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Inside The New York Botanical Garden

What’s Out There Weekend: Tour New York’s Greener Side (for Free!)

Posted in Programs and Events on August 21 2012, by Matt Newman

No such thing as a free lunch? Maybe not! But free fun is another story altogether. Thanks to a collaboration with The Cultural Landscape Foundation, The New York Botanical Garden is joining organizations across New York City for a weekend of exploring the most iconic landscape architecture our metropolis has to offer, and in our case, a special focus on the important design contributions women have made to the Garden’s 120-year history.

It’s called “What’s Out There Weekend,” and it’s likely the largest tour event you’re going to see this year. Just think of it as a giant field trip through the world’s greatest city, where you get to pick and choose your destinations as you go. On October 6 and 7–following the Central Park Woodlands conference on Friday the 5th–the Garden becomes one of 25 organizations across the five boroughs to open their gates, offering expert-led tours to registrants at no cost (unless you count a couple of MetroCard swipes to zip around town).

For our part, the NYBG is spotlighting the many female designers and philanthropists that have contributed to our legacy, women of vision and ambition whose influence is still felt daily. Tour guests will visit the Nancy Bryan Luce Herb Garden; tour the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden as designed by the renowned Lynden B. Miller; and walk the Ladies’ Border, Ellen Biddle Shipman’s quiet sanctuary for plants seldom seen thriving in New York. And we’re not about to forget the Arthur and Janet Ross Conifer Arboretum, a world-class botanical collection, or the legacy of Enid A. Haupt: our iconic Conservatory.

See the greener side of New York City–free. Need we say more?

The tour will conclude with a stop in our Home Gardening Center, where NYBG horticulturists offer demonstrations and pointers on perennials and more. Beginning gardener or journeyman, you’ll find the inspiration you need to break ground on your own legacy (because becoming the envy of the neighborhood has to start somewhere, be it a vegetable plot or a topiary).

From the NYBG to Prospect Park, the MoMA Sculpture Garden to Snug Harbor, What’s Out There Weekend is set to crisscross the city in a show of the bold and brilliant landscape architecture that makes New York not just an urban destination, but a green one. Registration is suggested for all tours, so be sure to visit the official site in advance. There, you’ll also find a schedule of tours and events, and an opportunity to sign up as a volunteer (always a welcome gesture). So keep your calendar clear for that weekend–there’s much to see and only so much time to see it!

Park banner courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.