Painting with Plants in the Heather GardenJennifer M. Hoppa, Administrator of Northern Manhattan Parks

“Being a trained artist has been very im-portant to my work,”

says Lynden B. Miller, an acclaimed public garden de-signer and champion of public parks. This year, Miller is help-ing develop a Framework Plan for enhancing and sustaining Fort Tryon Park’s 75-year-old, Heather Garden.

“Gardening is an art form using many of the same ele-ments as painting,” says Miller, adding, “I paint with plants using line, form, color and texture.” Miller also used to make large abstract landscape collages. “When I began to design gardens,” she says, “I realized that a garden is also a collage — a group of disparate elements brought together to form a composition made of living plants.”

Miller’s associate designer, Ronda Brands, comments that in the historic Heather Garden, many col-lage elements are already in place: the rocky topography, the extensive heaths and heathers and the unique collec-tions of perennials. Brands says, “One of the challenges of improving the garden is that it is already established. We want to reinvigorate it through the Framework Plan, but make it true to the history of the park’s design and ensure strong structure and form.”

In addition to numerous horti-cultural awards, Miller may be best known for reclaiming the histor-ic Conservatory Garden in Central Park in the early 1980s and for help-ing revitalize Bryant Park. The Wall Street Journal summarized Miller’s

message in her new book, Parks, Plants and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape: “Good parks make good cities.” Miller and Brands are currently working on projects at the Museum of Modern Art, Columbia University, Princeton University, Stony Brook University, Hudson River Park, Hanover Square, and the US Supreme Court.

Despite their collective wealth of ex-perience, Miller and Brands recognize the expertise of the Fort Tryon garden-ers and are working closely with them on all plant selections and developing maintenance and operations plans for the garden’s long-term needs. “So much knowledge and material already existed,” says Brands, “Now we can document it, strengthen it, and make it more cohe-

sive, as well as give a blueprint to those who will be tending the garden daily to help guide the ongoing maintenance.”

Both Miller and Brands appreciate the uniqueness of Fort Tryon Park with its views of the Hudson River, the Rockefeller family con-nection, and its expansive gar-dens. “Ronda’s ¼ scale draw-ing of the perennial bed hung over my ten foot long draft-ing table,” Miller exclaimed. The Heather Garden’s pe-rennial bed is 600 feet long. Both designers see the need for large swaths of plants and repetition as keys to making the long perennial bed suc-cessful. “We want to create a consistent and congenial relationship between the pe-rennial bed and the heather bed, while ensuring they read

as individual pieces of a larger whole,” says Miller.

In conjunction with the Fort Tryon Park gardeners, Miller and Brands have mapped the garden’s existing con-ditions, helped tackle soil remediation in problem areas, and identifi ed ways to ensure year round interest throughout the garden. With the support of the Fort Tryon Park Trust and the collabora-tion between Miller, Brands and the Fort Tryon Park gardeners, the larg-est heath and heather collection in the Northeast will be enjoyed for genera-tions to come.

Come see the garden collage unfold this spring.

If you would like to help support the Heather Garden Framework Plan, please contact Jennifer.Hoppa@parks.nyc.gov. ■

Winter 2010 www.FortTryonParkTrust.org

Friends CommitteeGazette

Experts assess soil issues, from left, Ronda Brands,Lynden Miller and Fort Tryon Park Gardener Marcia Garibaldi.

F O R T T R Y O N P A R K ’ S 7 5 T H Y E A R

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2 Friends Committee Gazette

Nancy’s Letter: Refl ections

• Fort Tryon Park Trust Website: www.FortTryonParkTrust.org• Friends Committee Email: Friends@FortTyronPark.net• To volunteer in the Heather Garden: marechal.brown@parks.nyc.gov • Northern Manhattan Parks Administrator, Jennifer Hoppa: 212-795-1388, Ext. 300 or jennifer.hoppa@parks.nyc.gov• Council Member Robert Jackson: 212-928-1322• To report dangerous conditions or graffi ti and other vandalism: 311• Forestry (tree pruning, dead tree and limb removal): 311• For event permits, parties of 20 or more and professional photography, please visit www.nycgovparks.org, and click

on special events.Cont

acts

This year we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Fort Tryon Park, and it seems to be a good moment to look back and refl ect upon what the park has meant to me for the past ten years.

Without a doubt, the park is one of the main reasons I moved to Washington Heights in the fi rst place. I remember the exact point in time when I realized I had to move back to New York City from California: I was soaking up the sunset on Linden Terrace, looking west, the trees below silhouetted by the blazing red-orange of the sky. I had never seen anything so beautiful. Right then and there, I made up my mind I was coming back. The Hudson River view over the treetops was calling to me more strongly than the equally breathtaking view across San Francisco Bay.

