East Village Community Gardens: When They're Open and What Each One Is For
Thirteen volunteer-run gardens tucked between East Village buildings. Which to visit, when each one is open, and the walk that links them.
Yes, you can walk into almost any East Village community garden for free, but only when the gate is open. Most open on weekend afternoons from April through October. The best time to go is a Sunday between 2pm and 4pm, the only window when every garden in this guide is open at once.
The gardens are the neighborhood’s best free thing, and most people walk straight past them. They were built in the 1970s and 80s by neighbors who cleared rubble from lots the city had abandoned. Today they’re run entirely by volunteers, which is why the hours are what they are.
Want them in order, with directions? Our East Village Community Gardens walking tour links all thirteen into one Sunday afternoon.
How the hours work
Almost all of these are GreenThumb gardens, part of the NYC Parks community garden program. The rules are simple:
- Season: April 1 to October 31. Outside it, most gates stay locked.
- Registered gardens must be open to the public at least 20 hours a week during the season, and post their hours on the gate.
- Hours depend on volunteers. Rain, heat and a short-staffed weekend can keep a gate shut even inside posted hours. A locked gate is normal. Try the next one.
The hours below are the posted hours listed with NYC Parks as of September 2026. The sign on the gate is always the final word.
The hours at a glance
| Garden | Where | Open |
|---|---|---|
| Liz Christy Garden | E Houston St at the Bowery | Sat and Sun 12 to 4pm; Tue and Thu 6 to 8pm |
| Le Petit Versailles | E Houston St to E 2nd St, Aves B and C | Thu to Sun 2 to 7pm |
| Parque de Tranquilidad | E 4th St, Aves C and D | Sun only, 10am to 6pm |
| Orchard Alley | E 4th St, Aves C and D | Sun only, 9am to 7pm |
| El Jardín del Paraíso | E 5th St, Aves C and D | Tue to Sun, 10am to dusk |
| 6BC Botanical Garden | E 6th St, Aves B and C | Sat and Sun 12 to 6pm |
| 6th Street and Avenue B Garden | Ave B at E 6th St | Sat and Sun 1 to 6pm, plus events |
| Creative Little Garden | E 6th St, Aves A and B | Sat and Sun 1 to 4pm; weekdays 1 to 2pm |
| Green Oasis and Gilbert’s Sculpture Garden | E 8th St, Aves C and D | Sat and Sun 11am to 5pm |
| Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Garden | Ave C at E 9th St | Sat and Sun 12 to 6pm |
| La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez | Ave C at E 9th St | Every day, 11am to 5pm |
| Dias y Flores | E 13th St, Aves A and B | Sat and Sun 12 to 5pm |
| 11th Street Community Garden | E 11th St, First Ave and Ave A | Sat and Sun 12 to 6pm |
What each garden is for
Liz Christy Garden: the first one
Where: E Houston St between the Bowery and Second Ave. Open: Saturday and Sunday noon to 4pm, Tuesday and Thursday 6 to 8pm.
New York’s first community garden, started in 1973 by Liz Christy and her Green Guerillas, who seed-bombed empty lots before they got permission to clear this one. Every other garden here follows its lead. Come for the pond with fish and turtles, the grove of weeping birches, a dawn redwood, beehives, a grape arbor and a wildflower meadow, all a few feet from Houston Street traffic you somehow stop hearing.
Le Petit Versailles: art first
Where: runs from E Houston St through to E 2nd St, between Aves B and C. Open: Thursday to Sunday, 2 to 7pm.
The garden where the art matters as much as the planting. A narrow brick path leads to a small stage, where performers, filmmakers and artists show work through the warmer months, among flower beds and an arbor-covered seating area. It was a car chop shop until 1996. Check the gate for what’s on.
Parque de Tranquilidad: the quietest
Where: E 4th St between Aves C and D. Open: Sundays only, 10am to 6pm.
Exactly what the name says. Winding paths, planting thick enough to close overhead, and old seating the garden is slowly reclaiming. Neighbors started it in 1979, and about a third of it sits on the site of an 1887 synagogue. Nothing on the street tells you that.
Orchard Alley: fruit trees and grass
Where: E 4th St between Aves C and D, toward Ave D. Open: Sundays only, 9am to 7pm.
Fruit trees over an actual lawn, which is rarer in these gardens than you’d think. Neighbors built it up a piece at a time, and it still feels hand-made. It’s the one where you sit on the grass.
El Jardín del Paraíso: the biggest and wildest
Where: E 5th St between Aves C and D, running through to E 4th St. Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to dusk.
