If you have ever wondered how to beautify your neighborhood, here is some inspiration.
From Beet Tops to Black-Eyed Susan lined walkways, the community planted, weeded, and organized themselves to feature their neighborhood as a Garden Tourism Destination. Black Squirrel Home & Garden Walk through the Memorial Park neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, was filled with some superb gardens!
This is just the ticket for those of us who will walk any distance to see the secret backyard oases in neighborhood gardens. You’ll find interesting details in the ‘nooks and crannies that delight and give you ideas for little gardens or flower pots at home. People came from far and wide to get a look, talk to the gardeners, and learn about new ideas and plants.
This was all before Covid, so I do hope they roll up their sleeves again so we can all admire their gardens.
Of course, there are gardens at parks, but in neighborhood walks, you get to see home gardens lovingly worked by green-thumbed residents themselves. Everyone we talked to along the way confirmed just how much they put into their gardens. All seemed happy to do it. As the old saying goes, “If you want to be happy all your life, plant a garden.”
Even though this took place in August 2019, and I am updating the article in 2022, I want you to know that I still have a prized Canna Lily because of the information one of the gardeners gave me. Did you know you can overwinter this tall-standing tropical flowering plant? Well, you can. You save the bulb in a dark, cold place like your cellar. Then plant again in spring. The flowers produce large seeds in fall, which can also be harvested and planted.
Garden Tourism is one way to enhance a cityscape. All you need are a few willing hands, some funding through a local organization, and the will to do it. You may enjoy the book Garden Tourism by R.W. Benfield.
Now on to the Garden Tour
The McClinton House
As I photographed her in her back garden gazebo retreat, Angela McClinton remarked, “Sitting in my garden is so peaceful. It is a little piece of heaven back here all summer long. I use this as my special place to write and contemplate.” Angela’s husband, Gregory, is the Pastor at the Disciples of Christ Ministries located in the Deveaux Woods neighborhood in Niagara Falls. She often helps with sermons.
Angela told me a little about her life in the neighborhood.
“This has been home to us for over thirty years, she mentioned, “We were like the Brady Bunch, we raised a wonderful blended family here, and now our grandchildren love to visit. At our Christmas Dinner for the family, there is standing room only!”
Angela McClinton
If you know Niagara Falls, NY, at all, this will ring true. It is an old city with deep roots and family ties. Steeped in history, it has had its high points and low. With grassroots initiatives like the Black Squirrel Home & Garden Walk in its fourth year now, residents are beginning to take back a historic neighborhood packed with homes, majestic ‘old ladies’ built in the 1880s and 1890s.
Memorial Park is one of the oldest neighborhoods. I can imagine if brick and stone could talk, they would shout for joy at the love and new attention they are getting from passionate home renovators and gardeners alike.
The Graling House
The Graling House is located on Twelfth Street. The home has a large back garden divided into two main spaces. One was used as a kitchen garden, and the other contained several delightful seating areas. Upon entering the back garden from the narrow walkway, a large table was set up to greet people. Everyone was so welcoming. It was like coming home.
A neighborhood walk can help create a sense of unity in a community and even beautify it. One home at a time!
There is considerable gardening work to get a home and a neighborhood ready for visitors. Fortunately, some people always love to garden or have the funds to hire others. It is all about gathering people together, in the beginning to see who would like to be involved. Not everyone will, but that is ok.
Some people are good at organizing and gaining sponsors; some are good at marketing the idea rather than doing the gardening themselves. The main thing is to get a sense of community happening. It is well known that safer neighborhoods are composed of people who know their neighbors.
Before you put any word out, you must start a year ahead and bring people together to participate in the project. Sometimes a local service group will also get involved to promote their organization. What starts out as a grassroots desire to improve your neighborhood can eventually become a major seasonal event that benefits your whole community and inspires visitors and tourists to come to see your gardens every year.
Buffalo residents have brought thousands of people to their city’s residential streets for a Once-a-Year Garden Walk over the years.
There are many reasons to organize a garden walk. Sometimes it is just as simple as the desire to have others see your work and appreciate it. Sometimes it is a way to give back. Sometimes it is a way to turn a blighted area into a thriving community. Sometimes it helps raise money for a favorite charity or cause. Sometimes it increases the value of the homes in the area.
Whether people own a home or rent, they all agree they would rather live in a beautiful neighborhood with a sense of community among its residents. In every untoward event, it is always a few good neighbors you can rely on for help!
With a little imagination, you can do anything!
As a little aside, the Black Squirrel Garden Walk is so named for the black squirrels in the area. It is even rumored there is one albino squirrel. Most squirrels that I have seen in Niagara Falls are gray squirrels.
Many of the houses have been lovingly restored and saved.
The Verney Graling House
Verney Graling graduated in 1899 from the Minnesota College of Engineering and the Mechanic Arts. He was an electrician at the Hydro-Electric Plant in Niagara Falls and lived in various ‘flats’ in the Memorial Park, NF neighborhood before he had the 12th Street home built for his family in 1910.
