What I saw on Garden Walk Buffalo

For me, all garden tours start and finish here.

For the first time ever, I spent all day Saturday in my own garden for Garden Walk. I did get out and about to a few gardens throughout the weekend though. A couple were for parties, or errands as I helped run around Friday dropping off Garden Walk Buffalo headquarter materials. On Sunday morning I headed out by bike (car parking is too frustrating around the HQs). Here is just some of what I saw. Some of these gardens I'll post about in the future.

Sunday morning first stop. Gardeners Cheryl & Ed were setting up the Bloody Mary bar
with their basil-infused vodka. They said it was for friends that would stop by during Garden Walk,
but I'm sure a few strangers ended up with morning drinks too. Lush describes a lot in their back garden!

A Norwood Avenue garden. Great stand of crocosmia.

Often it's the combo of flowers and house colors that "make" the gardens. This is on Norwood.

This was my big surprise of the weekend. This garden has a river running from one corner, meandering to the opposite corner. Densely planted with a graphic eye, it all sets up this stunning, bandstand-looking, graceful pergola. This garden looked more like a movie set. I expected to see Lisle and Rolf come out singing about their ages.

This Norwood garden is like many Garden Walk Buffalo gardens –
just the front yard was on view, not the back yard.

More Norwood Ave. Great house and matching garden.

The back yard of the green house above. Nice.

Norwood Avenue again. I feel as though all 370+ gardens on the Walk are my children, and I cannot choose a favorite, but if I was forced to, I might choose Arlan & Dom's park-like garden.

Arlan & Dom also designed and built this shed and bench.

Garden Walk Buffalo's first-ever indoor garden participant. Area Landscape Designer Dan Sieders took over the offices of In The Loop magazine on Allen Street and created this indoor "art" instillation. It looked like a garden. It smelled like a garden. It sounded like a garden - there was prerecorded birdsong and other creatures - and a bubbling fountain. It even had moving mechanical butterflies. It took Dan and friends 30+ hours to create the space. Urban Roots Garden Center supplied plants and materials.

One of the many mechanical butterflies in Dan's indoor garden installation.

This E.B. Green-designed home on North Street intrigues me. It is one of the very few that used a professional landscape architect (Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect) for its planning and a landscape designer for its production.

This is directly behind the entryway on the right side of the building shown in the photo, above.

Same house, the sitting area that leads to the pool.

And here is the pool area. Actually, it's not really a pool. It's a "spool" it's a pool and its a heated spa - the whole pool bubbles and roils like a hot tub spa.

Another one of the few pools on the Walk. This belongs to Garden Walk Buffalo Board Member Tom, on Richmond Ave. He doesn't have a lot of garden space, but what space he does have is excellently crafted.

This is the garden of friends Lynette and Roger on Potomac Avenue. We stopped here for our annual Garden Walk glass of wine before heading off to the evening's other parties. Lynette is a flight attendant with my wife.

And here is Elizabeth's garden on North Pearl. Many a garden blogger has had a drink in this courtyard garden.