Author: Robert Creenan
For about nine years, the garden at the intersection of Elmwood, Potomac, and Bidwell has been allowed to overgrow as it was only sporadically attended with no real plan of action. Its current state as a maintained community garden only came about last year when Barbara O’Brien, part of the Beautification Committee of the Elmwood Village Association, stepped up and called for volunteers to overhaul the plot of land.
“It needed to look better than it did,” O’Brien said. “Elmwood Village is a premiere place to live in the city, and it needs to reflect that.”
The landscaper in charge of designing the garden, Matthew Dore of Buffalo Horticulture, had a few different ideas in mind regarding the direction that the garden would take, including one that featured a statue.
“We also wanted to simplify it as much as possible by reducing the amount of square footage to maintain,” said Dore. “The low hedges that face Elmwood also don’t obstruct the view of Bidwell heading into the Olmsted parks.”
The garden contains 13 varieties of native perennial flowers, such as pink and purple salvias, Jacob’s ladder, spiderwort, and Shasta daisies. “For the flowers,” O’Brien said, “we wanted ones which are in bloom for three seasons, spring, summer and fall.”
The biggest achievement that came out of renovating this garden was that for the first time ever, the garden at Elmwood, Potomac, and Bidwell will be in the Buffalo Garden Walk. “It’s good for the people who live in the area, including me and Matthew,” added O’Brien.
The garden will still be maintained by volunteers through the Elmwood Village Association.