By Brian Hayden:
The landscapers have left North Parade Avenue, the gardens are complete, and the newly planted sod is just settling into the ground.
But the fun isn’t over yet!
The voting phase of the National Buffalo Garden Festival’s Front Yard Garden Competition, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, began Sunday and will continue through Sunday, July 18. The public has a chance to help decide which of the 19 front lawns on the block, between Fillmore Avenue and Northampton Street, deserves the “people’s choice” award in the competition.
Visitors to North Parade Avenue will find the ballots in whiskey barrels, donated by Lockwood Greenhouses, in front of the houses. Voters can then place their completed ballots in a series of boxes up and down the street to vote for their favorite garden.
Those who can’t make it out to North Parade Avenue are invited to vote online here.
The Front Yard Garden Competition is coordinated by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, the Western New York State Nursery & Landscape Association, the New York State Certified Nursery and Landscape Professionals, the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the National Buffalo Garden Festival organizing committee.
From Jim Charlier of the Art of Gardening blog:
“Back in December, it was a dozen of us sitting in a room. We’re
brainstorming ways to leave a permanent legacy of the National Garden
Festival. Permanent over-sized planters for all the host sites for
events? Killer baskets of annuals for Bidwell Parkway (like you’d see
in Niagara-on-the-Lake)? An awesome community garden in a very public
spot? The idea was to keep in the spirit of what Garden Walk Buffalo
has done with their Beautification Grants by improving a neighborhood
or common area.”
Inset and below image: Art of Gardening blog