Buffalo Visitor Returns Again and Again for Eclectic Gardens

Is there such a thing as “black gardening”?

It’s a legitimate question, and the only way for a white writer to answer it is to discuss it with people who have direct knowledge of the subject. These conversations are happening more and more frequently in Buffalo, thanks in part to the advent, in 2018, of the East Side Garden Walk in Buffalo’s predominantly black neighborhoods.

It’s helpful to know about another writer who happens to be black, whose book, “Black Flora: Profiles of Inspiring Black Flower Farmers + Florists,” is being reissued by Timber Press in October.

I’ve been attending gardening blogger meetups around the country with Teresa (Teri) Speight for about eight years now. And Speight has been commuting to Buffalo from her home in District Heights, Maryland, for almost as long. A professional in the gardening industry for decades, she wields both the trowel and the keyboard.

She ran her own gardening business and was the lead gardener for the city of Fredericksburg, among other things, while also publishing her observations on her blog (and podcast) Cottage in the Court. In addition to “Black Flora,” she co-wrote “The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City” with another Capitol District gardening expert, Kathy Jentz.

This focus on urban gardening should help answer the question of why Speight keeps coming back to Buffalo. She is fascinated by the gardens at Garden Walk Buffalo, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year.

“The gardens here are unique,” ​​Speight says. “People express their personality in their gardens. A lot of times, back home in the DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia), people hire landscapers. They make all the decisions. In Buffalo, I see people in their gardens. They can tell you what they have and name the cultivars. I come back here because every time I come, I’m inspired. It’s a way for me to check my balance.”

Speight grew up in Washington, D.C., but his parents were originally from the Carolinas and his grandparents were sharecroppers there.

“They were growing cuttings in Chase and Sanborn coffee cans, in a trunk, in an old bathtub,” she recalls.

For Speight, there is one way to define black gardening. And when she attended the East Side Garden Walk, she felt echoes of an eclectic personal aesthetic that was very familiar to her.

“I came to Buffalo Garden Walk a lot,” Speight says. “That’s all I thought. And then I heard about the East Side Walk and finally got to see it. I loved it, personally. It’s the way we, as a culture, garden. It may not be in its right place. But that’s the way we want it, the way we see gardens. And it’s different. The pots may not match. The flowers may not coordinate. We like to see it all mixed up.”

“We garden against the rules. Maybe we just like a certain type of plant. I grew up with blue hydrangeas. That was the norm. It would be strange to see an African-American home in the Washington, D.C. area without a blue hydrangea.”

But Speight also observed inequalities in how black horticultural workers were treated in the industry, which is why she wrote “Black Flora” — even though she didn’t choose the title.

“In a lot of the horticultural industries—cut flower growers, flower growers—you always see the notoriety of people who aren’t people of color,” she says. “A lot of African Americans were flower growers for white florists, but you never heard about them. In 2020, I was inspired to write about this.”

“Black Flora” profiles 20 growers, florists and designers of color from across the United States, with a foreword by horticulturist and garden historian Abra Lee. Speight hopes to continue this exploration with a book devoted exclusively to florists of color. She is concerned about the number of those who have gone bankrupt, and as part of her ongoing mission to raise awareness, she wants to do what she can to support them.

Speight says encouraging entrepreneurship is a priority in Buffalo. On her recent visit, she stayed at the Moreland Guesthouse, a former convent built in 1922. Located in the Lovejoy neighborhood, it now houses an independent inn. Speight tries to stay in residential neighborhoods when she travels, to get a sense of the day-to-day reality that a downtown hotel doesn’t quite offer. But she admits she’s had trouble finding a good range of amenities while traveling on the East Side.

And before speaking at the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor headquarters last Wednesday, July 24, she tried to do some local shopping.

“I was walking down Michigan Street, I wanted to eat there and buy something. But there are no stores. I know it’s a growing area, but bringing in entrepreneurs would help move the community forward. And those vacant lots on the corner, somebody should put some vegetable seeds in there. Make a scattered garden.”

There are efforts to encourage small businesses in the East Side’s commercial corridors, but you don’t have to be a stranger to reality to understand that we still have a long way to go. As an eternal optimist—like Speight—I believe we will get there.

These are the kinds of conversations you might have with outsiders who come to Buffalo. Visitors often tell you hard truths. Sometimes, there will even be unfair distortions. But if you’re lucky, you’ll meet a Buffalo convert like Teri Speight, who chooses to return again and again.

Someone who says, “I want to bring this home. To show what’s possible.”