August 12, 2020
Inspired Ideas for Tending Your Home and Garden
Editor's Note
In the landscape world, August is typically the slowest month of summer. Many days are too hot to plant, so it's a time for vacations and last hurrahs before school starts. Since this is the summer of the staycation, we're dedicating this mid-August issue to highlighting some of my favorite destinations for pandemic-friendly day trips that offer fun for the whole family and also feed my obsession with plants. I hope they offer a bit of fun and respite to you and yours as we ease into the dog days of summer.
Yours,
Kat
Landscape-y Day Trips
Storm King Art Center, Orange County, NY
A quick drive or train ride from New York City, Storm King, in New Windsor, New York, offers 500 acres of rolling meadows dotted with dozens of sculptures by some of the biggest names in contemporary art. Social-distancing is not a problem there.
Go ahead and walk off that manic, caged-tiger energy, and relax knowing that you're not responsible for mowing this place.
New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY
I highly recommend the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and New York Botanical Garden to anyone, any time of year, under almost any circumstances. I'm highlighting the NYBG, in the Bronx, which is especially near to my heart because it's where I first interned when I moved to NYC.
The native plant garden is one of the newer areas with a lovely central water feature. It's often the site of interesting art exhibits and frogspawn, if you're into that.
Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, GA
For those in or near Atlanta, my new hometown, the Atlanta Botanical Garden has a variety of gardens and exhibitions to enjoy safely. Over the years, they've acquired a number of Dale Chihuly sculptures and thoughtfully incorporated them into the gardens. I especially love this orange, obelisk-like piece at the head of a reflecting pool.
One of my favorite elements is the canopy walk, above, which guides you through different layers of a forest that skirts the edge of the gardens. The live wall, below, is stunning in all seasons.
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY
While I love Central Park and Prospect Park deeply, I'm recommending Brooklyn Bridge Park for a staycation day of fun.
The park is truly innovative. Water elements and fountains, native wildflower meadows, forest habitats with integrated play-spaces, sports courts, and grassy knolls — it's all there, and it continues to evolve every year.
The view of Manhattan it offers is not bad, either.
We hope you enjoyed our new twist on The Cultivation. If there is a garden you love and want to know how it was done, let us know by emailing us here. Want to catch up on previous issues? Click here to read through all of our prior editions.
See you next week.