Tag Archive for: Buffalo New York

Harry Potter garden

Harry Potter garden

Have you ever visited a garden taken from the pages of a book? I recently had the rather unusual experience of reliving one of my favorite book series while walking through a truly unique garden.

Over the past couple of posts, I’ve been sharing the adventures of my latest garden travels which took me to Buffalo, New York. During the week that I spent in this lovely city, I had the wonderful opportunity to tour many gardens, and a few stood out, but none as much as this one.

Harry Potter garden

I was in Buffalo for the GWA (Garden Communicators) annual conference and part of our time was spent touring a variety of fabulous gardens.

Our bus pulled up in front of a beautiful Dutch colonial home, whose owner is Jim Charlier, noted area gardener as well as graphic designer. 

While the beauty of the front landscape encouraged further discovery, I was not prepared for what awaited us as we passed through the back garden gate.

Harry Potter garden

A picturesque garden shed stood sentinel in the side yard painted with purple and orange accents, however, it was what surrounded this small structure that was attracting the most attention.

Harry Potter garden

A storybook garden invited visitors to explore the plants from the pages of Harry Potter.

Harry Potter garden

Using his imagination, Charlier, used his artistic skill and gardening knowledge to select plants to represent the magical plants from the books.

 The 'Mirror of Erised' from Book 1.
Harry Potter Garden Travels

The ‘Mirror of Erised’ from Book 1.

Garden Travels
A 'Portkey' from book 4.

A ‘Portkey’ from book 4.

Harry Potter Garden Travels
Neville's pet toad 'Trevor.'

Neville’s pet toad ‘Trevor.’

Garden Travels

Window boxes contained lovely plantings, including English ivy that trailed over the edges.

Garden Travels

If you think that this garden would attract kids, you’d be right. Charlier’s inspiration for this storybook garden was to get his daughter interested in gardening. 

Garden Travels

Although this Harry Potter garden may have been initially intended for his daughter, it was fun to see how many adults exclaiming over the originality and artistry, including me.

After visiting the garden, I had the strong urge to begin reading through the Harry Potter series again.

Have you ever seen a storybook themed garden?

Buffalo, New York

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I enjoy traveling around the country, exploring gardens. Throughout my travels, I am constantly amazed at the unexpected gardens that I stumble upon. Recently, I was in Buffalo, New York for the annual GWA Conference. I arrived a few days early in order to spend time with my BGF (Best Garden Friend), Andrea who came all the way from Australia to attend. We set out from our hotel in the morning to see more of the downtown area of the city.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

It was a hot and humid day, but we were not deterred. We passed by a farmers market down the road from our hotel where fresh produce from area farms, was laid out to tempt passersby.  

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

I enjoy seeing fresh seasonal produce but lament that fact that other than fresh fruit, I am limited as to what I can use without a kitchen when I am traveling.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

Most farmers markets also feature plants for sale and it’s a great way to see what grows in that area.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

After leaving the farmers market with a bag of blueberries, we continued our walk toward the lake side where we encountered a lovely urban community garden. The Learning Garden is located underneath an overpass and adjoins a park.

The garden serves as an outdoor classroom for Erie Community College.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

Three of the sides of the garden bounded by a fence, leaving an open gateway for visitors to explore the garden.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

Raised beds were filled with a variety of vegetables and herbs along with a few ornamental flowers. Tomatoes are found in almost all of the beds and this garden clearly had an Italian theme with its basil and parsley.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

Intermingled with many of the edible crops were whimsical garden signs like this one nestled within a bed of kale.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

This sign expresses the joy of gardening for me and I believe for many others as well. As you can see, they aren’t difficult to make and I may enlist the woodworking skills of my husband to make some for my own garden.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

Andrea and I took a moment to rest our sore feet while enjoying the scenery of the garden and the busy bees roaming from flower to flower.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

The raised beds followed no distinct pattern that I could ascertain – but regardless, they looked great and were obviously thriving. Vegetables were the main focus with flowering annuals such as snapdragons and alyssum adding color.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

I want this sign in my vegetable garden – do you think the neighborhood cats can read?

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

A small greenhouse is located behind massive cucumber vines. My cucumber vines have never looked that good…

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

I enjoy garden art made from repurposed materials, such as this ‘spoon-fork’ flower – a definite touch of whimsy.

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

What do you do when you run out of room in your raised beds? Plant vegetables in fabric containers, of course!

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

In a sunny corner, an unusual pair of wooden chairs sat, facing each other. What a great piece of furniture for those who enjoy good conversation, like we do!

Buffalo Vegetable Garden Travel

We spent over an hour exploring the garden before leaving. It was a completely unexpected garden discovery and one that I will remember for a long time.

