The Best Garden-Idea Place
May 3rd, 2016
One of the best ways to get ideas for your own yard is to see what others have done.
An interesting garden treehouse that’s one of the cool landscapes on Garden Walk Buffalo.
Sometimes you’ll run into an area that’s so right that it’s worth “borrowing” directly. Other times, you’ll be inspired to try something similar or to boil together a melting pot of inspirations from other yards into your own original.
Whichever of those works, the best place I’ve ever seen for getting garden ideas is Garden Walk Buffalo.
Buffalo – yes, that Canada-bordering New York city better known for its snow than snowbushes – is home to America’s biggest garden tour.
Every last weekend of July, residents of seven Buffalo city neighborhoods open their gardens to oglers – at no charge, too.
This year, a record 416 gardens are on the tour. There’s no way you’ll come close to seeing even a quarter of them.
These are all ordinary gardeners doing some pretty out-of-the-ordinary things in their mostly small spaces. You won’t find mansions tended by garden staffs or other elaborate settings that yield no bearing on anything you might try at home.
What you will find are all sorts of homes and garden styles and idea-triggering features such as eclectic home-made garden art, off-the-wall containers (and many on the wall), espaliered fruits, tree houses, bird houses, bird baths, koi ponds, fence murals, one-of-a-kind garden gates, quaint potting sheds, and the only bowling ball totem pole I’ve ever seen.
Buffalo gardeners tend to be fun, creative and down to earth. Most of them are at home during the tours to tell you which plants they’re using, to share the trials they’re dealing with, or just to chit-chat gardening and offer you a cookie and cup of lemonade.
Have you ever seen a bowling ball totem pole?
I’ve been to four Garden Walks now, and I’m impressed every time. I still haven’t seen all of the gardens – and new ones keep joining every year.
If you’d like to go, Lowee’s Group Tours and I are offering a three-day, two-night bus trip that includes both of the 2016 Garden Walk days as well as a visit to Cornell University’s Cornell Plantations gardens on the way up.
We’re leaving on Friday, July 29, and spending lunch and the early afternoon that day touring Cornell’s gardens. Then we’re stopping at the Finger Lakes region’s Eremita Cellars – located in a recreated 1800s church – for a wine tour and tasting.
Then it’s on to Buffalo, where we’ll stay overnight for two nights.
Garden Walk runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday that weekend, and you’ll have that time to explore whichever gardens strike your fancy. You’ll have maps, and I’ll go over how the tour operates on the way up and tell you the don’t-miss gardens.
Most of the gardens are within walking distance, and free buses shuttle visitors throughout the three Garden Walk headquarters.
On Saturday evening, we’ll have dinner at the Buffalo Marina, take a catamaran cruise on Lake Erie and have time to see the trial gardens of annual flowers at the marina’s park.
On Sunday morning, we’ll make stops at the Buffalo Japanese Garden and the Delaware Park Rose Garden before heading over to Garden Walk for the rest of the day.
The trip cost is $499 per person double, which includes transportation, two nights lodging, four meals and all admissions.
The deadline to sign up is June 20, so if you’re interested, call Lowee’s at 717-657-9658 or email CKelly@ lowees.com.
If you’d like to get a flavor for the kinds of gardens you’ll run into, check out the Photo Gallery of 20 shots I posted from the 2012 Garden Walk.