Lifestyle & Culture Science & Health

Public Garden Soothes Amid Pandemic

By Ama Anwar

Spectrum staff

After being closed for more than four months, the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden re-opened to the public on July 28.

Eileen Vurgos, a social worker from the Upper West Side, was one of the first people to glide through its entrance gates. After so many months either under quarantine or generally limiting the places she went, she headed to the garden to find some peace.

“It means life. It means happiness. It means freedom. It means being with family,” she said, defining what nature is to her.

With the garden’s Conservatory Courtyard and the native plant garden in full bloom, and the Thain Forest at its peak of greenery, botanical garden staffers were excited to welcome back visitors. To ensure their safety, roughly 3,600 people, instead of the more than 10,800, are being allowed to visit each day.

Patricia Hulse, director of the garden’s Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, said she was glad to have visitors back on the grounds.

To help keep her own sanity during this pandemic, Hulse has made heading outdoors with her kids a priority. They’d spent time sighting migratory birds and animals such as the rare Siberian flying squirrels.

“Nature has definitely helped me open up more,” she said.

Barbara Waas, a gray-haired resident from the Bronx, sat on a bench, wearing a mask and taking in the surroundings in the outdoor visitors center, next to the garden’s Pine Tree Café.

“I’ve been coming to the garden my entire life, since I was born,” the Bronx native said. I do feel a little sad though that the conservatory and tram can’t be open. It’s sad. But, I’m still glad I am able to be here.”

Although the garden has re-opened to the public, several of its amenities remain  closed. In previous summers, for example, the tram rides would be filled to capacity with visitors taking that 20-minute ride, with its recorded narration of what’s included in the garden’s 250 acres.

Like many institutions, the garden is taking health and safety precautions. Hand sanitizer stations are spread throughout. Visitors are required to wear masks. Among those visitors were some special ones, healthcare workers from the Bronx, The gardens hosted a special appreciation week for them in late July, giving them free admission.

A hand sanitizer station placed near the Tram Main stop.

“There is such peace and beauty to experience, with great safety protocols in place,” Wendy Chambers, a travel blogger noted, about the garden. For one thing, paths are marked with directional arrows so that groups of visitors walk in the same direction, without criss-crossing each other. Visitors must buy tickets in advance, and those tickets are time-stamped to the hour when visitors will be admitted.

Bronx resident Waas, who is at risk from Covid-19 because of her age, said the safety precautions put her at ease about visiting.

“Since all this coronavirus I always feel anxious. But I don’t feel anxious coming here because it is just so big and easy to distance,” Waas said.

She added, “Nature is very important … You don’t even realize the importance until you come to places like this… It provides hope for the future that things will get better.”