Are you growing your own tomatoes this year? Whether you are an experienced tomato grower or a blossoming gardener, come check out our first Tomato Care workshop of the season. Come with questions, or come share your wisdom.
Join us at our Patchwork Garden @ 320 Northampton (near the corner of Jefferson) Saturday, June 12th at 10:00am, where we will demonstrate different methods for growing tomatoes, and discuss seeds, soil, feeding, companion plants, staking, pests, and plant disease. This is a free workshop. We hope to see you Saturday!
Planting, feeding, and staking tomatoes — a workshop to demonstrate different methods for growing tomatoes and important things to consider and address throughout the season. We’ll discuss starting seeds, amending soil for tomatoes, other plants that are good companions for tomatoes, planting, staking techniques, fertilizers, feeding, and …blight.
This Wednesday (4/28) and Friday (4/30) we will be transplanting many of the seedlings that we’ve started in our basement and hardened off in coldframes in our backyard. We germinated seeds and distributed seedlings to support several community gardens, made them available to fellow gardeners at our Seedling Swap last Saturday, and still have some left to put into our own gardens and share with our Patchwork Neighbors who have adopted a bed.
Come out to our gardens at 326 Northampton on Wednesday from 2pm – 5pm to help us with transplanting our seedlings and other garden chores (and we’ll be there Friday too–but call ahead because we also have to go pick up trees). If you have adopted a bed and want to transplant a few into your garden, you can do that too! We are running out of adoptable beds; hurry if you want one–contact us at greenspaces {at} buffaloreuse(.)org or come out on Wednesday.
And whether you’ve adopted a bed or not, we can always use your help with garden chores during weekly Workday hours:
Adopt a raised bed + Beautify your neighborhood + Meet people + Work in your own little garden + Grow and eat your own fresh vegetables + Improve the environment + Support our mission
Now that the snow has melted and the birds are chirping, it is time to start preparing our gardens for the fast approaching season. Raised beds in our Patchwork Garden on Northampton Street are still available for adoption, where you can have your own 4 x 8 bed to grow vegetables and flowers with the company of neighbors and friends. We are holding Garden Workdays every Wednesday from 2pm to 5pm beginning March 24th and throughout the growing season. Come together with friends and neighbors and spend some time in your garden. There will also be open workdays on Saturdays all season long, in case you can’t make it on a Wednesday to take care of the weeding or watering or other chores in your garden. The list of garden tasks is growing, and it is important to be ready for the season, so make sure you sign up to adopt a bed and head over to the gardens to get them ready for growing! If you are interested in adopting a bed or would like to get more involved with our programs, contact us at greenspaces {at} buffaloreuse(.)org
What needs to be done?
We have already begun cool season crops from seed (onions, leeks, broccoli, cabbage, collards, brussels, etc.) on our custom-built, heated germination house in the basement. This ensures that we will have enough starts to fill our gardens, share with our Patchwork Gardeners, and trade with fellow Buffalo gardeners at the upcoming seedling swaps (April 24 + May 22). Most important in preparing garden beds is ensuring a healthy place for the transplants to go–the soil. On Saturday March 27th we will be hosting a raised bed soil preparation workshop at 1pm. Here we will address amendments, fertilizers, structure, compost, and as much else we can regarding soil and preparing it for growing vegetables and flowers in raised beds like those in our Patchwork Garden. We moved this workshop to 1pm (our printed calendar said 2pm) to make room for Urban Roots’ “Urban Flocks Workshop”, being held at 2pm the same day.
Other important tasks that are on deck include:
Building cold frames to harden-off young seedlings
Garden cleanups (trash, debris, organic material)
Turning and maintaining compost
Preparing rain barrels for irrigation
Building more raised beds
Plotting the gardens
Spreading mulch
Edging sidewalks
Starting warm-season crops from seed
Many of these tasks will be ongoing throughout the season, and we can use all of the help we can get. If you’re interested in gardening and becoming active in your neighborhood and community, this is a great place to get your hands dirty. Come adopt a raised bed, take part in our workshops, get your bed ready to put plants in it, and soon you’ll be enjoying your own freshly grown food.
