Buffalo-Style Gardens. Sally Cunningham
garden, commonly called “Mary’s Garden,” has become an icon of Garden Walk Buffalo and has been photographed for several national magazines. Why? In part it’s the hardscape – the path and the archway. If you cover one eye to see the garden without the sign and the archway, what remains is an exuberant and colorful flower garden. Beautiful, yes, but not necessarily unforgettable. Sometimes the extra something is a simple archway or sign.
This garden has something else that’s even more unusual – a story that surprises. It starts with the sign, “Mary’s Garden,” which creates the expectations that the lady of the house is the inspiration for this garden or perhaps Mary is the gardener herself. But the story emerges: Visitors look for Mary and find out from the owners that Mary was actually Jim’s former wife, who is now deceased, for whom the garden was created during her extended illness. Annabelle, who tells you the story, is Jim’s second wife and partner in gardening. And…the touching twist: She agreed that it should continue to be called “Mary’s Garden,” a lovely homage from one gardener to another. About half the visitors call her Mary, but no matter. And if that isn’t sweet enough, for years their old Bassett hound, Cornelius, reigned from the fancy doghouse. Now everyone meets the friendly new pup, Thurman. These gardeners – and dog – are just folks you’d like to meet. And thousands of people on one July weekend every year do just that.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Jim: Ever think of naming your garden? Dragonfly Ranch? Rat’s Castle? Song ‘n’ Bird Gardens? Smug Creek? Squirrelhaven? Danger Garden? Bonsai Forest? If there’s one way to make your garden memorable it’s branding it with its own moniker. Find something unique about your garden, select a stage name, create a sign, and your garden comes to life in a whole new way. Unforgettable.
Annabelle and Jim’s garden is featured in many magazines and on tours because of great plants – the collections of dahlias and exotic annuals – and design. But it’s equally remembered for the lovely, surprising and touching story (and for the dogs, of course!)
The Irey/Locke garden, known to locals as “Mary’s Garden,” is formal in structure and casual in plantings – and fun to be in. There are horticultural surprises at every turn.
Humor and whimsy delight us when they appear in a garden. The whimsy could be the placement of objects, the use of unexpected materials, or – most often – the choices of garden “art.” Some people have to search high and low to find whimsical, smile-inducing objects to add to their gardens. Some people have those objects land on them – like bowling balls.
The Garden with the Bowling Balls
The garden of Ellen Goldstein and Mitch Flynn
Bowling balls? There is a lot more to this garden: tall Casa Blanca lilies and special ferns, unusual statuary and an elegant cement fountain gurgling in the center. But everyone mentions the bowling balls. Mitch Flynn, an advertising agency owner, unexpectedly came by some bowling balls and had a brainstorm… The garden needed some art, and bowling balls had special meaning for them: Mitch and Ellen’s first date was a bowling night. The multi-talented Mitch knew how to drill holes, and what followed was possibly the world’s most unusual totem pole. Ellen, a public relations professional, still seems to enjoy the retelling of that fortuitous bowling date. With the couple’s eye for design, bowling ball art has become classy – sort of – and it’s okay to laugh.
Once whimsy entered their hearts, these folks didn’t stop with their original objets d’art. They went on to solve a safety problem (low-hanging branches) with (what else?) rubber duckies. When you see them, you’re surprised: rubber duckies at the entrance to this architectural classic? But here, the ducks mean DUCK!… specifically under the low branches of an ancient lilac tree. Once you duck under them you are glad not to have bumped your head, and you emerge a little more light-hearted.
The garden of Ellen Goldstein and Mitch Flynn is mostly known as “The one with the bowling balls”!
LEND AN EAR
Sally: It’s worth listening to what people say about your garden, as it may be a clue to how you’ll be remembered. Do they mention your place as “the garden with the bowling balls… the place with the china teacups… where they had that mirror behind the pond… the garden with the blue barn?” If so, your identity is emerging! If you don’t like the descriptors you can make changes, but if you like what you hear – make the most of it!
The next garden is a Buffalo-style interpretation of garden rooms. Garden rooms can acquire unique identities based on several things. In the case of a small urban garden, the entire back yard – including the driveway leading to it – can become a stunning room. The furnishings you choose and how you put them together may be more memorable than the plants in the garden. Furnishings have impact. Take one of our favorite examples, a garden that’s first remembered for its furniture, second for the colorful plants – and finally, for something unexpected about the gardener…
A Garden Room Crammed with Coleus… and the gardener’s surprise
The garden of Joe Hopkins and Scott Dunlap
A vast collection of coleus, most in containers on the driveway, would make this urban garden impressive enough, but here it’s the furniture that has made this garden famous and featured in magazines, blogs and news articles. The garden – the whole back driveway and yard – looks and feels like a living room. You walk in the driveway, through the exquisite hand-painted gate (featuring purple coneflowers), and aim toward a destination that begs you to sit down and contemplate the coleus. Cushioned chairs and a rug encourage long visits and deep relaxation. You find lamps on the end tables, mirrors and posters on the walls – and typically the gardener comes out of the house and serves you cupcakes… It is a living room in every sense.
Still, there’s more to this garden. After the awe and head-shaking over the furniture and the over-the-top lush containers with lilies, coleus, licorice plants and bee-balm, Joe Hopkins loves to add a twist. “How do you like my color combinations in these pots?” he asks. People aren’t just being polite when they universally answer, “Beautiful, gorgeous, unforgettable…” And then Joe says, “Guess what – I’m colorblind!”