Fall and Planning for Spring

Beautiful time of year! These past two days have been glorious! Pleasant weather and a great show of falls colors.


Our garden received the kind services of three volunteers from D'Youville College, they helped mow the lawn, weed and generally tidy the beds. Thanks to their hard work I was able to plant some bulbs today. We have been very lucky to receive a large donation of bulbs.

The garden also received a grant from Buffalo Livable Communities Program, some items will help us winterize, others will be used in the Spring.

Coming up: We will be going to the Grassroots Gardens Harvest Celebration on November 5th. I hope we can get the garden into our local Festival of lights contest.

A month later - August 10th, 2009

I've just come in from the garden, working with neighbors to spread our fabulous Mulch. This stuff is wonderfully rich and loamy, it's making a big difference already.


We worked until it was so dark you could no longer see the plants and the mosquitoes were having a feast on us. No sooner had I put the last wheel barrow away than the heaven's opened up again, and it poured rain!




Wow it's been quite the month!



We had our BBQ - in the rain, lots of people came and it was Fabulous!!!! Yummy hot dogs lots of salads and deserts. Thanks to all the helpers who made it possible and to our special guests, councilman David Rivera, Police Chief Donna Berry and neighbors from far and wide.

Our Wonderful sign has been designed, created and erected - thank you to all who helped with that big project - It is Gorgeous!

More plants and now some shrubs have been donated.

We received more donations of plants from from other gardeners, these included some very nice and unusual plants and flowers. We also received a gift certificate for Urban Roots, with it we were able to plant some wonderful flowering shrubs and yes even more plants.

We also received our Lawn mower which was a donation to Grassroots Gardens from a kind donor - Thank you!!! It works very nicely indeed.

Our latest acquisition arrived on Friday - a delivery of Mulch. The wonderful thing about a community garden - if you start working in it - people seem to appear, as if by magic. Tonight was no exception. By the time it was dark we had 3 adults and 3 children, weeding, digging and spreading mulch. It was fabulous - and a good number had stopped by to say "Hi" too.

More photos to follow - Thanks for stopping by.

Join us for our BBQ on Tuesday, July 21st 6:30PM

We held our final planning meeting tonight and, now I can hardly wait! It's going to be a fun time!

We'll have some special guests, great food, the unveiling of the garden sign and of course the chance to catch up with neighbors and enjoy a nice time.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Our garden is coming along nicely, there's always something new happening. This week we learned we'll be able to get a lawn mower! Turns out the land in the back is too rough for the average mower.

Have a great week and see you soon!

July 6th, 2009

New Garden features

This week brought our garden bench, new plants, and a fresh cut.

One day Chuck noticed some interesting stones partially sunk into the ground at the side of the garden and found some marvelously interesting moss covered blocks as well as a large slab of stone. Using these he crafted a wonderful bench for visitors to stop awhile and enjoy the growing garden.



Friends of the garden and new fans continued to drop by and bring new plants. This week several visitors have donated more flowering plants, we now have moon flowers, black eyed susans and verbena, just to name a few.


New flower beds have been dug out and planted along the southern side. Some of the tomatoes were moved to their own bed and are doing well in their new homes.

Edging, weeding, mowing and other work has kept the garden looking bright and well maintained. Plenty of rain helped the spring like growing weather stay a little longer and of course the grass grew with record speed.



Part of our success is a network of community gardens in our city who communicate with the help of Grassroots Gardens. We've learned that the garden at Dewitt has some surplus Mulch, and will be picking that up soon. The mulch will help with water conservation and weed abatement, plus it adds a nice surface look to the beds.

We do have room for even more plants, and welcome all visitors. Do stop by soon - remember to mark July 21th on your Calendar for our garden BBQ and sign unveiling.

Our Garden Grows

June 27th Planting: Taking advantage of late season plant sales we were able to add over a hundred new plants this weekend. Drop by to enjoy.

We have already seen plenty of birds, and now butterflies. Some of the seeds are starting to sprout. The garden will look splendid by the time we have our BBQ on July 21st.

We are so grateful to all our benefactors and volunteers, the garden is growing in leaps and bounds. We are still looking for mulch and wood chips. We'd also like to add a garden seat so that neighbors can stop by and contemplate awhile.

Thanks for stopping by on line or in person.

Update June 23, 2009

Last week we received new plants donated by a landscaper and generous neighbors, these included bushes, tomatoes, herbs and other goodies. This week our children's garden was planted with annuals. Thank you to all our generous friends.

We have a new sign too - Grassroots Garden has donated a sign - those wonderful folks are responsible to networking the gardens together and helping us get off on the right foot with soil and our first plants and lots of technical assistance.

We've been networking - I was at the Grassroots garden BBQ aka Weenie Wednesday - last week, where there was far more to eat than just Hotdogs. The food was generously donated by members of the Fargo Estates Neighborhood Association. The turn out was great despite the rain... I learned how we can get a formal sign made for the garden - get those name ideas into us so we can put up our sign.

We hace been price shopping - volunteers have been helping on the phones, looking for more plants. In fact, the next work day will be Saturday morning from 9AM to Noon. Bring your trowels, we will planting!

Mark your Calendars! We will be partnering with the Prospect Vermont Block Club to hold a Block Club & Garden BBQ on July 21st starting at 6:30PM at the Garden. Hot Dogs, Salads and deserts. Hope you can make it!

This week we're looking for more plants, and Mulch - wood chips would be great to spread for a walking path.

Have a Good week and thanks for checking in!

Progress report - June 16th

Our garden has inertia! Some plants have arrived along with an up-swell of interest as more and more neighbors stop by to chat and introduce themselves.

We're actively shopping around for perennials, but are thrilled to receive donations.

Children in our neighborhood have been very active with the project, and we have set aside an entire bed for them to be the Children's garden.

We're inviting all to join us on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 for a block club get together at the garden starting at 6:30 PM - BBQ Hot dogs, (veggie food too), salads and munchies. Please mark this important date on your Calendar!

Our Garden wish list includes: Plants, Mulch, Woodchips and friends!

Stay tuned for updates and progress reports!

News from the Fargo Avenue Community Garden!

Welcome to the Brand Spanking new Fargo Avenue Community Garden and it's Blog!

This blog is a place to share news, check in and check up on what's happening in our garden. Find out what we're doing, when we're working and best of all share information, and views on what a community is and a garden can be to it.

We need a name! we're hoping for a name that say's it all! you know, captures the essence and spirit of our garden philosophy... or just sounds really cool! Please send suggestions to me by e-mail: chrisschaus@gmail.com - we'll be voting on them at the next planning meeting.

When we do have our name we will be able to design a sign to welcome everyone to the garden.

On Saturday, June 13th work officially started with the creation of 3 of 4 beds - according to our plan. Bushes were planted, neighbors came out to help and the magic has begun.

Best of all the garden has been created from other gardens; our soil and bushes came from the Crane Library on Elmwood Avenue, rich black earth from Dewitt and Lafayette, recycled stones from other buildings.

Now we're looking for plants - if you're thinning out your garden please think of sharing with us.


Our next work date is Monday evening 5PM to 8PM. We'll be planting.

Remember you are invited to Weenie Wednesday - when Grassroots Gardens will be hosting a get together and munchies at the Community Garden at West and Jersey.