I am not a gardener. And that's an understatement. When I was publishing the GardenWalk Buffalo book and DVD, the team nicknamed me "generis plasticus." The only plants in my Bryant Street abode were fake.

But I love gardens in all their variations, from the untamed splendor next door as viewed from the kitchen window in my Anderson Place apartment, to the lovely Green Shoots for New Americans community garden tended by refugees hosted by Journey's End. I picked up my CSA this week and marveled at the clever hoop house and carefully raised beds full of of delicious greens. As beautiful as any flower garden.

So if gardens feed your soul as they do mine, but you don't happen to have a green thumb or the time to tend your own patch of soil, you're in luck. Buffalo may offer more ways to enjoy the blooms, blossoms and fruits of other people's labor than any city its size anywhere. Nearly 1,000 gardens on 17 garden tours are listed on the Gardens Buffalo Niagara site alone. There are night tours, market places, historic homes, plant sales, and more. Nearly all the walks and tours are free.

I think of the Buffalo-Style Garden Art Sale this weekend as the unofficial kick-off of Garden Season. Head to the Botanical Gardens to find unique ways to dress up your own yard, even if you don't have a garden. 

The Parkside Garden and Architecture Tour this Sunday is your first opportunity to get into other people's backyards to see some Buffalo-style gardens first hand. Shell out $5 for a map, or just wander through this beautiful neighborhood and meet your neighbors. 

The weekend of July 9 and 10 brings a bonanza of opportunity. There are garden walks in Amherst, Springville, Lockport, Hamburg, Snyder-Clevehill and Grand Island. On July 15-17 plan to trek through gardens in Tonawanda, Lancaster, Village of Williamsville, on Capen Drive in University Heights, and in South Buffalo. July 22-24 offers greenery in Ken-Ton, West Seneca and Niagara Falls.

Then there's the grandaddy of them all. Garden Walk Buffalo on July 30 and 31 is now the largest garden tour in the nation. What started as a handful of avid gardners beautifying the city's struggling West Side now features more than 400 gardens and attracts more than 70,000 visitors from across the nation and around the world. It pumps millions of dollars into our local economy, and can be legitimally credited with being an integral part of Buffalo's resurgence, beating back the year-round snow mythology with brilliant blooms. It extends from Canalside to Delaware Park, and from Delaware to Grant. Free trolleys ferry folks from the headquarters on Richmond and Summer to the one at Buffalo Seminary on Bidwell Parkway. If you have not "done" Garden Walk Buffalo, you owe yourself a peek into these backyards. There are waterfalls and miniature golf courses, roof gardens and lily ponds. Fabulous gardens hiding in plain sight. 

And don't forget about the Black Rock Riverside Tour of Gardens on August 6. The Starry Night Garden Tour that evening is one of my favorites, gardens gleaming with all manner of lights, everybody chatting , sipping wine, trading sweet, green secrets. Lockport, Lancaster, Ken-Ton and Tonawanda also have these delightful evening, after dark garden treats.

And yes, there really is a nationally recognized "Buffalo-style" of gardening. Buffalo gardeners are known for using small urban spaces cleverly, and tucking art and found objects among the blooms and blossoms. Buffalo has become a garden tourism destination, bringing tens of thousands into our fair city and generating scads of great press. 

And you and I can smell the roses which others have tended all summer long. For free.