Map Your Walk 

Walk through the gardens of East Buffalo, meet the people who planted them and learn about the culture and history of the city’s Black community. Print a map. And plan a route to the blooms and plantings at the private homes, community gardens and urban farms throughout the 70 listed stops on this year’s expanded, East Side Garden Walk from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19. 

“It’s where the music comes from. It’s where the art comes from,” said Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo’s first poet laureate who grew up in East Buffalo. “There’s a lot of power there and there’s a lot of culture there. I always describe it as beautiful and colorful and loud.”

East Side Garden Walk volunteers will be out to guide from garden to garden

The East Side Garden Walk, begun in 2018, encourages visitors and neighbors to walk, drive, or bike Buffalo’s East Side, learning about the creativity of this community. Visitors meet its gracious gardeners, experience its historic neighborhoods and wide-ranging architecture. The Walk encourages community revitalization and the beautification of the East Side one neighbor at a time. Equally important are the conversations among gardeners and visitors that bridge notions of differences.

Explore Buffalo’s neighborhoods—Masten Park, Willert Park, Emslie, Lovejoy, Emerson, Schiller Park, Grider, Cold Springs, the Fruit Belt, Larkin, Hamlin Park, Kensington, Leroy, Lasalle, and many more.

Photo courtesy of East Side Garden Walk on Facebook

“It’s a garden that symbolizes their spirit and inventiveness and there’s no other place that I know of in this city that you can point to at this level and say, ‘The children made this happen,’” said Taylor.

The garden walk and its collection of stops, produced by Gardens Buffalo Niagara, was designed to share stories like these. “We use our love of gardening and community to create connections between gardeners, neighbors, and visitors,” organizers wrote in this year’s announcement. “This event is transforming our neighborhood by providing the spotlight for gardeners to ‘show out,’ by encouraging change, and inviting new ideas …” 

Discover the garden stories

Samantha White, chair of the East Side Garden Walk, has been pleased to see how the gardening in the neighborhood has been bringing people together. 

White lives on Box Avenue, where she got lots of help as she worked to clear out and plant five vacant lots during the pandemic. It is now full of the pinks, purples, yellows and whites of hostas, Shasta daisies, yarrow and roses. 

She was amazed when a neighbor came from two blocks away with his grandson and planted a bed there with flowering bushes, coneflowers and bee balm. Family and friends and people who saw photos of the project on Facebook donated too. Soon the collards, okra, tomatoes, kale and peppers will be ready to harvest from the raised beds there. 

“We’ve named that garden, ‘The Good Neighbors Garden,’” said White. “It’s a beautiful thing.” 

Photo courtesy of East Side Garden Walk on Facebook

She hopes the weekend garden walk will also encourage visitors to spend money in East Buffalo. “This little walk is an opportunity for people to help create a financial impact,” White said. “Come to the East Side and support a Black-owned business while you’re there looking at our gardens.”

One of the many elaborate gardens you’ll see on the East Side Garden Walk

“I think that’s powerful … Remembering to use what we have, our land, to pay tribute to those who came before us, those who did the work and fought for our communities, is crucial,” said Hanesworth. “I’m a storyteller and a lot of what I do is about making sure that we keep legacies alive, and that garden does that in a different way than how I do it. And I really appreciate it.”

Getting the most out of this year’s East Side Garden Walk

• Check the listings at EastSideGardenWalk.com.

• Plan a route with the website’s map, updated with new gardens throughout the week.

• Stop by one of two headquarters for more information. People’s Park on Main Street and Jewett Parkway or the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park entrance by Fillmore and North Parade avenues, where t-shirts will be sold.