Another Wonderful Season: Gardens Buffalo Niagara's Thank You Party

Gardens Buffalo Niagara’s End-of-Season Thank You Party, October 16, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Jay Jinge Hu)

Gathered with gardeners, sponsors, volunteers, and friends, Gardens Buffalo Niagara (GBN) commemorated the end of the season with its annual Thank You Party on October 16, 2022, at the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens. Together, the community of gardeners glanced back at another wonderful season and celebrated the community built by sharing our gardens. (Follow Gardens Buffalo Niagara Facebook page for the latest information.)

A Good and Growing Year
Incoming GBN president, Laurie Ousley, recalled GBN’s growth and achievement with the events throughout the year. The most well-known event of the season is Garden Walk Buffalo (in its 28th year in 2022!). Garden Walk Buffalo is the largest free garden tour in the United States, with over 300 gardens opening their gates and attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year, creating millions of dollars of economic impact. Garden Walk Buffalo is led by co-chairs Beth Kreutzer and Barb Cavanaugh.

Lunenfeld Beautification Grants Update
Lunenfeld Beautification Grants co-chair Mara Montante mentioned the program has provided $100,000+ in grants for 100+ beautification projects for block clubs and community groups throughout the entire city of Buffalo. See the list of past grant recipients here.

Incoming President Laurie Ousley applauding Gardens Buffalo Niagara’s sponsors (Photo courtesy of Lauren Newkirk Maynard)

The East Side Garden Walk Grows
Founded in 2018 and led by co-chairs Samantha White and Renata Toney, the East Side Garden Walk(ESGW) has grown in the number of participants, visitors and has even grown to a two-day event. In 2022, the East Side Garden Walk broke ground by hosting the first Children's Garden Festival. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Children’s Foundation of Erie County and the M&T Charitable Foundation, it was a totally free event with over 500 people in attendance. GBN is committed to supporting the grassroots leadership of East Side gardeners, promoting this walk, and encouraging everyone to visit, participate, and support East Side businesses.

Co-Chair Samantha White(right) sharing her visions for East Side Garden Walk, with Board member Catherine Carr Lincoln(left). (Photo courtesy of Brian Kreutzer)

Open Gardens: a month-long tour of exceptional gardens
GBN’s events reach beyond the boundaries of Buffalo. Founded by Sally Jean Cunningham, and currently led by Mike Shadrack, the Tours of Open Gardens returned for its 12th year on Thursdays and Fridays in July 2022. The tour showcases nearly 100 exceptional gardens across Erie and Niagara counties, which includes gardens of different sizes, styles, and concepts. Some gardens embrace and demonstrate new ecological gardening practices. It has attracted visitors not only from Western New York but from as far away as Germany, Japan, and Australia. (Follow Open Gardens Facebook page for weekly photos and updates.)

The Buffalo Style Garden Art Sale
The Garden Art Sale in June is as popular as ever, led by Barbara Maze and Phil Collins. While highlighting and celebrating the quirkiness of Buffalo-style garden design, the Sale supports local artists and craftsmen. After a Covid-cancelled year, and the challenge of last year’s state and local Covid restrictions, the sale had its most vendors ever!

Open Gardens Chair Mike Shadrack giving remarks (Photo courtesy of Lauren Newkirk Maynard)

Urban Farm Day: Education, Socializing, and Shopping…
GBN’s newest event is Urban Farm Day, founded and led by Mary Vanvorst in 2021. It aims to make a regular habit for participants to visit and support urban farms and community gardens. It is also a chance to reconnect with where our food comes from, and to be inspired to create one’s own garden plot. Its meaning rises above food and garden, recapped in our previous blog post on Urban Farm Day:

(Gardens Buffalo Niagara) would like to complete this reflection with the quote from writer Kathryn Schulz, “our brief crossing is best spent attending to all that we see: honoring what we find noble…recognizing that we are inseparably connected to all of it, including what is not yet upon us, including what is already gone.” Let the spirit of our urban farmers remind us to notice other people’s struggles, to rethink the possibility of creating something new, and to cherish the connection that we have found.

Urban Farm Day host Cheryl Harris sharing how she started building her urban homestead in the heart of Buffalo’s East Side. (Photo courtesy of Brian Kreutzer)

Recognizing Decades of Volunteerism
At the end of the gathering, Jeffery Tooke, outgoing GBN president, made a remark honoring Arlan Peters and Dom DeFillippo, long-time volunteers of the organization. Their garden on Norwood Avenue has been a fixture from 1996 till 2022 on Garden Walk Buffalo. Jeffery Tooke shared in his remark:

Arlan was initially co-chair with Michael Banks and Elaine Freidheber and then became president of Garden Walk Buffalo from 2000-2005 which were formative years for the walk. During this time, his level-headed leadership and hard work set Garden Walk Buffalo and the area’s garden tourism on its current trajectory.

Laurie Ousley (left), Arlan Peters (center) and Jeffery Tooke (right) at Gardens Buffalo Niagara Thank You Party (Photo courtesy of Jay Jinge Hu)

Gardens Buffalo Niagara board is in the process of creating a special project fund named after Arlan and Dom, in honor of their service and contribution to the organization. Along with the Lunenfeld Beautification Grants and all of our events, it will become part of our effort to do good socially, culturally, economically, and ecologically for Buffalo Niagara and beyond.

Outgoing GBN president Jeffery Tooke was also recognized for his singular dedication to GBN over the last 28 years as president, treasurer, Garden Walk Buffalo co-chair, and Garden Walk Buffalo gardener. Jeffery was the “brains behind the operation” establishing the organization as a nonprofit group and setting up nearly all systems that have allowed for its growth and forward trajectory.

By Jim Charlier & Jay Jinge Hu, Gardens Buffalo Niagara Events Committee

(Laurie Ousley, Catherine Carr Lincoln and Samantha White of Gardens Buffalo Niagara also contributed to this article.)