You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog  http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

During my stay in New York City I was able to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens ("Herbal Escape: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens") and the New York Botanical Garden.

I went to Grand Central Station and took the Metro North train to the New York Botanical Garden. They even have their own stop! I really enjoyed the Home Gardening Center, which was very nicely presented and had wonderful lettuces, edible flowers and other spring veggies.

The Herb Garden was another intimate space designed by Martha Stewart and her team. It was very well proportioned and had benches so that you could enjoy the space. As an accent, bay (Laurus nobilis), the 2009 Herb of the Year was used as a standard.

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory reminds me of my own Phipps Conservatory in my hometown, Pittsburgh. There was a beautiful and colorful spring flower show. So fragrant and lovely.

Believe it or not I even saw a turkey grazing on the lawn!  Guess he or she knows a good thing!

So my timing was only briefly bad, and overall I had two wonderful visits to two of New York's favorite gardens! Visit them if you are in the New York City area this summer. They both have many gardening programs for the entire family. Get the next generation involved for their sakes!

To find out more about the Lemon Verbena Lady’s travels in New York City, read “Herbal Travels: New York Botanical Garden.” 

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

Timing is everything, especially when you are visiting herb gardens at two of the most well known gardens in the New York City area. I have always wanted to visit both the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden. I got my chance the last day we were traveling in New York City.

I started my day traveling by subway to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I had good news and bad news when I got there. The good news was that before noon, it was free admission. (And that's when I arrived!) The bad news?  It is was really bad...the herb garden was under renovation and would not open until this summer! Still, I took advantage of the time that I had. 

The Shakespeare Garden (above) is a beautifully intimate garden with all of the flowers and herbs mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. 

The next place I ventured was the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden (above), which has all of the classic elements Japanese gardens have.

One of my favorite views in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was the Bluebell Wood—and it was in bloom! This place is a very favorite area for all kinds of photographers and artists. It was such great timing for me to see it while it was in full bloom!

This was the most disappointing moment of my visit—when I got to the herb garden. They actually had it fenced off so I couldn't even get a sneak preview! Howeve, I did enjoy a few retail experiences buying those wonderful guide booklets that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden produces. So while my herb garden timing was not so good, my visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was a success on many other levels.

To find out more about the Lemon Verbena Lady’s travels in New York City, read “Herbal Travels: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.” 

You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her blog http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.

The Herbal Husband, a friend from Peru and I took a train trip to New York City last week. I got to spend one of my days at the beautiful Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. In response to Letitia Star's blog, "Herbal Travels: Chicago Botanic Garden" (which I loved when we went on a cold, rainy and windy day in October), I would have to say that The Cloisters is my favorite walled garden.  Really, I probably should have been a medieval scholar or a horticulture major in college. I turned out to be an art history major and that has been very helpful in understanding the relationship between gardens and art. They are intermingled here quite masterfully.

The Trie Cloister Garden is home to a collection of plants native to the meadows, woodlands and stream banks of Europe. 

The plants grown here are found in the tapestries and artwork found inside the museum. The café surrounds this garden which is a very colorful garden in spring and by the heat of summer becomes a green garden. It was a restful retreat even on a cool day. I enjoyed the small sparrows drinking from the fountain.

In a monastery, a cloister is a square or rectangular courtyard surrounded by covered passageways. The yard enclosed within the arcades is known as a garth. The garth is situated to the south, providing the monks or nuns a place to enjoy nature without leaving the monastery or convent. The plan is typically medieval. A fountain is in the center of the crossed paths and divides the garden into quadrants. Each quadrant has a lawn and an apple tree. This garden is the ancestor of our ornamental gardens. In winter, the arcades of the cloister have glass to protect the tender plants from the winter cold and wind.

I loved the standards of myrtle, bay and the pots of dittany of crete.

I got to talk with the gardener who tends this garden. She was getting the garden ready to plant most of the herbs for the season. The plants are labeled in each bed according to their medieval uses such as cooking, medicine or magic, among others. Many plants had multiple uses and all were thought to have medicinal properties. The garden has raised beds, wattle fences and a wellhead. There are four quince trees at the center of the garden. Tender plants are grown in terracotta pots and moved inside in winter, a common practice in northern Europe throughout the late Middle Ages.

The Cloisters has family events going on during the summer. The other bonus of visiting The Cloisters is that you can visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art the same day for free. I took the bus and saw a slice of life in New York City. The Cloisters also has a blog called The Medieval Garden Enclosed, which gives an inside look at The Cloisters and its gardens. Hope you have a chance to take a road trip this summer and visit this herbal treasure!