Plants & Pollinator Kids Experience ’25

Explore the Lyndhurst landscape through the eyes of pollinators on this kid-friendly tour led by our Curator of Historic Landscapes. The expedition begins at the Welcome Center and concludes at the Overlook, where a vibrant native garden awaits. Be among the first to stand upon the newly restored viewing platform, site of Helen Gould’s former treehouse, and take in the river views. Learn what bees see, why birds need native grasses, and what beneficial insects are suitable for your garden.  A hands-on gardening activity will follow the discovery portion of the program in the landscape. Families and young visitors will learn how to plant bulbs using old-fashioned wooden planting tools and help restore Lyndhurst’s daffodil hill. Dress comfortably and be prepared to get your hands dirty!

• Check in at the Welcome Center 15 minutes before the event time.
• This is a walking tour that involves planting bulbs. Please prepare to get a bit dirty, as tools are provided.
• The 45-minute planting activity follows the 45-minute tour.
• Rain date is September 7th, 2025.

The Overlook Garden is a pollinator-friendly garden full of low-maintenance native plants, including flowering shrubs and perennials, and ornamental grasses.  Designed by Hudson Valley landscape artist Paula Hayes, it forms a circular pattern, a mandala of plants, around the newly restored Overlook platform.  Historically, this platform was a treehouse centered around a weeping European birch tree.  Due to climate change, the tree could not be returned to the landscape.  Several of the shade trees and shrub tunnels that once adorned this area of the landscape are now missing and, over time, will be restored.

Mandalas often represent unity, harmony, and a sense of connection.  The individual beds in the garden, swaths of tall grasses that elicit a sense of movement and groupings of colorful flowers, will evolve over time and merge to form a meadow.  While akin to the wilder way in which we design gardens today, the design supports the 19th-century gardening principles of Helen Gould, an avid naturalist whose library included books on ornithology, native trees, and beneficial insects.  Helen’s additions to the Lyndhurst landscape included flowering shrubs and extensive perennial beds.  Today, the Overlook Garden, at the site of her former treehouse, is an example of the evolution of the American landscape and our need to evolve with it, via biodiverse plantings and sustainable landscaping practices, as the environment changes.  Standing atop the platform, visitors are surrounded by plants that are beneficial to bees, insects, and birds, and remind us of the joys of connecting with nature.

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