Buffalo Rising Online

Thanks to everyone who opened up their beautiful gardens during the Buffalo Garden Walk 2006. Each year it encourages yet more people to participate. HGTV should come to Buffalo and do an hour long show on Buffalo's impressive gardens. We got them!

I'm glad you mentioned 16th Street. I think the block participation of 16th Street, from York to Connecticut, in the Garden Walk is a great story. I also think that this West Side block and its majority owner occupied residences are a great story. Not only is this block not what people might stereotypically think city blocks on the West Side are like, it is an inspiration for the efforts of many on the West Side who are trying to improve all the blocks in that part of the city. Besides providing beautiful gardens to look at, many of the residents of the neighborhoods that participate in the Garden Walk also show those unfamiliar with their neighborhoods what the residents of those neighborhoods are really like. I think most Garden Walkers agree that North Pearl Street gardens are stunning. That block's participation in the Garden Walk was born out of a terrible teenage murder the winter before that blockis first participation in this event. Residents of North Pearl Street wanted to show other Buffalonians that their block was not run down and crime infested but rather a place of beauty. I think that the presentation of city dwellers and their neighborhoods in a positive way is a tremendous by product of the Garden Walk.

At my place, we love Garden Walk and love that it brings people out to see all the care and beauty and effort people here in the City are up to. Our neighbor on Massachusetts Avenue proudly shows a thick garden of flowers that just gets better every year (and inspired us to start our own, which got "bloomed"!). You should see her holly hocks MID July! You'll surely wish to ask her nicely for a few seed pods come harvest time.

But we watched all weekend as people drove up in nice cars, kept them running and turned around to leave without even getting out to look. We may not be "Ashland" or "Orton" but many of the folks here on Mass work hard to improve their neighborhood a little at a time.

We wish to thank all the everyday Buffalonians who walk by and stop to talk or give gardening advice or just appreciate the effort we are putting forth. These are the neighbors we see on a daily basis, not just during Garden Walk. Thanks especially to Cindy and Jack, and Elizabeth and her "Boys".

Well, I live on North Pearl, and the fact is, the block was not on the Walk before 2001, because all of Allentown was not on the Walk until then. Once we fixed that, it was natural for North Pearl to participate. Most of us have been avid gardeners for years.

I agree that when you have an activist block club, you're much more likely to participate, and we certainly have that.