Secret Gardens

There are some days when it is impossible to forget that I'm living in a big-city city--like, when my neighbors set off fireworks, or when the cars at the red light by my house blare "Billie Jean" (c'mon guys, I liked his music too, but pick another song!), or when I get shoved on the subway. But there are some days when I enter this other green and quiet planet, in the middle of the crazy, and forget about the cars and the people for a little bit. Here are some of those places:

The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens



Japanese garden, rose garden (my favorite, so far), manicured lawns, perfectly symmetrical trees, simulated rainforest, grassland, and desert areas--the Brooklyn Botanical gardens is awesome!! And there is a HUGE pond with fish surrounding the Japanese garden. And it's only $4 for students. I didn't go through the whole thing, and am excited to explore more.

Prospect Park

Prospect Park (a mere 15ish minute walk from the apartment) is adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum, the Botanical gardens, and the main branch of the public library. It's something like 500 acres, and has a lovely, sprawling, golf-course quality--I think it's Olmstead designed. It also has a big lake, Audubon center, carousel, a bandstand, multiple playgrounds, about 58 different entrances (so it seems!) and prime people watching potential. They also have free concerts, dance troupes, etc. on Thursday nights.

East Village Neighborhood Garden

The East Village is outside of my normal stomping grounds, but we were up for a show last week and passed this garden and couldn't resist. It's open a few nights a week and is completely maintained by people in the neighborhood--pretty fab. I like the picture with the iron fence because you get the sense of all the buildings around it. A "secret garden" if there ever was one! It also had a sweet table that was a lot of rocks kind of stacked together.

Upstate

Okay, it's not metropolitan, so maybe it doesn't count. But I'm here right now, and my aunt's garden and house are two of my favorite places in the world. Look at that garden!! I am very excited for the zucchini we'll be hauling to the train station with us.

Last but not Least: Home
This is a picture I took before leaving home to test out my malfunctioning camera. This is my backyard in Jtown, with my mother's delphiniums in full and glorious display. They are doing very well this year (properly staked, according to her). A few years ago I was playing bocce and totally fell on them, so now my mother is very protective of them, probably with good reason...