is a complete plant list of what is planted in the circle.

I know many hate circles because they can be tough to navigate if you're unfamiliar with the rules (PEOPLE IN THE CIRCLE HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY!!!). But I love them for their traffic-calming (you have to slow down as you approach), and the lack of traffic lights (traffic flows better).

My big compliant with this circle is that there are stop signs all around. They should ideally be yield signs. Traffic circles don't need stop signs to work well–and actually keep traffic halting by using the stop signs. Another problem with this traffic circle is that nearby traffic circles, both larger and smaller, have yield signs. The inconsistent use of yield or stop signs in our circles, I think, just leads to more confusion.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 09

Went away for a quick weekend trip and came back to this rose standard in my potager garden just screaming at me.


Roses are a little beat up. House was painted last week, and they were roughed up a bit.


A flower in bloom, whose name I've forgotten. It's in the Harry Potter garden.


Lantana along the posts of the trellis.


My big peony.


The over-stimulated clematis.

Show me your clematis, I'll show you my peony...

I'm told I have a rather large peony of which other men would be jealous. Oh, what the heck, I'll show you both. They're side by side and bloom at the same time.


From bottom up, May apples, peony, clematis and million bells in cone-shaped basket.


From left to right on uprights, Dutchman's pipe, honeysuckle, clematis, chocolate akebia vine.
Below them are a mishmash of ferns, grasses, May apples, bleeding heart, hosta peony and, special guest star this season, a silver dollar plant. Next year, I take one-third of the stuff out of there. It's gotten to be too much of a jungle and needs more definition between plants, so they can be better appreciated. Though they're all happy.

Gardening Blogging Infuencing

Photo by Flatbush Gardener

I can't wait until next year for the Garden Bloggers Fling to come to Buffalo. Just reading the dozens and dozens of posts on the Chicago event makes me realize what an incredible PR opportunity it will be to have everyone visit. I will definitely be getting in touch with our local convention & visitors bureau to see what they can do for us. The potential of hundreds of blog posts, all remarking positively (an assumption) on our gardens, architecture, creativity and friendliness is immeasurable.

It sounds kinda cold–I do appreciate the connections with the people I made while in Chicago. As a group, the 50-some (in number, not necessarily age) bloggers are genuinely nice people who automatically have many things in common–gardening, writing, photography, technology, eating and drinking. What more is there?

And then, there's this.
Sitting with the Troy-Bilt rep on the bus touring gardens, we got talking about what's in this "Spring Fling" for Troy-Bilt. I'm in marketing/advertising and I'm always interested in a business's "angle" and the decisions they make to spend marketing dollars. I know it's all based on research. It's hard to get a corporation to spend money without knowing the ROI (Return On Investment) before hand.

Troy-Bilt donated a good-sized tiller as a door prize (value, $600), sponsored part of the event, sent their rep from Charlottesville to Chicago to join us for the weekend and even, when there was major confusion over the bar tab at a dinner for 54, picked up the bar tab. (Had I only known that before I ordered only one drink...) Don't drink and mow!

What do they get in return?
Invaluable PR. She shared with me, and the entire group the night before, that the top ten garden blogs reach around 400,000 readers per month. She even quickly showed me the list of the top ten garden blogs that her advertising agency, specialists in social media, had sent her. Many of the top garden bloggers were at Chicago's Spring Fling.

Think about that. Just the top ten gardening blogs reach almost half a million readers. To reach that many targeted gardeners, that either use Troy-Bilt products, or may consider their products, with any decent frequency (most may be repeat readers) would cost quite a bit in print or broadcast. Donating a $600 tiller, showing up and supporting the group and even buying a round (or two) of drinks, is a great value for the goodwill they've created.

My garden is way too small for a power tool beyond an electric weed-whacker. And even then, once I've gotten rid of the last couple square feet of grass, I can get rid of the weed-whacker. I'd consider Troy-Bilt, if I did need a tool or tractor, just 'cause they've been good to me and my friends.

Actually, in the drawing for the tiller, Buffalo buddy Elizabeth from Garden Rant/Gardening While Intoxicated won it! But sobriety set in quickly and she decided that in her garden (even smaller than mine) a tiller would be useless and she offered it up to be re-raffled. The winner, I'm sure, will put it to good use. And blog about it. In retrospect, Elizabeth wished she'd accepted it and donated it to one of our local urban garden organizations, who'd have put it to good use also. She's even got a post on Garden Rant with a Troy-Bilt cordless electric trimmer review and give-away this week.

