My great backyard in Great Backyards magazine!


The back deck, with grill, hot tub, espalier & tables, gets a two-page spread.

The greatest benefit of working on the Garden Walk Buffalo committee, for me, is spreading the word about the great gardens in Buffalo. When a magazine calls me, looking for photogenic gardens with an interesting story, that also comes with high-resolution photography, there are only so many to choose from. Fortunately for our group, we have a professional photographer on the committee. Because of this, we have a large collection of stellar, high-resolution garden photography.

The back patio, with vine-covered arbor/trellises, purple smoke tree and checkerboard steppable grasses gets another two-page spread.

And because of that, Buffalo is represented with an unprecedented 12 gardens in the current issue of Great Backyards magazine. Ten of the gardens are 2-page and 4-page spreads with interviews, two gardens are represented with photos used to illustrate gardening techniques.

That's twelve gardens in one issue. There are 50 gardens in the issue total. That's pretty good.

I try to spread the "wealth" of publicity to as many of the great gardens in the city as I can. I do not try to push my garden as any more special than the other 300-plus gardens on the Walk. But I had submitted my garden for inclusion as well as about 20 others. They chose mine to use! Although, I must say, I am as proud to have the other Buffalo gardens published as I am my own.

Here is the list of Buffalo gardens in the magazine:
Gardens with 2-4 page interviews with photos:
39 Granger Place (table of contents, pages 19, 20-23, 138)
16 Rabin Terrace (pages 19, 24-25)
75 Lancaster Avenue (pages 33, 34-37)
72 Lancaster Avenue (table of contents, pages 33, 40-41)
215 Lancaster Avenue (page 91, 92-95)
378 Summer Street (pages 38-39)
84 North Pearl Street (table of contents, pages 33, 44-45)
587 Breckenridge Street (pages 51, 52-55)
531 Linwood Avenue (pages 66-67)
20 Norwood Avenue (pages 102-103)

Additional photographs used to illustrate garden techniques:
44 Irving Place (page 32, 50)
42 Orton Place (page 70)

If you're out and about, Great Backyards, published by Harris Publications, is available currently at all major bookstores that sell magazines, as well as Home Depots and Lowes across the country. The magazine is $9.95, which seems like a lot for a garden magazine, but this is jam-packed with 50 great gardens and landscape & garden planning tips and just a handful of ads, which can't be said about other garden magazines.

Comments

  1. This is awesome. Good for you and the others. I'm going to have to check out the magazine, although I've seen previous posts of your lovely space. Kudos to you.

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  2. Congratulations! I will look for the magazine -- I know that it is sold in this area.

    Cameron

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  3. I've not seen the mag here, but will definitely search for a copy. And congrats on making it into the issue, and for doin the garden up just right!

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  4. Gardeness,
    Thank you! Half the battle is having photos available of your garden, then submitting them to magazines. W happen to be lucky to have tons of gardens of every stripe, so magazines often contact us. Eventually, I'll post about the magazines that accept reader photos/stories.

    Cameron,
    It's sort of a strange magazine, in that it is only newsstand-sold at this time of the year, and with so little advertising. I had purchased it on occasion in the past. I've worked with the editor the last two years, providing photos & contact information for the gardeners and filling in editorial "holes" where I can.

    TC,
    I hope you find a copy - in addition to the great Buffalo gardens, there are plenty of others from around the country. The tack for the article for each is different. And each article points out a challenge that had to be overcome with the garden planning. With 50 gardens covered, you can bet a few of those "challenges" you could relate to.

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  5. Well done Jim !
    I am a fan of this magazine (even though it isn't Canadian and we lost a major garden magazine just lately) .. the pictures and dialog of this one, explaining what and how everything came to be is wonderful. Having a small back and front garden these ideas are a shot in the arm of my imagination !

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  6. Congratulations! That must be pretty exciting. I will look for that issue.

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  7. Congratulations - nothing an editor likes better than someone making something fabulous very easy for them - how could they refuse. I better start to check my calendar to see what I'm doing for the next Buffalo garden walk.

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  8. Too bad they don't have a shot with your deck full of boisterously drunk friends...

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  9. GardenJoy4Me,
    I enjoy this magazine too. I can't say it delves too deep, but in addition to interviews each article has a side bar on something relevant to the garden (in my case, it was how to get kids involved) and also a sidebar with info like: Designer's name & contact info, Main Plants used, Zone info, Challenges and Favorite Outcome. I think that adds a lot to the photos & interviews.

    Catherine,
    It was pretty cool. Can't wait for my mom to pick up her copy.

    Barbarapc,
    I think that's the secret to the Garden Walk PR success - getting good images & information out so that publications don't have to work as hard. You must come for the next walk, you're an hour away!

    Teddy/Teddy'sMom/Al/Sandy,
    You, being usually the most boisterous and most drunk, don't make for good garden photo subject matter.

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  10. Your photos are great and your backyard divine. I hope to see it in person some day....maybe spring fling '10? Congrats to you and all the gardens pictured in Great Backyards. Half the joy of gardening is sharing your efforts with others. Beautiful.

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  11. How cool! Congrats!!!

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  12. Layanee,
    Elizabeth of Garden Rant and I would love to have a "fling" - but would love to have it happen during Garden Walk Buffalo, which is in July.

    Fern,
    Thanks. Today I'm dropping off a copy to a TV station that'll give us some coverage tomorrow. I'm also dropping off a copy to the Convention & visitor's Bureau so they can start using it to promote the Walk. All around a great thing.

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  13. How great for Buffalo! Congratulations to you personally on having your garden included.

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  14. Congrats! Nice that you shared the love around to your fellow gardeners. Your patio looks spiffy; a professional photog would have to step over my dead body to take a picture of my sorry-ass backyard! :)

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  15. Dang Jim,

    You have defintely on-upped me.

    Here I was feeling so accomplished with my one little plant becoming famous and you go and get your whole garden photographed and published.

    Awesome! Sorry I can't come and get drunk and boisterous with Teddy and them. New York is just too far away. If you're looking for a really incredible new plant to add in 2009 I have a heads-up tip for you.

    Look for Phlox paniculata 'Lord Clayton' to come up for wale somewhere. The world's only Black-Leaf Phlox has arrived.

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  16. Congrats! The spread looks great, and it's well-deserved. We'll be picking up a copy for sure...

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  17. Rich,
    They're tough to find. Wegmans & Tops have had them in stock - but even that's been hit or miss. I've got a call into Talking Leaves to see if they'd order some. I'm waiting to hear.

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  18. Finally catching up on some of my reading. Kudos! Can I come over for a party when it warms up?

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  19. Susan,
    You are invited to party, even when it's cold - the hot tub's always on.

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