This series of informational blog posts come from a document Mike,Caesandra and Kevin created to help orient new Buffalo ReUse board members to our mission,vision,values and the actual history of our organization. Earlier parts: One Two Three FourFiveSixSevenEightNine
Buffalo Action for Revitalization
The BAR Program was initiated by Buffalo ReUSE to plug people into active citizenship–volunteerism–making a space for The City of Good Neighbors to be good neighbors. We created the BAR Program to improve quality of life in neighborhoods and literally build a thriving neighborhood, beginning with our target area–in the Masten and Cold Spring neighborhoods. Our ReSource and office space literally straddle the adjoining borders of those neighborhoods.
The BAR Program may seem like a strange interest for a demolition crew, but we are NOT a typical demolition company. As a nonprofit organization and a green business we believe that investing in our neighborhood is paramount. Every business in Buffalo from the smallest corner store to the largest corporation should make contributions of time, talent or funding to improve the city in which it operates and do so while respecting the environment and surrounding community. Local businesses should emphasize and support sustainable communities through their own lifestyle; we are modeling the behavior we want to see in every local business. Read the rest of this entry »
Meet the Patty Pan, a uniquely- shaped and rather large squash, grown right in our own children’s vinery! We are proud to announce that we have had several grow, and we harvested 4 and gave them to 3 employees and 1 super volunteer with a challenge attached to it.
Nhan, Peter, Matt, and Caesandra were told to experiment with these veggies and to post the results. The recipe challenge has begun, and as you can see in this awesome video below, made by super volunteer Nhan, her patty pan looks like it turned out DELISH!
Stay tuned for updates on the challenge, and feel free to contribute your own recipes!
So we stuck 5 of us in the caREvan last Friday morning and departed on our roadtrip! First stop: Dayton, OH for the Ten Living Cities Symposium. The Symposium was formed in response to an August 2008 Forbes article entitled “America’s Fastest-Dying Cities“. Of course Buffalo was on that list, along with Dayton, Detroit, Cleveland, and 6 other mostly-rustbelt cities. The objective was to bring together artists and activists, community leaders and organizers, public officials and civic-minded people from the 10 cities to share ideas and inspiration, to show we aren’t dying, and to create new possibilities for what our futures can be.
We arrived in Dayton Friday night, heading straight to Garden Station. Garden Station is an art park and community garden established on a lot that had been abandoned for over four decades. The space serves as a place where artists, sculptors, gardeners, musicians, performers and other “creatives” can express themselves. The manager, Lisa Helm, welcomed us with open arms – and even let us crash at her house Friday and Saturday. We stayed for the Garden’s outdoor screening of “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” before calling it a night.
After a hearty breakfast Saturday morning, we went to the Dayton Convention Center for the Symposium.
The first speaker was Josh Zumbrun, author of the much-detested Forbes article. He apologized for the negativity surrounding the article, saying it was not his intention to bring such bad press to these places, to lower residents’ morale, or to ignore what these cities are doing right. By the end of the day Josh had heard more than an earful from concerned and upset citizens and community leaders.
Megan and I were recently drooling over the Burpee catalog. I am dreaming of growing those kaleidoscope carrots and dehydrating them into colorful, crispy, carrot chips! Megan is writing to companies for free seeds and we’re going to need you all to share your eggplant recipes, because we know for sure we’re getting lots of eggplant seeds. Quite a few folks have also shared the site for America the Beautiful Fund and their free seed program so I thought I’d share it with yous guys in hopes that you’ll reply back in the comment section with more sites where we can get free seedlings or seeds! You can order veggie, herbs or posies. So, now everyone can get started ordering, mailing and germinating. We’ll have a seed packet and germination swap probably in March, so don’t procrastinate.
What if our teenagers were actively involved in community building? What if all our schools incorporated environmental education components at all grade levels? What if service for others was built into our children’s daily schedules? How would our Buffalo neighborhoods improve? Would our children mature with a deeper sense of compassion and responsibility? What if our teens developed job skills and social skills that prepared them for meaningful careers?
