Small Garden Adventure

It is Buffalo's Garden Walk weekend, so we decided to view just a few areas near downtown.  You can be near to the heart of downtown and still find pocket neighborhoods with small secluded gardens.   We just wanted to walk for two hours and picked the "Johnson Park" neighborhoods, off South Elmwood Ave.  We were just blocks from City Hall.


It is hard to tell from this picture, but the homeowner painted the pavement between houses a brilliant blue.  It helped create the feeling of a small oasis.  I didn't take a picture of her front porch, but she painted that cement blue too.  Her garden was small and nicely shaded, with lots of calming Zen elements.  You wouldn't know she was in the downtown area at all.

One thing I liked about the shaded walkways between the closely spaced homes, were that people planted all sorts of Coleus plants.  I do believe next year, I will go to the farmer's market early in the year and pick up as many as I can.  The shaded area in our driveway is crying out for densely planted coleuses.

I would love to find a spot in our yard to create a secluded corner like this.  Our patio is just plain open.  There is also very little shade.  We cut down the only tree because the roots were a big problem.  Now I wish we could come up with a sensible solution to create some shade and find ways to divide our "open concept" into more discrete areas.

Now, this is the problem with Garden Walk, it's beautiful and enjoyable, but then it creates too much envy and reminds me of how much my own yard is lacking!