Since then, the park has become my refuge in times of trouble and despair. It’s been my backyard where I express my inner gardener and sink my fi ngers into the earth. Through my volunteer work with the Friends of Fort Tryon Park and now with the Fort Tryon Park Trust, it has become a kind of social club, introducing me to hundreds of my neighbors and members of the Trust’s board.

And fi ve years ago, it became my big green gym, a lovely place to become healthier and to help others become healthier through our organized fi tness programs, as well as impromptu walks and rounds of ping pong in the subway terrace.

As this unique and glorious park has become more and more a part of my life, it has changed it for the better. I simply can’t imagine living without it. Can you?

See you in the park,

Nancy BruningChair, Friends CommitteeFort Tryon Park Trust

Mission Fort Tryon Park Trust’s mission is to promote the restoration, preservation, and enhancement of this historic and scenic landmark for the benefi t and use of the surrounding community and all New Yorkers.

Dr. Ruth on the Park’s 75 Years“There’s been a lot of ‘progress’ in the last 75 years, but as someone who can barely fi gure out how to make a call on her iPhone, when I come to the Heather Garden and see the improvements that have been bestowed by our Parks Department and the Fort Tryon Park Trust on this little piece of heaven, that’s progress I can relate to,” says Dr. Ruth, adding, “Everyone whose soul could use a little pick me up should come and visit and join in some of the 75th Anniversary celebration events.”

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Dr. Ruth Westheimer, accompanied by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, is a Trust Board Member and the Honorary Chair of the 75th Anniversary Committee.

Friends Committee Gazette 3

Fort Tryon Park 1935 to 1945

In honor of the park’s 75th year, the Friends Committee of the Fort Tryon Park Trust would like to acknowledge and bring to life memories of the park from current and former community members. Susan Daglian, a res-

ident of 187th Street, shares her story: “My father, Kourken A. Daglian, worked in Fort Tryon Park as a Playground

Director in the summer of 1942. The playground was the one at Dyckman and Broadway (Anne Loftus Playground). In 1940 he took the civil service test and placed sixth. First, he worked at a park on East 108th Street, and then at a park on Riverside Drive. He grew up on 186th and St. Nicholas, and he really wanted to work in the best park, Fort Tryon!

“He knew the entire park. He was the Playground Director, and his other duty was to turn off the lights in the park. Each lamp post had a keyhole in the front. He opened it and fl icked the switch. Each lamppost switch took care of four to six other lamp posts!” ■

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London plane trees shade Anne Loftus Playground in 1935 and today.

Readers’ Photos Wanted for a Journey through 75 Years of Park History

Help us tell the story of Fort Tryon Park through the decades. In hon-or of the park’s upcoming 75th birthday, the Fort Tryon Park Trust will host a photo exhibition in October 2010 using photographs collect-

ed from people who have enjoyed the park these many years. In addition to photos selected for the exhibition and possible publications, many more will be featured on the Trust’s website, always including photographer credit.

To participate, send your photo in jpeg format (maximum 3 megabytes) via email to Linda.Huntington@parks.nyc.gov. Please note your name, the name of the photographer, location in the park, people in the photo, and year of the photo. You can also mail your photo to Linda Huntington, Special Projects Coordinator, Northern Manhattan Parks, PO Box 1044, Fort George Station, New York, NY 10040. The photo will be scanned and returned at your request.

Volunteers Plant 1,000 BulbsMike Klein

The fi nal beautifi cation events of 2009 yield-ed a great number of newcomers to Fort Tryon Park. On September 13 an energetic group of

about 40 volunteers turned out despite the intermit-tent rain. Many of these volunteers were recruited by Street Project (www.streetproject.org), which has ral-lied volunteers for these events throughout the year. (Thank you, Street Project!) Volunteers concentrat-ed on cleaning out the abandoned horseshoe pitch area, located just north of the volleyball courts, restor-ing the sightlines and making the area safer. Clean up efforts yielded over 50 bags of leaves and trash.

For the bulb planting event on October 30, a record 175 volunteers amassed. Volunteers included employ-ees of United Light, members of the fraternities Beta Alpha Psi and Sigma Lambda Beta, as well as students from St. John’s, Fordham, Baruch, Pace and New York Universities, and our regulars from Street Project. The groups prepped and planted bulbs in the Margaret Corbin Circle and the upper Subway Terrace, raked leaves on the upper and lower Subway Terrace, weed-ed and removed invasive plants from the slope off of Fort Washington Avenue, collected trash from behind the stone walls, and cleared English Ivy off of the trees. In total, the volunteers planted just over 1,000 bulbs consisting of a variety of tulips, Narcissus, Allium Globemasters (ornamental onions), and Vanguard Crocus Vernus. Rosa Naparstek provided a wonderful spread of refreshments, bagels, fruit, and granola bars for all the volunteers.

