A week ago today Garden Bloggers Buffa10 was wrapping up with a self-guided tour of the incredible Lancaster Avenue gardens (more pics tomorrow). Before we hit Lancaster, however, my travel partner Diana and I opted to stop by co-host Elizabeth Licata’s Allentown garden for a second, less-crowded visit than on opening day of Buffa10.

We found Elizabeth in her garden, surrounded by lilies.

I knew from reading her blog, Gardening While Intoxicated, that her garden was small. Tight quarters don’t keep Buffalo gardeners down, however, and Elizabeth has made the most of her tiny digs, fitting in a pond, seating, raised beds, curving paths, and even a large-scale sculpture.

This piece stands more than 6 feet tall, and yet its catty-corner placement against the tall house puts it in the proper scale for this small garden.

The inviting entry to Elizabeth’s rear garden is marked by a stunning pink hydrangea. (Picture taken at Thursday’s happy hour; you can see there’s a crowd.)

Out front, in the shadow and root zone of tall street trees, low-growing hostas and other shade lovers are a textural composition in cool greens and cream.

Next we headed over to Lancaster Avenue, and tomorrow I’ll have more pictures of the gardens we saw there. We ended our tour at co-host Jim Charlier‘s gorgeous house, where the late-stayers met for lunch.

A friend of Jim’s had placed a funny for-sale sign in his garden. By this time, the sun was high and hot, and the pictures I took of his garden didn’t turn out, which is too bad because I’d love to be able to show you his flowery front beds, Harry Potter garden complete with ‘Venomous Tentacula,’ and espaliered fruit trees in back, not to mention the delicious spread he and his wife laid out for about 25 or 30 of us, who happily noshed on their back deck for an hour or so.

The contented smiles of bloggers Pat (Commonweeder), Michele (Garden Rant), and Jean (Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog) will have to tell the tale instead. Thanks again, Jim and Elizabeth!

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