BOOK REVIEW Garden Guide: New York City ? c a s a C A R A ~ OLD ...

NEW YORK in 2011 is truly a great garden city. World-class, I?d venture to say. Yet, as Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry?point out in the newly revised edition of Garden Guide: New York City (W.W. Norton, $22.95), as recently as 10 years ago, people were puzzled to hear they were writing such a guide. Gardens in New York City? Really? Are there enough to fill a whole book?

<-Greenacre Park, East 51st Street

Now there can be no doubt. In the past decade, there?s been a great flowering, if you will, of gardens and landscape installations all over the five boroughs. There are the obvious, most impressive recent ones, like Chelsea?s High Line ? the conversion of rusty elevated rail line into a well-used planted park ? and landscaping efforts at the Battery in lower Manhattan, where Dutch designer Piet Oudolf has brought a naturalistic new aesthetic to the riverfront.

The book calls attention to gardens that have been around a long time, but that I?ll bet a lot of newish arrivals to the city (and maybe some oldish ones) don?t quite realize are there, including the attractive, well-maintained botanic gardens in Queens and at Snug Harbor in Staten Island, where they are interspersed among picturesque Greek Revival houses.

Even I, a NYC resident of 40+ years, just ?discovered? what the book calls ?the crown jewel? of New York City gardens ? the Conservatory Garden at 105th street and Fifth Avenue, six acres of romantic magnificence in all seasons ? within the last few.

Irish Hunger Memorial, Battery Park City ->

<-High Line

Conservatory Garden

Garden Guide: New York City covers more than 100 gardens open to the public, including the Lotus Garden on West 97th Stret, the only rooftop community garden in New York City; urban farms from the Bronx to Red Hook; and the small plots around such historic houses as the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, and the Mount Vernon Hotel on East 61st Street (formerly known as the Abigail Adams house).

Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum ->

Many of NYC?s gardens are concealed in some way ? inside museums, hidden behind skyscrapers, up on rooftops. Probably none of us knows New York City?s gardens as well as we might. This chunky little guide feels good in the hand, fits neatly in the glove compartment, and insures that no weekend need pass without discovering some new-to-you refuge of green.

Source: http://casacara.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/book-review-garden-guide-new-york-city/

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