In 2010, we will make a major effort to reach out to neighborhood residents to get involved again and join other volunteers from the fi ve boroughs and the tri-state area. After all, we are the ones who benefi t from the park the most.

Here’s to a happy, healthy, greener and cleaner 75th Anniversary Year. ■

Tell us why the park is meaningful to you! Send your story to Linda.Huntington@parks.nyc.gov and write 75th Anniversary Story in the sub-ject line. Also, tell us if you would like to be interviewed for a video project.

Fort Tryon Park TrustBoard Co-Chairs: Edie Kean, Joseph Pierson

Friends Committee Offi cersChair: Nancy BruningVice Chair, Parks Liaison & Beautifi cation:Mike KleinVice Chair, Cultural Outreach Coordinator: Rosa NaparstekTreasurer: Jack MuradVolunteer Table Coordinator:Gwendolyn Boey-AugenblickResource and Policy Coordinator:Francisco Menendez

GazetteEditor: Mary Beth Ryan-MaherContributors: Marechal Brown,Nancy Bruning, Susan Daglian,Maya Greenfi eld, Mike Greenfi eld,Jennifer Hoppa, Linda Huntington,Mike Klein, Malcolm Pinckney,Olmsted ArchivesDesign and Printing:Kaufman Brothers Printing

Friends Committee of the Fort Tryon Park TrustP.O. Box 1044, Fort George StationNew York, NY 10040www.FortTryonParkTrust.org

PresortFirst ClassUS Postage

PAIDFlushing, NY

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PARK TRIVIAWhat was the original use of this park structure that is visible along the Henry Hudson Parkway?

Find the answer on the Trust’s new website: www.FortTryonParkTrust.org.

The Origins of Fort Tryon Park: A slide-illustrated lecture with Sidney HorensteinWednesday, February 236:30 PM – 8:30 PMJ Hood Wright Recreation Center @ 174th Street & Fort Washington Avenue. Reservations required. Call or email Linda at (212) 795-1388 ext. 304 or Linda.Huntington@parks.nyc.gov.

Winter Park & Garden Walking ToursSunday, February 7, March 7 & April 111:00 PM – 2:30 PMAn expert horticulturalist will guide you through the Heather Garden and the unfolding Alpine Garden. Meet at the entrance to the Heather Garden at Margaret Corbin Circle.

Star Gazing Soiree with Debut of New Obsession 15 UC TelescopeWednesday, March 10 & April 148:30 PM – 10:00 PMMeet on Cloisters Lawn; telescopes available. Weather & cloud dependent. Call (917) 529-2359 to confi rm conditions are favorable.

Nature Walks with Mike FellerSunday, February 28 &Saturday, March 139:00 AM – 10:30 AMMeet at the entrance to the Heather Garden at Margaret Corbin Circle.

Winter Nature Adventures for Kids(ages 4 – 6) with Julia AttawayThursday, February 25, 10:00 AM -11:30 AMSaturday, March 20 1:00 PM – 2:30 PMMeet at the entrance to the Heather Garden at Margaret Corbin Circle.

Volunteer Beautifi cation EventsSundays, March 21, April 2510:00 AM – 2:00 PMMeet at Margaret Corbin Circle.

Annual Shearing of the HeatherSaturday, April 1010:30 AM – 12:00 PMMeet in the Heather Garden.

Urban Wildlife Appreciation DaySaturday, April 1011:30 AM – 3:00 PMMeet on the Cloisters Lawnto see live animals, demonstrations,and performances.

Earth Day Event:Children’s Tree PlantingSaturday, April 2410:00 AMMeet at Jacob Javits Playground.

Fitness WalksTuesdays and Thursdays7:30 AM – 8:30 AMSaturdays, 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM(Optional walk to the Green Marketon Isham Street afterwards)All levels welcome. Meet at theentrance to the Heather Garden at Margaret Corbin Circle.

Sunset on the Hudson75th Anniversary Benefi t GalaTuesday, June 15th6:30 p.m. Cocktails on theLinden Terrace7:30 p.m. Dinner in the Heather Garden Tickets at www.FortTryonParkTrust.org

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75th Birthday Wishesfor Fort Tryon Park

“I hope Fort Tryon Park continues to stay as healthy and alive as it is for another 75 years. I sled there, play there, and I love the New Leaf Cafe!” — Maya Greenfi eld, age 11, pictured on right with sister Jade, left.

Watch your winter gift bloom this spring

Donate on line at www.FortTryonParkTrust.org

Give a dollar for each of the Park’s 75 years and get a free anniversary poster!