The East Village is rife with community gardens, and 6BC, named for its location on East 6th Street between Avenues B and C, is one of the most famous. The nearly 40-year-old garden has evolved from a place where locals tended small plots to a verdant space dedicated to biodiversity and horticulture education. The lush, otherworldly environs include a small fish pond, a meandering brick path, and a pergola and trellis wrapped in blooming vines. It’s generally open on weekends from noon to 6 p.m. and weekdays after 6 p.m., but if you swing by and the gate is closed, there are at least two dozen other gardens within a two-block radius to sate your need for nature.

The West Village is dotted with publicly accessible gardens, but the Garden at the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields is unique because of its location. It’s in the neighborhood’s historic district on the corner of Hudson and Barrow streets, so it benefits from more light and open sky than gardens tucked in tight lots between rowhouses. Plus, it’s blocked from the bustle of the streets by brick walls, so it’s quieter, too. Inside, you’ll find an oasis filled with leafy trees, wildflowers, blooming bushes, and carefully manicured gardens that attract over 100 species of birds and two dozen types of butterflies and moths. It’s open daily from 10 a.m. to dusk, but closed on holidays.

The gardens of Tudor City feel hidden partly because they’re not wholly accessible at street level; when you approach on East 42nd Street, you have to go up one of two staircases located on either side of the street, and a bridge connects the two block-long parks. When the development first opened in the late 1920s, the gardens served as a reprieve from the industrial activity and pollution on the East River. Today they offer a quiet escape from the chaos of the city, just blocks from Grand Central and the United Nations. They’re open to the public daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

At the northernmost tip of Manhattan, you’ll find one of the city’s most delightful gardens adjacent to Isham Park just south of West 215th Street. The garden has been around since the 1970s, when its namesake, Bruce Reynolds, volunteered in the park. It benefits from mature trees and lush plantings, and there’s a meandering path with a few benches and a gazebo, along with ornamental flowers and two beehives. It was renamed Bruce’s Garden in 2002 in honor of Reynolds, who died in the September 11th attacks while on duty as a Port Authority Police Officer.

Encompassing four city lots, this South Bronx green space is on the larger side for a community garden. It’s been a well-tended site since 1997, and a generous donation in 2014 allowed for a much-needed upgrade that included building a 12’ by 36’ casita—proudly decked with Puerto Rican flags—a compost toilet, a regraded lawn, a mulched picnic area, and new plants along the border and pathways, including leafy vines and birch trees.

The historic Bartow-Pell Mansion is not a secret; its Greek Revival interiors are considered to be one of the finest examples in the country. What’s lesser-known is that its gardens and grounds are free and open to the public daily from 8:30 a.m. to dusk. The formal terraced gardens were designed by architects Delano & Aldrich in 1915, and each of the four quadrants is encased within a masonry wall with a square pool at the center. Rotating sculpture installations dot the landscape.

This ragtag urban farm is most notable for its location on a disused spur of the LIRR, directly beside Sunnyside Yards, the country’s busiest rail junction, and surrounded by warehouses. Guerilla gardeners saw potential when they first put down roots in 2011, and when the MTA caught on, they worked with the volunteers to turn the lot into an officially sanctioned community garden. Today, the old rails act as a main path through the garden, leading visitors by pergola-covered picnic tables at the front, personal planting plots, a brightly painted patio, to finally a more passive wooded area that’s been left wild. They host regular events that are open to the public.

With a track, sports fields, tennis courts, and swimming pool, it’s near impossible to escape the cacophony of activity in McCarren Park. But at the southwest corner along North 12th Street, you’ll find one of north Brooklyn’s best-kept secrets: the Green Dome Garden, a designated quiet zone and bloom-filled oasis. Named for its neighbor, the green dome-topped Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the 2,500-square-foot green space has a Belgium block pathway, multiple plant habitats, and plenty of seating. It’s open daily from 9 a.m. until dusk. Drop in to catch your breath, read a book, or just smell the Casablanca Lilies.

After nearly a century closed to the public, the Brooklyn Naval Cemetery reopened at the end of May sporting new walkways, plantings, and signage. The revitalization of the Naval Cemetery Landscape is part of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative’s mission to activate and create more public green space in its namesake borough. Marvel Architects and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects designed the park to pay homage to the 2,000 naval officers and Marines laid to rest at the site (the known remains have since been exhumed and moved to Cypress Hills) with its winding observation path, memorial meadow, and “sacred grove.”

Located within the Snug Harbor Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, this oasis comes complete with moon gates, lots of rocky landscaped features, and eight picturesque pavilions, with paths zigzagging through a bamboo forest, waterfalls, and a koi pond. It’s based on gardens from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), and it’s only one of two authentic outdoor Chinese gardens in the United States. All of the built elements—bridges, columns, beams, tiles, windows, and doors—were fabricated in Suzhou, China.

With its abundance of outdoor space, Staten Island seems an unlikely place for a hidden garden tended by locals, but the desire to transform empty lots into something lush and living spans every borough. The West Brighton site of the Holzka Community Garden had been vacant for more than a decade after a fire when locals decided to turn it into a garden in 1994. Today it has about 30 active members who grow flowers, fruits, and vegetables. There’s a gazebo and shed, and a towering central pine that’s lit up for the holidays. It’s generally open daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.