UR: What is your favorite spot in your garden?
JC: The hot tub. In winter.

UR: Do you have a favorite time?
JC: After dark.

UR: When did you really get into gardening?
JC: After I bought my first house and had some land that was mine, finally. I was always interested in gardening since I was young. I used to help my granddad with his garden. Which was immense and provided the extended family with veggies all summer long. He used to give me the responsibility of watering and weeding when he went away for vacations in the summer. His name was Art. That’s where I got the name for my garden blog — Art of Gardening.

UR: What is your favorite product from Urban Roots in your Garden?
JC: My cone-shaped planters along the arbor on my patio.

UR: What is the value of gardening to you and the community?
JC: Oh, you’re speaking to the right person. I’m president of Garden Walk Buffalo and believe that there are few forces in the city that have the value & benefit of gardening. Gardening is a solitary pastime. When neighbors start gardening though, blocks change, when blocks change, neighborhoods improve — in walkability, safety, home ownership and home values. When neighborhoods improve, a city becomes better.

When you have a garden tour like Garden Walk Buffalo (the largest free garden tour in the country) — promoting Buffalo gardens ceaselessly, encouraging folks from out-of-town to enjoy the gardens, and returning funds to the neighborhoods through grants — a little garden tour starts to have the power to change people’s perceptions of Buffalo as a city. Visit the Garden Walk Buffalo website.

And, when you build on the success of Garden Walk Buffalo, you get the National Buffalo Garden Festival — five weeks of gardens walks, talks, tours, speakers, workshops, concerts, parties and even a front yard garden contest. More people visit gardens each year than visit Disney World and Disney Land combined (40+ million). Our task is to get the word out that Buffalo is among the country’s leading garden destinations. Visit the National Buffalo Garden Festival website.

If you would like to have your garden profiled on Urban Roots’ blog, please answer the same questions asked above and submit, with photos, to [email protected]