The Verney Graling House: Classic Colonial Style, Built 1910.
Verney Graling was the son of John N. Graling, a German immigrant born in 1863 who came to the USA when he was ten years old.
Verney was born in Fillmore County, Minnesota, and became one of Spring Valley’s most highly esteemed citizens, serving three terms as a legislator and a seven-year village council member. Spring Valley Village is a suburb of New York City.
In recent years the Graling House fell into a state of disrepair after being owned by a succession of people. In 2005, John, who was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, bought the house after coming to see the ‘Majestic Niagara Falls! He and Ruth found Verney Graling’s house and fell in love with it. They began the slow process of saving it and creating the lovely back garden where they enjoy sitting and listening to the Roar of ‘The Majestic Niagara Falls!”
are to be congratulated on their successful neighborhood walk,
everyone enjoyed it.
There were, as you can see, a lot of gardens within a short walking distance. We tried to see them all, but what with all the beautiful plants and talking with the Gardeners, I think we missed a few. Below are more images for you to enjoy.
The ‘S.W. Bearce’ House c. 1921
As you walked through the abundant flora leading up to the front verandah at the Bearce House, you caught a whiff of a note of chocolate.
The fragrance drew you in as you wondered where this hint of hot cocoa could come from. Was someone brewing a pot of hot chocolate? Upon further examination, a delicate aroma came from Organic Cocoa Mulch in the flower beds. What an added benefit to the mulch, which contains nitrogen, phosphate, and potash with a pH of 5.8… it adds several nutrients to the soil creating additional nourishment for plants… also happens to enhance the aroma along with the floral notes of the flowers themselves. Kudos!
The Bearce House was and still is a two-family residence, upper and lower, with two front porches. The information provided states, “It is a good example of a two-story Craftsman residence with a hipped roof. A ‘hipped’ roof refers to one that is designed so that all sides of the roof slope downward towards the walls without any gable. A hipped roof can look like a little cap placed on the walls. The facade is an open, full-width, two-tiered porch with open wooden rails. S. W. Bearce originally built it, and its color scheme has not changed since 1921.
‘Hopi Red’ (Amaranth) and ‘Shooting Stars’ (Nicotiana sylvestris)
Fascinating plants.
The ‘Hopi Red’ (Amaranth) has feathery plumes, also maroon in color, and the ‘Shooting Stars’ (Nicotiana sylvestris) can be seen poking out their heads in the form of white blossoms.
The large Castor Bean plant shown above is the one with the large maroon leaves and comes with an interesting story.
“These seeds have an incredible history. While I was a disaster relief worker in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, Minnie, an elderly African-American woman gave me a few seeds to ‘take back North’ when I completed my duties on the Gulf Coast. Minnie told me that the Castor Bean plant had been in her family since they set foot in Louisiana. Her grandmother told Minnie that the Castor Beans had been smuggled from Africa to the New World. Castor Beans are used in traditional West African medicine.”
A Home owner
(Hydrangea Paniculata)
(Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis)
& Castor Bean Leaves peaking out from behind.
Below are more photographs taken along the Walk… I hope they inspire you to create a garden, even if it is just a few potted plants.
“Through the arbor flowers bloom
trina astor-stewart
Providing a haven Of solitude
Upon a porch that offers a quiet room
To read or dream or realign one’s attitude.
Always follow “The Porch Rules“
Kick-off your Shoes, Sip Lemonade,
Read a book! …away with your tools.
Watch the Sunset, take a nap,
Have a cuppa tea, eat a snack,
For heaven’s sake, just relax.
Paul’s home, which was included in the Black Squirrel Home & Garden Walk, has one of the few, if not the only, home in Niagara Falls with a full verandah on the rear of his house.
Paul moved here eight years ago and entirely renovated his home.
“It is a labor of love,” he says, “The homes in this area really deserve it!”
Two long flower beds flank Paul’s large back garden. In front of the garage, which backs onto an alleyway, there are six large stone pillars on which he has flower baskets hanging. He says the origin of the pillars is not known other than they were on the property before the house was originally built. A beautiful large tree graces the bottom of the garden.
with flower-filled white urns.
Homeowners on the Walk welcomed us and talked to us about their special gardening secrets and the ways they have found to grow attractive and unique gardens. Some even invited us into their homes to see detailed original woodwork, such as the built-in china cabinet above. Many have furnished their homes with traditional and vintage furnishings. The above bedroom suite in one home is particularly lovely with the vintage wedding ring pattern quilt and handmade Victorian Canopy on the four-poster bed.
The Black Squirrel Garden Walk Organizers wish to
especially thank the following for their support.
Niagara Falls Fire & Police Departments
Niagara Street Business Association
Niagara Falls Redevelopment
Memorial Park Neighborhood
Rotary
The Marketside Restaurant
Niagara Beautification Commission
Levesque Institute
And Many Anonymous Friends! Thanks for beautifying Niagara Falls neighborhoods!
for mentions of creative people, books, products, places, or businesses mentioned in this post.
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