See, look at me. I don't use their products, nor have a need. I don't review products on my site, I don't have advertising on my site, and I'm here extolling the virtues of Troy-Bilt! I also know big brother is watching (with Google Alerts) and their ad agency and marketing people will be aware of this post within moments after it's published.

Who knew what actual influence garden bloggers have? Most of us, I'm sure, consider this a hobby/interest/passion/creative outlet. But what changes when smart advertisers consider garden blogs a targeted media of which they should be taking advantage.

And how will Buffalo benefit from the (potentially good) PR coming from 50 or so bloggers next year, each writing a couple posts, read by, possibly millions? Posts will get published almost immediately. They are available on the web almost indefinitely. Will it help inch us away from the snowy, rust belt image that seems to melt every time someone visits from out of town? We can only hope.

Outdoor Art

This has less to do with gardening and more about art. But with a moniker of Art of Gardening, I would be remiss to not inject some art occasionally. Not that I need justification. I can post about aphid infestations, I can certainly post about more enlightening fare.

Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851

This past Saturday was Art Alive, an art show sponsored by the Albright Knox Art Gallery encouraging groups to recreate works of art, by being the works of art. And with cash prizes! It was held on the lawn of the Albright Knox, so technically it's temporary lawn art, so I feel comfortable posting about it on a garden blog. Here's a few of what we saw.



Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34, 1971. Collection of the Albright Knox.
Above, my favorite of the day.


Walter Haskell Hinton, Betsy Ross presenting the Old Glory, 1950.


Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-6


Norman Rockwell, Girl at Mirror, 1954


Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (detail), c. 1942



Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930
Above, the youngest participants of the day. No one can do dour like eight-year-olds.


Henri Matisse, La Musique (Music), 1939


Georges Seurat, Models (detail), 1887-8
Above and below, another Seurat, this one featuring my daughter–covering themselves with candy dots and dot stickers to bring home the pointillist aspect. They also handed out free candy. This may have contributed to them receiving the "People's Choice" award, for their category, for the day.


Georges Seurat, Models (detail)

I did it. I was brave.

I did it. I took out the two ailing fruit trees of my five-year-old, diamond-shaped espalier. Had to be brave. Had to be strong. Had to be done. The dwarf plum was so overtaken by aphids that it did not leaf out–even after periodic hosing and harsher chemicals than I would normally use. The dwarf apple had galls all along it's trunk & main branches and barely leafed out. And the few leaves that did were covered with dusty mildew.

The plum & apple were just failing.

So now, I am left with two dwarf pear trees that are healthy and happy, but only half of an espalier. Knowing the pear trees performed best, I replaced the apple & plum with pear. The pear trees were the slower growers, but gave much more satisfaction in quantity of leaves, size of leaves, color of leaves (they're bright green) and it is not prone to aphids, galls or mildew.

I bought two root-stock pear trees from Miller Nurseries in Canandaigua, NY– a dwarf Colette and a dwarf Red Anjou. Each tree was $22.85. They are now in and are just starting to leaf out. There's no branching yet. For an espalier, it's always sort of chancy where & when the branching will happen. There's a good amount of training and trickery to get branches where I want them to be.

Did you know pear trees require two different varieties to pollinate properly? There's even varieties of pear that require two different pear trees for pollination–other than its own variety. This may explain why I've not ever gotten any fruit from my existing pear trees.

In context: it takes up the wall of the garage, forming the wall of the deck.


I've learned from my last planting. When I installed the espalier originally, I put them in vertically, like trees grow, and had the branches form the diamond pattern. This was tough because the top of the two existing trees are up under the eave of the garage and have to be trimmed constantly.

This time, I planted them so the trunks are on the diagonal. They'll have more opportunity to get to their destined height, there will be no vertical distractions and the branches will easily grow on the diagonal, with less training.

Seen here, in happier times, when we were both young and in love.

The espalier is under planted with ferns. On one end it hosts a young ginkgo tree, under planted with Solomon's seal. On the other end, a clematis climbs an upright on the deck.

This summer the house is being painted and I've already told the painter I will paint this wall of the garage. The trees are trained along a system of cables & eye hooks and can't easily be manipulated. I don't trust anyone else to paint this area.

It was tough to take out half of the espalier. But I'm tougher. I hardly cried.

Garden Bloggers Spring Fling 2009

One of my favorite photos. The Lurie Garden. I love the contrast of Piet Oudolf's prairie-style garden, with swaths of purple salvia, against the skyscrapers.