Philadelphia is learning the answers to those questions. The Philadelphia Horticultural Society created Philadelphia Green which has beome the nation’s largest urban greening program. It’s more than just planting trees or creating flower beds along the medians and sidewalks–PG and Green City Youth keep young people engaged. It is about developing responsibility in the city’s youth and a healthy environment for residents. Michael Groman led PG; now he is in charge of replicating that program throughout Pennsylvania and elsewhere. He accepted our invitation to share his program and implementation strategy this November 16-19th at our Great Lakes Building ReUse Conference .
We hope you’ll be as excited as we are to speak with Michael Groman and our other keynote speakers including:
Tyree Guyton, founder and Jenenne Whitfield, Executive Director of the Heidelberg Project, in Detroit, Michigan have spent twenty years transforming abandoned city blocks in Detroit to raise awareness about urban blight and to develop a strong sense of pride. Their artistic accomplishments inspire young people to take ownership of their neighborhoods.
Rick Lowe, Founder, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX orchestrated the reclamation of 22 dilapidated, yet historic, houses in the heart of Houston. The reclamation of the houses serve as the material for an arts project that influences the cultural and economic revitalization of a neighborhood.
Jay Williams, Mayor of the City of Youngstown, Ohio has no illusions that he resides over a shrinking city, in fact, he fully embraces the “shrinking city” concept. His administration plans to strengthen the urban center through right-sizing; neighborhoods that are emptying out will be converted to greenspace through targeted demolition and development.
and others in the field of hybrid deconstruction and building reuse.
The conference is about putting you in same room with ideas and policy makers who can enable similar projects for Buffalo (or where ever you’re living) Please register for the conference before October 9th to receive the discounted rate.
Save the Date:
Saturday, November 8, 2008 we’re collaborating with ReTree WNY to plant 230 bare root trees in one day!
We’ll potluck/picnic afterward. Meet us at 298 Northampton at 9am.
To see how easy, fun, soggy it was, look at these photos
Hadley doesn’t want summer to end–and neither do we! But, like Hadley, we don’t have much say in the matter. The days are getting shorter and the nights are cooler and our responsibilities are shifting. It also means we have some chores to do in the gardens. We need to mow and weed, turn the compost, fill some beds and put in the cold season crops. So if you can spare a few hours this Saturday bring your garden hat and gloves! Meet us at 298 Northampton and give a holler! We’ll be there from 9-5pm.
Saturday is also the Music is Art Festival at The Albright Knox Museum and we’ll have an info table. If you can work a shift, please contact volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org We need assistance from 11am-10pm
Mayor Brown’s Summer Youth Program pays their wages; Buffalo ReUse puts them to work in the community. A lot of work they did the past five weeks was aimed at making the house on Eaton Street a home for their own program and a future office for Buffalo ReUse. The crew helped set up the Eaton Street Patchwork Community Gardens. They also had the opportunity to meet and work with other community activists, such as Dr. Henry Taylor of UB and Valeria Cray-Dihaan of 50 Women With A Vision.
When we thanked Phil for his work, he responded “My pleasure. I love doing stories like that, and the kids were great.” Thanks again, Phil!
Meet the Patty Pan, a uniquely- shaped and rather large squash, grown right in our own 
Megan and I were recently drooling over the Burpee catalog. I am dreaming of growing those kaleidoscope carrots and dehydrating them into colorful, crispy, carrot chips! Megan is writing to companies for free seeds and we’re going to need you all to share your eggplant recipes, because we know for sure we’re getting lots of eggplant seeds. Quite a few folks have also shared the site for 
Hadley doesn’t want summer to end–and neither do we! But, like Hadley, we don’t have much say in the matter. The days are getting shorter and the nights are cooler and our responsibilities are shifting. It also means we have some chores to do in the gardens. We need to mow and weed, turn the compost, fill some beds and put in the cold season crops. So if you can spare a few hours this Saturday bring your garden hat and gloves! Meet us at 298 Northampton and give a holler! We’ll be there from 9-5pm.
Mayor Brown’s Summer Youth Program pays their wages; Buffalo ReUse puts them to work in the community. A lot of work they did the past five weeks was aimed at making the house on 