Queens County Farm Museum

Flush up against Nassau County, on the eastern edge of Queens ("Deep Queens"?), is a place that feels less a part of New York City and more like Long Island. As a working farm, this place, now known as the Queens County Farm Museum, dates all the way back to 1697.

With farm animals, hayrides, a corn maze right now, and free admission, this outdoor museum gets packed with families with children on a sunny weekend. On a warm sunny fall day there was even a a field strewn with pumpkins, generously called a "pumpkin patch."

There's even live music – on this day, a band that plays only songs from the '60s. They were good. They also added to the impression that we weren't in New York City any more, but in the strong orbit of suburban Long Island.

And where else can you find a hayride within the five boroughs?

The goats are a big hit with children – and grown-ups.

And who doesn't love alpacas?

It wouldn't be a canonical farm without pigs and chickens.

The farm grows crops too, enough not just for educational purposes but to sell.

As for the maize maze, we took the easy way: around instead of through.

The museum also invites history buffs into the Adriance Farmhouse. The home's original three-room form dates back to 1772. It's been added to in the intervening centuries, and the conservators have done a nice job setting up rooms to reflect different centuries of habitation.

The farmhouse has been restored nicely, with original elements like floors and some windowpanes. The museum offers tours of the house, also free.

What self-respecting farm wouldn't have a barn?

The farm is a good spot to take urban kids to learn about where food actually comes from, and to see animals and have some outdoor fun. Its sheer size is also a great feature for explorers looking for spaces to walk around at length without worrying about getting run over by a vehicle. Just gotta look out for those hayrides...

The Queens County Farm Museum is open seven days a week from 10 to 5, year-round except major holidays. There's a seasonal farmstand that sells fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs grown right on the farm. Also eggs. And free parking.

So don't be sheepish. Hop on a city bus, or into your car if you've got one. The Farm awaits.

All photos © Oren Hope

Liz Christy Garden

I don't generally count community gardens as part of this blog's quest to visit every park in New York City. There are six or seven hundred such gardens all over the five boroughs, and they're fundamentally different from parks. A park, for my purposes, is a space free from motorized traffic and intended at least in part for passive enjoyment. A garden is for growing things, whether for consumption or beauty or education.

I've made exceptions in the past when a community garden has something special about it or something that just appealed to me. The Liz Christy Garden in Manhattan's East Village is special, if only for the distinction of being the city's very first community garden.

Originally the Bowery Houston Community Farm Garden, the Liz Christy Garden was founded in 1973 by urban designer Liz Christy, who headed the city's Open Space Greening Program, and her Green Guerillas community activist group. They went on to create more green spaces around the city.

As City Lore explains: "Three decades into the movement, both the Liz Christy Garden and the Green Guerillas are established organizations that continue to provide leadership. Both welcome new gardeners and guerillas, for, as the gardeners’ orientation brochure so aptly states, 'In the dog-eat-dog world of Mother Nature, the weeds usually win.'"

Original founding member Donald Loggins recounted the garden's origin story to NY1 back on 2021.

When Christy died in 1985 the garden was renamed in her honor.

Community gardens often have charming disjunctions, like a path where brick-shaped blocks give way to larger, square slabs of bluestone or just find themselves in a bit a jumble. These bricks were repurposed from the buildings that once stood on the plot.

Unexpected details, like a dollar bill posted on a birdhouse or an antique birdbath on a stump, contribute to the character of places like this.

Wildlife is limited in community gardens because of their small size. Mostly you'll come upon birds, chipmunks, and squirrels. (And rats.) But if you're lucky you may come upon a human perched on a bench concealed by the dense flora. And if you're quiet you might even spot an individual maintaining the garden. Take photos and tread with caution, though, as these creatures are often shy.

The Liz Christy Garden also has a pond that is said to support fish, turtles, and frogs.

With its lush plantings and surprising seclusion this garden can offer a few minutes of nature and whimsy – things we city folk can all use more of.

All photos © Oren Hope

First Street Green Art Park

An "oasis of art." That's how UP Magazine, which covers street art and graffiti, describes First Street Green Art Park on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Also known as First Street Green Cultural Park, this strip of green space is festooned with striking murals, curated by grassroots creative activist Jonathan Neville.

First Street Green is "a non-profit collaboration," masterminded by design and architecture firm TODO DA, "with the goal of converting a seemingly derelict lot of land located at 33 East 1st Street from an inaccessible, garbage-strewn, rat-infested piece of 'vacant' land into an active public space." It prioritizes emerging local arts organizations and artists.

At one time there was a website at firststreetgreenpark.org. The website has expired. That seems almost fitting. This site should be experienced in person.

Much of the park, including all of the paved portion of the irregularly shaped parcel, is at present devoted to the memory of actor and East Village art scene icon Patti Astor and Fun Gallery, the influential showplace she founded in the early 1980s.

Is some of this stuff a bit over the top? Maybe. But then, so was Patti Astor, as I understand it. And after all, as William Butler Yeats once said, "If you don't express yourself you walk after you're dead. The great thing is to go empty to your grave."

All photos © Oren Hope

Spring Street Park

There's a large triangle at Spring Street and Sixth Avenue that I always think of as Christmas Tree Park because years ago a Christmas tree vendor would set up shop there. Once called, variously, Soho Square and Hudson Square Plaza, in 2018 it reopened after a $5.5 million renovation under the name Spring Street Park.

As most New Yorkers know, Sixth Avenue in Manhattan has two names. In 1945 the city, under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, designated the busy thoroughfare "Avenue of the Americas," "to honor pan-American ideals and principles" and perhaps in recognition of the selection of New York City as the home of the United Nations.

The name never totally caught on; some buildings and businesses use it, others don't. But either way, Spring Street Park houses one of six statues of Latin American heroes erected along the Avenue.

Here, then, is a backlit General José Artigas (1764-1850), the Uruguayan independence hero.

The original cast of the statue, by José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891-1975), has stood in Montevideo for the past 75 years.

Facing north, toward the wide end of the triangle:

And facing south:

The unusual backless benches (with under-bench lighting) and squarish metal swivel chairs are interesting features.

Another are the "moonlighting" lamps, atop tall posts, intended to create a moonlight effect in the light and shadows on the ground.

Plain old London plane trees, among the thousands throughout the city, dominate the canopy, but not exclusively.

The renovation also included, according to DNAInfo, "anti-flooding infrastructure allowing the absorption of 1,140 percent more storm water."

My reason for walking through Spring Street Park is almost always because it's just around the corner from HERE Arts Center, where I've seen many shows (including some great puppet theater) over the years. But if puppets aren't your bag, maybe you're in the market for a Ducati racing motorcycle.

Where better to race noisy bikes, after all, than down Avenue of the Americas with its verdant parks and wide-open lanes?

I'm kidding, of course. But a walk along lower Sixth Avenue repays the urban adventurer seeking a bit of respite from the city's craziness.

All photos © Oren Hope except where noted