On Thursday, March 14th, the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed traffic circle that links McKinley Parkway and Dorrance Avenue in South Buffalo and a stretch of McKinley Parkway that extends toward the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens was replanted with 115 new trees as part of the National Garden Festival’s inaugural LEAF a Legacy project. Funding for the trees comes from the Western New York State Nurseryman’s Foundation, the New York State Nurseryman’s Foundation and ReTreeWNY.
Phase one of the project was completed by approximately 20 people, including professional landscapers from the Western New York State Nursery and Landscape Association, staff from the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Master Gardeners of Cornell Cooperative Extension and other National Garden Festival volunteers.
The LEAF a Legacy project represents the evolution of the National Garden Festival’s Front Yard Contest, allowing the landscapers to join together annually in a non-competitive environment to give a facelift to a public space within Olmsted’s system of parks and parkways.
Phase two of the project – shrub and garden plantings – takes place in July, with completion set during the fourth annual National Garden Festival, which takes place June 21st through August 4th.
“The National Garden Festival is all about collaboration,” said National Garden Festival Director Sally Cunningham, “and the new LEAF a Legacy project is the epitome: Western New York Nursery and Landscape Association members have partnered with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy to plant more than 100 trees where Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned a tree lined parkway, and we'll enhance the circle at Dorrance Avenue...I imagine Olmsted smiling down on us!”
For more information on the National Garden Festival, visit nationalgardenfestival.com.
Information and quotes provided by Visit Buffalo Niagara.
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