The Garden Downtown

It's a great joy to live and work near the Hudson River. I love water and the wide river that runs along the west side of the island of Manhattan is a beautiful thing. Down at the southern end of island is a little park called Wagner Park but it's really a garden.

It was created by garden designer Lyndon B. Miller, America’s foremost public garden designer who is also the brilliant designer of Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, and the Conservatory Garden in the northern reaches of Central Park, one of the most beautiful places in New York City. If you go in the spring when the tulips are blooming you’ll faint from the sight.

Lyndon Miller is dedicated to well-planted and well-maintained city parks, and her organization, Public Garden Design, works to create city gardens, stating that they “soften and civilize city life." Yes, that is exactly right.

I've noticed that in her work she uses a limited palette – it's not every color in the book. Her gardens often feature flowers and plants that are blue, purple, pink, green and white, which I personally like. It's a soft country palette that is not jarring to the eye. The plants are placed together in a wonderful collage of colors, textures and shapes. Lyndon Miller is really an artist, and her medium is plants.


Pink, purple and white on a background of green.


The city crowds in at the edges.


The garden is adjacent to a pier which is being renovated.


Purple flowers similar in color but different in shape.


Sea grass the same color as a faded wooden bench. From this bench is a wonderful view of New York Harbor.


On the way out of the park you follow a path through the trees. It's almost like being in the woods.


And out into the city.

A visit to a New York City park is almost like a short vacation.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! TD and I are off to Fire Island and we will be celebrating our anniversary – our 24th!
Enjoy the last days of summer.