What a weekend. 5 a.m. wake-up time. Fly in. Train to afternoon in Chicago Botanic Garden. Train back & walk to Millennium Park's Lurie Gardens. Meeting about Fling 2010. Happy Hour. Dinner. That's day one.

My favorite garden of the weekend. Rick Bayless' urban garden–used for socializing and as a production garden for (mostly) greens for his restaurants. My garden has more in common with this one than others we visited. Lots of creative and strategic gardening ideas going on here. Some of this garden will DEFINITELY end up in mine.

Day two: bus ride to restaurateur, and Chicago media personality, Rick Bayless' garden; group Mediterranean lunch (delish); visit to blogger Carlyn Gail's garden; visit to Ginkgo Organic Gardens, a community garden owned by the non-profit Neighborspace; then off to Lincoln Park Conservancy/Caldwell Lily Pool Garden/Lincoln Park Zoo; quick trip back to Millennium Park to photograph the "bean" and the video fountain towers; dinner for 50 at a nearby restaurant; ad hoc blog blather till 11 p.m.

Day three: It was all I could do to drag myself out of bed for breakfast and walking along the waterfront by Millennium Park before heading back to the airport. I slept on the plane. I never sleep on planes.

Bought my daughter a gift of a package of Mentos in the airport (I'm cheap). Read a blurb in Esquire about inserting a Mentos into an almost-frozen ice cube and, once frozen, offered in a glass of Diet Coke to an unsuspecting friend. Then wait ten minutes. So, (Sandy), if you come to the house, and she's REALLY intent on offering you a cold, refreshing, glass of Diet Coke, play along, but drink it outside.

Looking more like a Dr. Suess garden, this area of the Chicago Botanic Garden featured plants of the same family (this case, Borages) planted together, It was a great way to show how plants in the same family are similar and how they differ.

The Chicago bloggers that organized the weekend did a smash-up, bang-up job. Everything went off without a hitch. No one got lost. No one went hungry. No one was poisoned by wicked plants. Everyone had a good time.

I'll get to posting more about the individual gardens we saw. There's a dearth of posts right now by Fling attendees–they're almost invasive. I really can't add too much more to their excellent posts, but I will post on the gardens we visited and see what ideas I'll be stealing from Chicago gardens.

And the 50-odd bloggers? Well, they're not so odd. It was a pleasure to meet the people behind the words & photos I've been reading for the last two years. Some looked like I thought they would. Some were completely different. It's hard to tell from the pinky-fingernail-sized photos that accompany most blogs. They're all friends now. I'd even serve them Diet Coke.

Elizabeth and I are already looking forward to hosting everyone here in Buffalo next year. Buffalo Fling '10? Flinging Buffalo '10? BuffaFling '10? BufFling '10?


Millennium Park's Crown Fountain by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. Awesome. Coolest piece of public art I've ever laid eyes on. The fountain consists of two, 50-foot (about four stories), glass-block towers, with water pouring off the tops of all sides, at each end of a shallow reflecting pool (we're talking less than two inches here). The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of 1,000 Chicago citizens projected on LED screens and having water flow through a water outlet in the screen to give the illusion of water spouting from their mouths. The faces are mostly still, but every once in a while they'll blink or smile. It's hard not to be dazzled. And not to be impressed in how interactive this art piece is. Kids all over the place cooling off. Adults smiling all over the place. Hard not to appreciate how art interacts with life with this work of art. I want one for my yard. Maybe not so big.


Lincoln Park Conservatory. That's Layanee from Ledge and Gardens on the bench watching kids make out on blankets, or something.


The vegetable garden area at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Not a uni-planted, dirt-path-surrounded, mounded row anywhere here. A lettuce garden really looks like salad. What vegetable gardens could be like.


Chicago Botanic Garden again. You cannot walk by these poppies without taking a picture. Poppies were once used as emblems on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep–sleep from the opium and death from the common blood-red color. Hence Dorothy's long sleep in the poppy fields in "The Wizard of Oz."


Not part of our tour–Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park on the waterfront. Built to be one of the largest fountains in the world. I assume the 1927 Chicagoans had some sort of complex going on. It's actually controlled by a computer in Atlanta, GA. This is the fountain from the TV show "Married with Children." I couldn't look at it without humming Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage."


