Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

New York City - Battery Park Gardens

Battery Bosque - Stony Creek granite bench (Alice Joyce photo)

At the southwestern tip of Manhattan, the gardens of Historic Battery Park rise up from a once neglected area of New York City. Since the completion of the Battery gardens, its rebirth so to speak in 2005, much has been written about the exuberant, flower-filled planting plan created by the brilliant Dutch plantsman, Piet Oudolf.

The Battery Bosque (Alice Joyce photo)

A sunlit area – The Gardens of Remembrance – pays tribute to those who perished on 9/11, and to the survivors who gathered here. Stony Creek – a granite bench runs 1,500 feet along the length of the promenade, configured as the “prow of Manhattan Island.”

Battery Conservancy photo

Parthenium integrifolium

Panicum ‘Dallas Blues’ & Helenium ‘Rubinzwerg’

Bosque Garden (Battery Conservancy photo)

The Battery is built on top of 3 subway lines and 2 major transportation tunnels. The Oudolf-designed gardens comprise 4 acres, while a the 6-acre Perimeter Bikeway garden should be completed in 2012.

Allium (Alice Joyce photo)

Epimedium .. Battery Bosque (Alice Joyce photo)

The Battery landscape is maintained free of chemicals and fertilizers. A wealth of woodland and prairie plants are nurtured within these 4 acres, to produce an astounding annual surplus of 75,000 perennial plants that can be planted in other public gardens in New York City.  In essence, the parkland is a 100 per cent sustainable farm! The history of this land goes back hundreds of years to the Dutch settlers, and earlier still, to the region’s Native Americans.

Swathes of Alliums - Bosque Garden The Battery Conservancy photo

Swathes of Allium ‘Globemaster’ & Allium ‘Purple Sensation’commingle in the Bosque gardens with drifts of complementary perennials; key elements in an Oudolf design, which preserved a stately grove of plane trees.

Gardens of Remembrance - Battery Conservancy photo

In August, Astrantia ‘Roma emerges along with Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder,’ and Tricyrtis ‘Togen.’ Moving on to Fall, the choice cultivars & species include a host of Asters, Korean feather reed grass, & Panicum v. ’Shenandoah.’ November brings the golden leaves of Ginkgo, fall crocuses, the textural wands of Miscanthus and wispy muhly grass.

Gardens of Remembrance - Battery Conservancy photo

Battery Gardens …  Landscape Architects: Saratoga Associates
Garden Designer: Piet Oudolf