This year, JKLA was approached by Buffalo Spree Magazine to join them in designing a space for the Junior League of Buffalo’s Decorator’s Show House. For the first time the Decorator’s Show House had a significant amount of green space to work with; enter Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect.

Buffalo Spree was hoping JKLA could design a small sustainable garden, but of course we do nothing small! In a space that rivaled the square footage of the living room, JKLA focused on two aspects of outdoor living in WNY: the restful and beautiful outdoor living area, as well as the functional working aspect of tending a garden or yard. As our 2009 pro-bono project, our intention was to focus on sustainability and sitting lightly on the land, while still highlighting how beautiful being “green” can be.

Two interns, interior design students from Buffalo State College, also joined us for this project. Kile Krawczak and Amy Anderson were a huge help throughout the whole process.

The sustainable garden included a great many eco-friendly initiatives with the intention being the ability to take away a few and discover how to implement them at home. On the functional side, we featured the stainless steel sink draining into a rain barrel, potting benches, cold frames for growing vegetables, a composter, and a garden shed, including a green roof. The outdoor living area featured an 8 person dining area, a pergola and relaxing seating space, and 2 water features: a rain chain and a custom made I-beam fountain. It was at the end of this fountain that we featured the permeable pavers. The water from the fountain splashed over onto the pavers, drained into the underground milk crates, and was re-circulated by a pump.

Huge Thank You’s go out to Buffalo Spree Magazine for not only asking us to team with them, but also supplying us material and man power, and Urban Roots Garden Center
for providing us with the rain barrel and composter and various gardening tools and supplies as well as the many, much appreciated, volunteers. They were a great help!

Also tremendous thanks to Nate Berner of Berner’s Landscaping and all of his hard work. Without him (and his tractor!) the vision of this garden may never have been realized. Also to Alison Endl who commuted in from Ithaca to not only design this garden space, but also to build it and oversee this project. Thank you all very much!

JKLA would also like to thank Buffalo ReUse for the donation of not only their materials but also their workspace. We started this project with snow on the ground, so it was imperative that we find an indoor workspace to visually plan out the garden space as well as build a few essential items such as the garden shed, which was completely constructed from reclaimed lumber found in the yard at the ReSource store. Almost all of our building materials were found at Buffalo Reuse. Thank you Michael, Kevin and Peter!

Also, thanks to Coo Coo U for providing accessories and furniture, The English Gardener, Russell’s Tree and Shrub Farm, Cooper Ridge Nurseries, and Horticulture Associates for plant material, Kees Grover and Live Roof for the green roof panels, Unilock and Thruway Builder Supply for paving material, Rock Valley for stone material, and the Cities of Amherst and North Tonawanda for donations of mulch.