Not part of our tour–but one of my favorite gardens in Chicago now–the gardens of the Art Institute of Chicago. They're literally right next door to the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park. This garden probably feels like the red-headed stepchild because tens of thousands are next door oohing and ahhhing. But it has nothing of which to be ashamed. Here, the texture of tree canopy, vine-covered trunks, gravel, green ground covers and shadows made this garden look like an impressionist painting.

Amy Stewart is Wicked hot!

Mostly because the room was wickedly hot, and standing-room only. In a bakery. While they were baking. It was held in the bakery next door to the host, Urban Roots, our community garden center cooperative.

One of Amy's slides from a trip to a poison garden that had gotten permission to grow cannabis. Behind bars and under lock & key.

There were 35 to 45 people there to listen to Amy Stewart, of Garden Rant and Dirt, by Amy Stewart, tell stories about plants from her new book, Wicked Plants. Stories with pain, asphyxiation, vomiting, paralysis, rashes and sun-induced blisters that usually ended up with a death (or two). She delights in tales of caster bean plants, planted in pretty public squares, that result in total organ failure and body-wracking pain. Or hallucinogenic peace lilies, planted in public library gardens frequented by children.

Much of what she covered was in her book. Though, she was able to show her Powerpoint presentation which had photos from some of the poison gardens around the world she's visited and had some great anecdotes about those visits. The gist of her talk though, other than horror stories, was making people aware that plants that are not food–can be dangerous. Folks like to protect their young 'uns from electrical outlets–there are 3,900 people injured annually by electrical outlets–but 68,847 annually poisoned by plants! And the deadliest plant of all time? Tobacco, with a death toll of more than 90 million.

Amy's little chest - of deadly plant seeds and their antidotes, picked up in an antiques store. She delights in getting it through airport security. Other than opening it up and checking it out, she's not been stopped–despite clearly labeled jars of totally toxic seeds & plant extracts.

She wrapped up with answering a few questions. As with many events like this, some people don't ask questions as much as they make comments so they can hear themselves talk–not really intending to solicit a response from the speaker. In the movie, The Incredibles, it was called monologuing.

Elizabeth from Gardening While Intoxicated/Garden Rant introduced her, noting that Amy's less a garden writer, in her estimation, than an investigative reporter/storyteller that writes about the plant world. Never truer words spoken. If she's coming anywhere near you, you should take the time to catch her act.

Shady Goings-on

From the office window, the front garden, in the shade of the damn crab apple tree.

I can't bring much light to the topic for the Garden Blogger Design Workshop on Shade in the Garden. I do have a good amount of shade–most of which is provided in a dappled manner, pretty much all day long, from a crab apple tree in my front garden. My back yard is 90% sun, so this is my only significant shade.

First off, I like the shade it provides, but I hate the tree. Actually, I like it every two years for about three weeks. That's when it's covered in absolutely beautiful, pink blossoms. The next 23 months it seems as though in decline, and only serves to shade the garden. I'm told, in the '80s, it was hit by a neighbor that had a bit too much to drink. That didn't kill it (or him). Oh, and the suckers that come up from the tree are annoying. For the most part, I let 'em do what they want to. They are greenery after all.

The strip on the left is under planted with grape hyacinths. This row contains hosta, phlox, iris, rudbeckia, chameleon plant, columbine, Russian sage, spring bulbs, allium, perennial geranium, and more, capped off on the far end by a columnar apple tree.

I never really paid too much attention to putting shade-requiring plants in the front yard. There's plenty of sun worshipers there that seem to be thriving. Or, if they're not thriving to their max potential, they're smaller than full-size, and that's okay too. This is the less formal, jam-packed, chaotic, cacophony of plants I bought cause I liked (and had no other place to put them), or was given (and had no other place to put them). Now the garden is mature enough that even the perennials provide shade on each other.

Street-side path: daffodils, lavender, lamb's ear, huechera, lungwort, and a huge-mungous hosta.

When we moved in this plot was grass, the crab apple and a few bushes (thorny hedges, burning bush, holly, rhododendron and an azalea). Now it's chock-a-block full of dozens and dozens of perennials planted in berms created from the soil cleared out for the paths.

No more mowing, fertilizing, aerating, watering and patching. Now it's just watering occasionally (though it has a soaker hose snaked throughout the whole area, so that's not hard), weeding occasionally (mostly pulling Chinese lanterns), throwing down some compost once a year in the spring, and mulching right before the hordes show up for Garden Walk. I spend my time now each spring–not planting–but separating and dividing the plants.

