Awesome artist garden alley

This past summer I went on the Parkside Garden Tour. The Parkside area of Buffalo was laid out by Frederic Law Olmsted and includes every style of house you can imagine, from simple four-squares to grand Victoriains to Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House (the house he considered his "opus").

My favorite garden, of the few that I managed to see, included this pretty little alley between two garages. The space between detached garages, in urban settings, is usually a dead space, used more often for storing junk - scrap wood, piles of bricks, old tires and garbage cans. And the areas are notorious for having little light, lots of weeds and harbor for insects & rodents.

Not here. The least-used space on this property was made one of the prettiest – mostly with extra stuff garages collect over the course of time -- used brick, old wooden pillars, scrap lumber, buckets for planters, and odds and ends. Those and a good dash of creativity and color.

The featured piece is this painted metal bench. Dark ivy backdrop makes the bench scream.

In addition to being on the Parkside Garden tour, these gardeners participated in the National Buffalo
Garden Festival's Open Gardens - open to the public on Mondays and Thursdays for five weeks.

Old shutters, found objects as artwork, and color. lots of color.

Makes me wish I had a throw-away space like this to surprise visitors and flex some creative muscle.