Best NYC Hidden Gardens & Pocket Parks

This guide to quiet green corners of New York City is for locals who need a breather and visitors looking past the big parks. Most of the spots are in Manhattan, from Turtle Bay and the blocks near the UN to Greenwich Village, the West Village and the Upper West Side. Greenacre Park tucks a 25-foot cascading waterfall behind shady trees and movable seats. Inside the Ford Foundation building, a 12-story glass atrium shelters a subtropical terraced garden, a warm escape in winter. Jefferson Market Garden, a volunteer-run flower garden beside a Victorian Gothic library, has roses and a fish pond. St. Luke in the Fields offers brick-walled gardens with winding paths and benches, and Paley Park and the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden round out the list.

Greenacre Park is best at midday on weekdays. Enter St. Luke's gardens from Hudson Street between Grove and Barrow.