Middle path: columbine, horseradish, lily, ferns, hosta, bellflower, bachelor buttons, huechera, grasses, iris, Chinese lanterns, forget-me-nots, and some groundcovers from a neighbor.

The shade garden is divided in four strips of garden with brick walkways in between. The bricks were in the garage when we moved in. The past owners collected them from Long Island, the land of their people. They are stamped with Long Island county names (the bricks, not the former owners), which is kinda' cool.

Columbine like the shade here. once the columbine dies away, only the apple suckers and lungwort remain. I just planted a clematis to climb the tree..

Often times, I can find (accompanied) toddlers wandering the paths. The meandering paths seem to be irresistible for little kids. I once found an art class out there sketching the yard. A few times a year, I can look out my office window and see people photographing the garden and/or house.

My favorite plant to stump other gardeners - this is my horseradish. Kind of an old-timey plant that seems to like the shade.

I just trimmed back the tree, as I do every few years, so it'll get more sun this summer. I'll have to see if the plants are happy with that. They really don't care much what I do, as long as I feed them and let them now I care.







The last path, nearest the house: shady characters - lonely peony that ended up there with the dirt from something else, ferns, hosta, burning bush, some sort of arborvitae, rhododendron, azalea, gooseneck loosestrife and lots more.


along the driveway. There are three of these immense hosta that get closer to each other every year.


Toward the neighbor's house. There's that soaker hose.


Gotta' move the rhododendron. It's too crowded where it is.


From the porch: the dappled shade is there until about an hour and a half before the sun goes down.

A garden to follow

The Buffalo News will be following the preparations of Garden Walk Gardeners Jennifer & Jim Guercio, as they prepare their THREE gardens for the 15th annual Garden Walk Buffalo. News writer Anne Neville interviewed Jennifer & Jim last week, in May. She'll do follow-up articles in June and July, in anticipation of the Walk on Saturday and Sunday, July 25 & 26.

Jennifer and Jim have one of the most popular gardens on Garden Walk. Their grand Victorian home has a grand Victorian garden that's been highlighted in local and national magazines. They even dress up in home-made Victorian garb to greet visitors. I posted about their dog's "poo" corner of their garden.

Jennifer & Jim being photographed for Garden Ideas and Outdoor Living magazine.

Better Homes & Gardens has photographed the front yard to be used in an issue in the future (see my post about the photo shoot here). Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living has photographed their back yard to be used in an upcoming issue (see my post about that photo shoot here). The garden is featured in Buffalo marketing materials for the Convention & Visitors Bureau and little slices of it have even been spotted, uncredited, in Garden Gate magazine.

Click to link to the actual video.

The Buffalo News has even filmed a little video that can be seen on their website, with Jennifer talking about one of the homes she's preparing for the Walk. They have their home and two rental properties on the Walk. Click on the video image to the left to take you to the News site to see the clip.

Wicked Amy

Amy Stewart, of Garden Rant and Dirt by Amy Stewart, comes to town this week, on Wednesday, to promote her book, Wicked Plants. She'll be hosted by the bookstore down the street, Talking Leaves (appropriate name, no?).

She'll be appearing at Urban Roots Community Garden Center. Urban Roots is the country's first garden center cooperative. And I'm a part owner, along with 515 other part owners.

I'm also on the marketing committee of Urban Roots, so I've helped a bit in promoting the event. Which means I helped send out press releases,, secured a small blurb in a gardening column of the Buffalo News, promoted the talk in Garden Walk Buffalo literature and will be there early to set up chairs. I'll also help set up a table of the poisonous plants the nursery already has for sale. I had to forward them a list, as even they did not know some of the plants they had were potentially harmful. Elizabeth of Gardening While Intoxicated and Garden Rant must have worked her magic to get a review of the book in Sunday's Buffalo News.

I finished Wicked Plants last week. I am now officially afraid to go outside. I'll also never eat any plant material for the rest of my natural life. I can live on burgers alone I think. From carnivorous cows. Eating cows that eat plants is too dangerous. That's how Abraham Lincoln's mother died.

Actually, I feel even MORE comfortable outside, knowing that most of what I have in my garden is relatively harmless. And I now have more knowledge of the few potentially harmful plants I do have. It's a great read, as she only included plants that had a great ghastly story behind it, or had a death tally.

I'll be there on Wednesday, and I'll have my camera. Stop back on Thursday!

You've got to check out the trailer for the book. It's pretty funny. Stay until after the credits. It's wickedly cute.