Garden Essays

Hope Blooms, a garden by, and for, people living with HIV/AIDS

Evergreen Health Services' (formerly AIDS Community Services) Hope Blooms is a garden with a story and a garden with a soul.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead’s words are often profound and frequently state my thoughts better than I do myself. This well known Mead quote, to me, speaks to the very essence of Garden Walk Buffalo. With over 300 gardens on this free tour, it is the largest garden walk in the nation – and it is a 100% volunteer effort. With no paid staff and no public funding, the Garden Walk Buffalo committee has managed to create one of the City of Buffalo’s best summer events and biggest national and international public relations triumphs.

by David Bender, 167 Richmond Avenue

My garden is less what I did with the space than the result of a close collaboration between me, a fabulous plant guy, and a super architect.

It caused a kitchen renovation, evolved beyond anything I imagined, and improved my living enormously. For me, the lesson is - join hands with a professional; two can do better than either alone. I’ll sketch how the whole thing evolved, but keep in mind that nothing like it would ever have happened without all three of us playing our parts.

It all started in 1894

I moved to Buffalo in ’76, to an apartment next door. The next summer, 167 Richmond had an open house. I looked in, was smitten, and bought on the spot.(Me, a lifelong student, never lived in anything other than a 2-room apartment!) It was a gorgeous 1894 prosperous burgher’s home, all original never-painted woodwork, owned by only one family from the time it was built.

Rather than focus on the city, I’d rather focus in on my neighborhood, the Elmwood Village area, about a one-mile radius from where my garden lies.

Most already have preconceived ideas about Buffalo, NY, which probably includes the Buffalo Bills, snow, Buffalo wings (here in Buffalo, we just call ’em chicken wings), the Sabres, Lake Erie and more snow.