East Side Garden Walk aims to create, build relationships | Local News

“I think the East Side Garden Walk is something that’s beautiful because it’s a way to bring people who are like-minded together in order to share their love of gardening with people from inside and outside of the community,” said Sam White, chair of the garden walk.

“We’re just able to share our homes and our neighborhoods and our stories and have a positive impact on each other and hopefully share a positive message about our community,” said White, an attorney.

The garden walk, which this year expands from one to two days, Saturday and Sunday, is an opportunity to create and build relationships, she said.

This is especially significant this year following the mass shooting May 14 at Tops on Jefferson Avenue.

“Right now everybody is asking what’s the answer to segregation and racism, but the thing is the answer is just words. What we need is actual action,” White said.

“We’re so segregated that it’s difficult to say that we are a ‘City of Good Neighbors’ because we don’t actually live together integrated. So this is an opportunity to act and to do something different and to actually be present because that’s how you’re a neighbor,” she said.

East Side gardener Reggie Garner said he looks forward to meeting people in his garden during the walk.

“My goal is to give people a chance to relax and reset – maybe take a pause out of daily life to take a look at these plants,” Garner told The News. His garden was featured in the Home & Style section as part of the “Outdoor Spaces” series.

“To me, it’s therapy,” said Garner, a part-time career adviser in the adult education division at Buffalo Public Schools.

Gardener Phyllis Lobbins expressed a similar sentiment earlier this week.

“For me, ordinarily, I find the garden to be very therapeutic. But since the recent happenings, I find it even more of a source to just go and try and feel better, to connect with nature, to get as much therapy out of it as possible,” said Lobbins, who is on the East Side Garden Walk for a second year.

“It’s a place to go and just breathe – breathe out the tension, the anxiety, the frustration and to breathe in the good things the universe has to offer us,” said Lobbins, whose garden also has been featured in The Buffalo News.

A Children’s Garden Festival, free and open to all families, is new this year with the focus again on bringing people together from inside and outside the community. In addition to free food, children’s games, bounce houses and other activities, community organizations will be on hand to distribute information about services. 

“We’re bringing together other resources because there are so many groups that are on the East Side trying to meet the needs of the community that have been doing so since long before the Tops tragedy. So we’re bringing those resources together,” said White, adding that plans for the festival began last fall.

Organizers also hope the East Side Garden Walk, which is part of Gardens Buffalo Niagara, the organization that plans and hosts or promotes local garden events including Garden Walk Buffalo, will have a financial impact on the community.

“East Side Garden Walk is not a gardening organization, although we are composed of gardeners. We are a gardening tourism organization and the idea is that by bringing in people from different areas, it will have a positive financial impact,” White said.

“The goal is to grow East Side Garden Walk to help support minority-owned businesses and reinvigorate the neighborhood,” she said.

East Side Garden Walk is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The self-guided walk includes about 70 residential and community gardens.

Headquarters, where free maps will be available as well as T-shirts and other merchandise to purchase, include: Martin Luther King Jr. Park (near the Masten district sign, close to Fillmore and North Parade avenues) and People’s Park (Main Street and Jewett Parkway). Free maps also will be available in the Central Library and other city public libraries prior to the walk and at the Foundry, 298 Northampton St. Maps can be downloaded at eastsidegardenwalk.com. There’s also a free smartphone app.

• Children’s Garden Festival, free, is scheduled from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday on Box Avenue between Fillmore Avenue and Kehr Street. All families are welcome. Scheduled highlights include free refreshments; free community resources such as grocery distribution (while supplies last); bicycle repair; children’s activities, and a backpack giveaway following a performance at 5 p.m. by Buffalo Poet Laureate Jillian Hanesworth.

For details, including information on donating backpacks with school supplies for distribution to children of the East Side (or contributing funds for school supplies), visit eastsidegardenwalk.com and facebook.com/eastsidegardenwalk.