The National Garden Festival is a five-week-long garden party!   With 14 garden walks and tours (including America’s largest – Garden Walk Buffalo), bus tours, weekday Open Gardens, speakers, workshops and a Front Yard Garden Competition, this festival of 1,000 gardens has something for anyone with – or without – a green thumb!

The Festival will be like a great, green umbrella under which garden tours, the Japanese Garden, the Erie Basin Marina Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, the Rose Garden, the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmer’s Market, the Olmsted Parks, Garden Walk Buffalo, garden symposia, and new special events will be presented to garden lovers, gardening enthusiasts and culturally inclined travelers who revel in the kind of tree lined streets, Victorian architecture and locally owned shops and restaurants that are found in abundance throughout out the Buffalo region.

 

To celebrate Family Fishing Day, the Buffalo United Front is hosting an all day fishing extravagaanza from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at Broderick Park.  The park is home to exciting Underground Railroad history.  The Buffalo United Front is sponsoring an URR performance on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Join the Lewiston Garden Club for its 7th Annual GardenFest in the charming Village of Lewiston.

Vendor booths from area nurseries, landscapers, garden and outdoor suppliers line a portion of Center Street.

Enter to win a prize for your favorite potted container of flowers to be judged by the public.

Listen to a noted speaker each day.  Meander through lovely gardens open to the public in the village area.  Bring questions and soil samples to our Master Gardeners and floral experts.

Enjoy the charming restaurants and natural beauty of the Lewiston area during your visit.  All free.  Maps provided at our hospitality booths as you enter the GardenFest.

Speakers Schedule:

• Sally Cunningham, author, WIBV, Wake Up TV garden host and gardening expert.  See her at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 23 at the Brickyard Pub & BBQ
• Jackie Albarella, WGRZ, TV garden host and gardening expert. See her at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, June 24 at the Lewiston GardenFest Community Tent

Riverkeeper has partnered with WeKanu to offer some training to help you hone your skills for the upcoming paddling season.

June 23 & June 24 at Beaver Island - meet at the south end of North Marina shelter

Basic Skill and Rescue Clinics (3 Sessions)

Skill sessions:

Day 1, Part I: Kayak skills 8 a.m.-noon

Day 1, Part II: Canoe skills 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

Day 2: Kayak and Canoe Rescue skills 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (with lunch break)

Fee: $35 per participant/session

Telescopes will focus on the planets and constellations at the Penn Dixie Paleontological and Outdoor Education Center in Hamburg beginning at 8 p.m.  Telescopes, with filters, will be available to view sunspots and solar flares prior to sunset. After dark, telescopes will view the Penn Dixie Skies.

The public is invited and children are encouraged to attend. Cost is $3 per person, HNHS members are free.  No pre-registrations are required.

Come Rock and Roll into Summer at the Highbanks Recreation Area with Wildlife Educators Coalition Animal Exhibit and our own home-made lawn games, food, and FIREWORKS accompanied by musical performances!  This event is the perfect way to get into summer mode. 

The Land Conservancy's annual native plant sale will feature a variety of native plants appropriate for Western New York's region and climate.

Order one gallon pots ready for planting by June 14 and pick up the order June 23.

Every Tuesday and Saturday we will be selling delicious local and organic food from our farm.  Saturday's are also open to volunteers between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., rain or shine.  A tour of our fam will also be held every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and every Tuesday at 4 p.m.  No need to call ahead, just try and show up on time.

The Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium will be held on Saturday, June 23. This session is a profound inquiry into a bold vision: to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, personally fulfilling, and socially just human presence on Earth.

The Awakening the Dreamer Symposium is an interactive, multimedia experience that moves participants out of despair and frustration and into an optimism grounded in action.

Register or watch a preview at video.

It’s finally here!  The planting season has arrived.  It’s going to be a busy next couple of months for RestoreCorps and we are going to need your help.

Here is our planting schedule for June so far:

• Forest Lawn Cemetery –Saturday, June 23, 9 a.m. to noon

We will need a few people at each of these events so please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested.

Join Natale Builders seminar on “Energy Efficient-Green Home Construction”.

Natale Builders will be putting on this FREE interactive 1 ½ hour seminar at our Model Home on Sub lot 2 in Rivera Greens in Clarence, off of County Road, near Stahl.  All homes in Rivera Greens will be at, or near- energy neutral, they produce as much energy as they consume.  Green Homes are built better, have higher resale value, and are certified by the National association of Home Builders (NAHB).  All Natale homes are Energy Star certified and maintain superior indoor air quality as an added benefit to “Green Construction”.

Natale is the first builder in WNY to provide this type of home in a Green Development and we wish to share the construction points and benefits of a healthier, more efficient home with you.

Chautauqua Lake fishing is fun!  Come give it a try on a day when no New York State fishing license is required!  We will bring the equipment and teach some simple fish-catching techniques so that you can feel the thrill of a big one pulling on the line!

Master Gardeners will be at the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens to answer gardening questions on April 14, 28, May 12, 26, June 9, 23, July 7, 21, August 4, 18, September 1, 15, and 29. Bring your soil to test! Soil testing will be done while you wait. For a small fee of $5, you may bring up to three different samples. Soil remediation strategies will be suggested based on the findings. Proceeds from the soil testing benefit the Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Erie County.