#OneBuffaloGarden: We did this, together!
If there’s one lesson we gardeners can take to heart during this summer of sharing from a distance, of rain and then not-rain, it’s that what we grow with our own hands—alone in our backyards or at the newly opened farmers markets—can’t be taken for granted.
Allison DeHonney knows this. During Garden Views’ final ProInterview broadcast yesterday, she recalls how she began clearing trash from a vacant lot on the East Side, hoping to provide a few of her neighbors with healthy, local vegetables. With the help of some high school students and volunteers from a nearby halfway house, she built a few greenhouses and raised beds, planted peppers and radishes and collards, and began seeding a network that has grown into Buffalo Go Green, a non-profit that works to lift urban communities through homegrown food, jobs and the joy of gardening. Partnering with big insurance companies and local mom-and-pop businesses, she provides cooking classes, dietary education and free food giveaways to her East Side neighborhood, and she sells her farm’s fresh produce at markets around the city. And her dreams are still growing. “I never imagined all this… I can’t take credit for any of it,” she says modestly.
Meanwhile, the 26th annual Garden Walk Buffalo was to have been held this past weekend. And as we all painfully know, it wasn’t (although thank goodness for Open Gardens, and for the few plucky towns and organizations who held garden tours despite the challenges of Covid-19.)
Instead, people showed up online, not just on our three sister Facebook pages at Gardens Buffalo Niagara, Garden Walk Buffalo and East Side Garden Walk, but also on local online gardening groups, websites and live Zoom chats. Most of you were local, but we also heard from Canadians, Texans and Californians hoping to get a glimpse of America’s largest garden tour.
You downloaded front-yard walking tours showcasing the history, architecture and gardens of neighborhoods like Allentown, Central Park, Iron Island and West Village.
You celebrated the personal stories of new and veteran gardeners alike, in more areas than we ever covered during Garden Walk: Renata Toney, returning to the East Side after 23 years; artist Amanda Besl’s love of roses; budding garden entrepreneurs like Johanna Dominguez; Pam Rose’s Parkside arboretum; Elizabeth Licata’s lilies; Sally Cunningham’s East Aurora oasis; Mike and Kathy Shadrack’s hosta menagerie in Hamburg.
You applauded the sustainability efforts of native plant champions Ken Parker and Lyn Chimera, the pollinator protectors, and milkweed-loving conservationists led by WNY’s Eastern Monarch Butterfly Farm.
You learned about the tireless work of gardening collectives and community leaders, like Grassroots Gardens, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper and Anne McCooey of Black Rock/Riverside’s BRRAlliance.
At Garden Views’ virtual headquarters, we shot and shared sometimes jiggly video footage, held socially distant chats with gardeners across their yards, posted YouTube videos from our longtime sponsors and new partners, escorted a 3-foot garden gnome named GNigel around the neighborhoods, promoted our cancelled Garden Art Sale vendors, threw a garden-themed pillow giveaway and coloring contest, created some fun Zoom background images, and attended umpteen weekly meetings planning all of it.
Sometimes the ideas flopped, or we felt weary and Covid-brained. Like you, we sat waiting in our gardens on a few muggy, buggy evenings, hoping someone would come by to talk about trumpet vine and those $&#! Japanese beetles.
More often than not, though, we were overwhelmed by the positive response from garden lovers of all walks of life, from all corners of the city and region. Says one Parkside Open Gardener, “I can’t remember the last time 30 people showed up to my yard in one day, many following me around with notebooks!” It may not have been the crowds of Little Summer on Garden Walk Saturday, but it was still lots of fun.
Thanks to you, Buffalo’s gardening community has expanded into something new, and very special. Going forward, we won’t just plan for the big events (although we hope to see you next July!). Instead, you inspired us to also focus on the simple pleasures of puttering in the yard, sharing plants with a neighbor, or growing your own food—not just for one weekend or one month in the summer, but year round.
We hope that, at its best, Garden Views helped transform what Buffalo gardening means in the real world, using the virtual one.
Thanks for sharing. Together, we are all #OneBuffaloGarden.
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