Green Gardening in Wagner Park, Battery Park City

Do you see the greenbelt of trees along the Hudson River in the borough of Manhattan in New York City?  This is part of Battery Park City Park, which is 36 acres of open public space in lower Manhattan.  It contains parks, gardens, plazas, playgrounds, playing fields and walkways. It is all man made land, built entirely on landfill, and on a platform extending into the Hudson River. The Battery Park City Conservancy (BPC Parks) is a non-profit organization supported mainly by the residents of Battery Park City and its commercial and residential developers, as well as by the Battery Park City Authority. (all photos will enlarge when clicked on once, and then again when they open in a new page)

Just north of Battery Park on Battery Place between West Street and First Place, Robert F.Wagner, Jr. Park occupies a gorgeous setting on the Hudson River, with views across the water to the Statue of Liberty. It’s a lovely combination of grassy lawns, colorful gardens, and walking paths.

The Park Pavilions contain the Gigino Ristorante I blogged about in my prior post, and its public roof deck affords breathtaking views of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor.

Wagner Park is also the location of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, located at 36 Battery Place.

The park is a magical "secret garden" full of lush plantings, winding paths, cool fountains and benches on which to sit and rest amongst the blooming perennial flower beds and shrubs.

BPC maintains the parks and gardens in a fully organic "Green" manner, without the use of toxic pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides or herbicides.  Nearly all the organic matter incorporated in the soils comes in the form of compost, which is composed of plant wastes gathered throughout the community, vegetables wastes collected from local grocers and restaurants, and horse manure provided by the mounted police.

The compost is manufactured in a compact, high efficiency facility and is applied to the planting beds twice annually.

The conservancy uses a natural system of pest control which utilizes beneficial insects such as Tichogamma wasps, lady beetles, pirate bugs, lace wings and predator mites. The BCP staff and volunteers closely monitor the health of the plants and at the first sign of stress they check to see if beneficial insects are present. If not they may respond with the least invasive treatment possible, ranging from removing the insects by hand to applying insecticidal soaps or oils.

As you can see from these two photo mosaics of flowers I found growing in Wagner Park the Battery Park Conservancy does a wonderful job making the park ablaze with beautiful color!

The hibiscus flowers were as large as dinner plates! 

It is a wonderful place to sit on a warm summer day to enjoy a bit of shade and to enjoy some quiet nature in New York City.

In my next blog post we'll walk along the Esplanade which runs the entire length of Battery Park City, along the Hudson River. 

I think you'll be amazed by its beauty and the wonderful sights we see along the way!

I'm adding this post to "Mosaic Monday" on Mary''s blog Little Red House. Please visit Mary to view her beautiful mosaic and to see the links to other blogs participating on Monday.