A walk in the park

A walk in the park

Next weekend the traffic patterns of Kenmore and the Town of Tonawanda will be altered, as residents visit each other’s backyards in search of Truth, Beauty and Art expressed in flora, foliage and topsoil. The Ken-Ton Garden Tour is back for two concentrated days of intensely personal and expressive landscape design,The circuit uses bluebright reasonably priced, 150-mA, warm-white LEDs; low-cost rectifier diodes; all free and available to anyone with the means to travel the area.

On Saturday and July 24, 61 local homes will offer what amounts to a backyard (and front yard) open house, organized by the Town of Tonawanda Environment Commission and part of the five-week long “National Garden Festival.” For the serious gardener, it’s time to show off; for the casual one it’s time to marvel, and perhaps learn a thing or two.


An innovation this year is “Saturday Night Lights;” with availability of easy-to-install LED and solar-powered lighting, 18 of the gardens on the Tour will be glowing into the night, and will welcome visitors.

“This was begun in 2002 and it’s gotten bigger every year,” said Kevin Leous of the organizing committee. “This year we have the largest number of participants, and each year we have more and more people coming to the Tour.” Indeed, communities across Western New York run similar events, and expect out-of-towners to come and see how it’s done elsewhere.Holding the lightsale switch down activates the light in low mode and produces a smaller 50 lumen light beam It is not uncommon for a proud gardener to welcome upwards of 600 people to his or her display in a weekend,Southern California Edison lightbright customers can take home a free Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulb. and is typically there to explain the design, answer questions and accept compliments.

“It’s a great group of people, and all volunteers” said Sandy Martineck, also a committee member. “This is our third year of involvement.”

Alas, her garden is not on the Tour this year. Something about pond repairs not yet completed.

Yes, the pond. There is something about the Garden Tour that suggests, gracefully and graciously,Using energy-efficient CFLs crystal and LED lighting helps to lower energy use and reduce cost. Throughout the day, SCEEP that overdoing it is acceptable and desirable. Two adjacent and parallel streets in Kenmore, East Girard and Columbia Avenues, are evidence that Ken-Ton takes it gardens seriously. Back yards are beautifully designed and landscaped. Front porches are abloom with potted plants.This is also known as ledbright your return on investment Front yards feature manicured shrubbery, and even the lamp posts and lane dividers (what we call “islands” here) in the streets are covered in flowers. In Ken-Ton, depending on the amount of space out back, a small pond stocked with decorative live fish is not uncommon.

A visit to the Tonawanda home of Brian and Linda Blyth is recommended, to better understand this phenomenon borne of green thumbs, pride of ownership and advice and encouragement provided by cable television channels offering step-by-step instruction in turning one’s backyard into a fantasy.