Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wet Friday Fun In Buffalo



Bright and early Friday morning we started the day touring the gardens of the cottages on Little Summer Street. This little blue cottage garden uses its tiny space to advantage including vertical plantings against the cottage itself. We did not see the gardener here, but clearly the cat is in charge!



If you walk through the garden paths behind cottages on the street, you find more small garden spaces and a few cottages built of brick. The old stable tower and ivy covered wall are a fantastic backdrop for this garden space.



Fences become planting areas here. This planting of hens and chicks with morning glories makes intriguing use of the fence's vertical space. By the time we finished on Little Summer Street, the rains came. We were glad to have the refuge of the bus to dry off a bit.



For an interesting contrast, here is another vertical sedum planting. It is part of an extreme gardening makeover project taking place in the front yards of houses facing Olmsted's Martin Luther King Park.

We visited a second Olmsted Park where they are renovating the Japanese garden. We took a short tour of the garden and got a brief look at the celebration that was going on there.

By the time we arrived at Rue Franklin for lunch, the rain was heavy. This lovely restaurant has a garden where we might have dined on a nice day, but with the rain we were seated inside. Of all the wonderful food we were served, it is the frozen lemon and glazed blueberry dessert that I will remember. It was exquisite!

Our next destination was Urban Roots, the only garden Coop in the country . Many of the bloggers made purchases here . They had a nutmeg scented geranium complete with tiny white blossoms. Too good to pass up, it boarded the bus with us . Plants, garden ornaments and 67 wet bloggers left happy for our next stop which was an amazing garden on Bird Avenue. I can hardly imagine what it would be like to have two buses of wet bloggers pull up to tour your garden on a rainy day. The garden which surrounds the house on every side absorbed us like a sponge. Out hosts were wonderful and friendly. People in Buffalo are extremely welcoming!

After a short time to rest and change into dry clothes at 7:30 it was back to the 20th Century Club for another fabulous dinner. Tonight even featured door prizes. At every meal invigorating conversation flows freely between avid gardeners.

Back at the hotel it was time for a for a meeting of bloggers to exchange ideas. After a day like this and past my usual bedtime, I fell asleep almost as soon as I hit those comfy pillows.

1 comment:

Kathy said...

I was glad you guys won my narcissus bulbs. Let me know if you have any questions about growing them