Once we left the garden, we decided to search for a place to eat lunch. Did we select a unique eatery or small cafe for lunch?

Tim Hortons

Nope.

I’ve heard great things about Tim Hortons and we don’t have them where I live and they aren’t in Australia, where Andrea lives either, so we decided to eat lunch there to see what all the buzz was about.

bun club sandwich

 Okay, this isn’t the healthiest lunch, but I did get my pretzel bun club sandwich without mayonnaise and it was delicious.

cake batter-flavored donut holes

For dessert, we ate their famous cake batter-flavored donut holes – oh my, they were wonderful! It’s probably a good thing that we don’t have one nearby or my waistline would suffer greatly.

I hope you have enjoyed our Buffalo garden travel so far. You can click here to read about our adventures at the test garden filled with colorful annuals. Next up, a garden from the pages of Harry Potter!

**You can follow Andrea’s gardening adventures on her blog.

Buffalo New York

I enjoy traveling – especially when I get to explore new places. Last month, I journeyed to Buffalo New York where I toured gardens, attended a writer’s workshop, and best of all, spent time with one of my favorite people.

Why Buffalo you may ask? Well, it turns out that this industrial city has beautiful green spaces, whimsical private gardens, as well as test gardens. Each August, the city hosts Garden Walk Buffalo where people from all over the U.S., Canada, and other countries descend to tour over 400 private gardens. I was in Buffalo for the Garden Communicator’s Annual Conference, which is held in a different city each year. Each year, I look forward to the conference where garden tours, educational sessions, and the tradeshow fills our days. It is also a very good time to reconnect with fellow writers.

Buffalo New York

I arrived in Buffalo a few days early to meet up with my BGF (Best Garden Friend), Andrea who flew all the way from Australia to attend. We met two years ago when we attended our first conference and bonded instantly. Throughout the year, we keep in touch via Facebook Messenger and look forward to spending a week together at the conference. 

Our agenda for the first day was to explore the downtown area down the street from our hotel. There were many older buildings, including our hotel, which had been beautifully refurbished, including the city hall and its art deco architecture.

The day was sunny, humid, and hot. Desert dwellers like me don’t deal very well with humidity, but that didn’t stop us from exploring.

banks of Lake Erie , Buffalo New York

We walked down to Canalside, which is along the banks of Lake Erie. As we explored the area, we walked through beautifully landscaped garden beds. The hosta and coleus were stunning with their contrasting colors.

pink flowering gaura ,Buffalo New York

While I may not be able to grow many of the plants we passed by, it doesn’t keep me from enjoying their beauty and getting inspired to create similar plantings using different plants that thrive where I live. However, there was ONE plant in this bed that currently grows in my garden – pink flowering gaura.

Buffalo New York ,Buffalo New York

As we continued walking along the water front, splashes of color caught my eye. 

Buffalo New York , Buffalo New York

We had stumbled upon a ‘pot of gold at the end of a rainbow’ or in other words, a test garden where the latest flowering annuals are being tested.

white and purple angelonia ,Buffalo New York

Large containers filled with ‘Supertunia’ petunias look as if they are on steroids. But, this type of flower is smaller than regular petunias and flower more abundantly as you can see. The tall spikes of white and purple angelonia add a lovely vertical accent.

White alyssum, black sweet potato vine, and gomphrena , Buffalo New York

White alyssum, black sweet potato vine, and gomphrena make a unique grouping that works. 

I was thrilled to note that many of the plants in the test garden would grow nicely in my desert garden – during the cool season.

pink gaura ,Buffalo New York

More pink gaura was to be seen, blooming in front of masses of Supertunia.

Buffalo New York

Lantana is a very familiar sight in arid gardens where it can survive outdoors throughout the year. However, in cold winter regions, it is treated as an annual.

Black-eyed Susan vines , Buffalo New York

Black-eyed Susan vines grew against a wooden fence surrounded by vibrant verbena and double petunias.

Buffalo New York

I love trellises made from natural materials on hand like this wood, likely fished out from the lake.

Salvia amistad.

Here is another plant that currently grows in my desert garden – Salvia amistad.

Million Bells (Calibrachoa)

Million Bells (Calibrachoa)

Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend

After the long trek from our hotel and exploring the test garden, Andrea and I were content after seeing such beautiful plants, but we were also hot, tired, and hungry.

Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend

Thankfully, we found this wonderful restaurant a couple of blocks away. The food and service were fabulous, so we came back again for dinner.

I invite you to visit Andrea’s blog where she writes about her adventures gardening in Perth, Australia. Please come back to join me for day two of our adventure where we discover another garden – this one filled with edible plants along with whimsical garden signs.