Connie Gretz's Secret Garden
Located on Cottage Row across from the New York Chinese Scholar's
Garden, Connie Gretz's Secret Garden is a garden folly adopted
from 18th Century
French and English Gardens. Well developed as a horticultural
display in Europe, mazes are rarely seen in the United States.
This is the only one of its kind in the New York metro area (the
closest being the Governor's Mansion in Colonial Williamsburg,
Virginia.)
The Secret Garden brings the Medieval landscape
to the new Millennium. The maze is a puzzle made up of intricate
pathways lined with three-foot evergreens, which leads to a walled
secret garden, while overlooking this one-acre site is a 38-foot
castle complete with a drawbridge and moat.
Specifically designed for children, the design challenges their minds as they try to find where the secret garden lies. Children will be entertained as they solve the mystery and arrive at the heart of the garden. Connie Gretz's Secret Garden is modeled after Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's classic The Secret Garden. Connie Gretz's Secret Garden is the perfect spot for the youngest of the Garden's visitors.
Our objective is to create a unique and exciting
place for children that is also a link between the past and the
present. The Middle Ages have a rich tradition of music, painting
and history; moreover, so much of what we know about gardening
today originated during this time. Education is a central goal
of the Staten Island Botanical Garden and, developing a program
that brings the Middle Ages to life will be exciting as well as
educational.
 |
 |
|
|
|