By Ellen Goldstein
Gardening is a major part of my life during spring and summer, and I am delighted to share some local garden opportunities with you. My garden, located in Elmwood Village, has been on the end-of-July Garden Walk since 2005 and the invitation-only Open Gardens since it began in 2011, and will be open on both again this year. As you might guess, this is my absolute favorite time of the year (not including the Ride for Roswell). I start checking my front, back and side gardens in late February to see if plants are emerging from the ground, even with snow. Usually, one of the Helleborus flowers is in bud, even though it is pretty tiny, but daffodils might be peeking up, too. I keep checking throughout spring for tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, flowering shrubs like hydrangea and roses, and the fruit trees on our street to follow their progress. The beginning of this seasonal cycle is so inspiring and hopeful.
Each summer, seeing, smelling, and tasting the great many blooms, bushes, fruits, vegetables, and herbs growing outside my front or back door is such a glorious experience! There are so many botanicals like sweet roses, magnificent hydrangea, heavenly-scented lilies, colorful daisies and black-eyed Susans, fragrant phlox, delightful daylilies, not to mention the delicious tomatoes, cukes, zucchini and bountiful basil for pesto I grow in my little city garden. I simply find myself so thankful to God, very grateful for what I have, and entirely awe-struck by it all.
This week and next, as we approach the end of July, gardens all over Western New York are in bloom, and community gardens walks and tours are happening throughout Erie and Niagara Counties. If you have never visited a garden on any of the local walks, you are really missing a beautiful experience. And even if you have gone garden hopping, there are so many more new garden places and flowery sights to see.
“Open Gardens,” presented by Gardens Buffalo Niagara, offers the chance to see more than one hundred of the very best yards and gardens in Buffalo, Hamburg, Orchard Park, East Aurora, Williamsville, Amherst, Snyder, Tonawanda, and Kenmore. It takes place on Thursdays and Fridays at various times through the end of July.
There is also the East Side Garden Walk featuring more than 100 gardens in homes and parks located around Buffalo’s extensive east side. To explore how community gardens can help heal and grow community, Federation, in partnership with TBZ, Congregation Shir Shalom, Trinity Episcopal Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church, is participating in a guided tour of a few of these east side gardens this Sunday, July 21, including the Tops Massacre site on Jefferson Avenue.
The biggest and best-known event is Garden Walk Buffalo, America’s largest garden tour (really!), taking place later this month, Saturday and Sunday, July 27 and 28, 10 am – 4 pm. This 30th annual flowerpalooza includes more than 350 gardens located in Elmwood Village, Little Summer Street, the West Side, Parkside and downtown. There is a shuttle bus, guidebooks and maps and more information at Gardensbuffaloniagara.com. I hope to see you in one of these green havens / heavens.
Ellen Goldstein is a Board Member of Gardens Buffalo Niagara, Buffalo Seminary’s Alumnae Board and Temple Beth Zion’s Social Justice Committee when she can get out of the garden!