Three-quarters of an acre: open lawn, birches, a pond where turtles sun themselves, and an octagonal treehouse built around a willow trunk in 2003 by the treehouse architect Roderick Romero. Allen Ginsberg lived in one of the tenements that stood here, in 1964 and 1965. The garden was founded in 1981, and with its long weekday hours it’s your best bet midweek.
6BC Botanical Garden: the most beautiful
Where: E 6th St between Aves B and C. Open: Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6pm.
The most designed garden in the neighborhood, and it earns the word botanical. Brick paths wind past peonies and climbing roses to a koi pond with a waterfall the members spent ten years finishing. There’s a grape arbor with solar panels hidden in the vines, a sunken grotto, and a two-story toolshed that doubles as a take-one, leave-one library.
6th Street and Avenue B Garden: the big plot garden
Where: Ave B at E 6th St. Open: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 6pm, plus scheduled evening events.
More than 17,000 square feet, split into small individual beds, each gardened by a different member, so every few steps looks different. It dates to 1982, and until 2008 it was home to Eddie Boros’s Tower of Toys, a 65-foot wooden tower hung with things he found on the street. The tower is gone. The films, festivals and children’s garden are not.
Creative Little Garden: the birds
Where: E 6th St between Aves A and B. Look for the yellow gate. Open: Saturday and Sunday 1 to 4pm, and weekdays 1 to 2pm.
A shared backyard since 1978, with no private plots, so the whole garden is landscaped together. A fish pond, peach and cherry trees, a grape arbor, a Japanese garden, a gazebo, a chair swing, and birdhouses hidden all through the planting. It’s a certified National Wildlife Federation habitat turning slowly into a native woodland, and you can hear it.
Green Oasis and Gilbert’s Sculpture Garden: the sculptor’s garden
Where: E 8th St between Aves C and D. Open: Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 5pm.
Two gardens that started side by side in 1981 and merged in 1997. One was built by Normand Valle and Reinaldo Arana; in the other, Gilbert Ingram carved found wood and stone into sculpture. Now it’s one garden with a koi pond of goldfish, beehives, a grape arbor, a gazebo and forty-year-old trees. Nuyorican poets read here, and it still stages theater and readings.
Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden: the casitas
Where: Ave C at E 9th St. The public entrance is on Ave C between 9th and 10th St. Open: Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6pm.
For years the 9th Street Community Garden, now named for one of its members. Almost 22,000 square feet of hidden, winding paths between plots and casitas, the small wooden houses the neighborhood’s Puerto Rican gardeners brought to these lots. It runs on captured rainwater and its own compost.
La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez: the stage, open every day
Where: Ave C at E 9th St, across from the Pancho Ramos garden. Open: every day, 11am to 5pm.
The most public garden in the neighborhood, and the one with the most generous hours. Founded in 1976, it has a stone stage, a gazebo, shady benches and an amphitheater built with the artist Gordon Matta-Clark from timber salvaged from abandoned buildings. Its famous weeping willows came down in 2017, and the neighborhood held a wake. It’s named for Armando Perez, a co-founder of the CHARAS community center. Check the gate for yoga, readings and festivals.
Dias y Flores: the prettiest small one
Where: E 13th St between Aves A and B. Open: Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5pm.
Founded in 1978, in the middle of a quiet, tree-lined block, with around sixty member gardeners. A fish pond, a rainwater collection system and a solar-powered fountain. Small, calm, and very easy to lose an hour in.
11th Street Community Garden: the place to sit
Where: E 11th St between First Ave and Ave A. Open: Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6pm.
Pines, flower beds and a shaded porch behind a wooden trellis gate. It’s the one to end on, a minute from First Avenue and dinner.
If it’s a weekday
Most gates are locked Monday to Friday. These are the reliable exceptions:
- La Plaza Cultural, Ave C at E 9th St: every day, 11am to 5pm.
- El Jardín del Paraíso, E 5th St between Aves C and D: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to dusk.
- Creative Little Garden, E 6th St between Aves A and B: weekdays 1 to 2pm.
Tompkins Square Park, between Aves A and B from 7th to 10th Street, is open every day, and it’s the neighborhood’s big public green space.
Visiting like a guest
These aren’t parks. They’re shared gardens kept up by neighbors on their own time.
- Stay on the paths, and don’t pick anything. Almost every bed belongs to someone.
- Keep it quiet and leave the dog at home unless a sign says otherwise.
- Say hello to whoever is on gate duty. They usually know the garden’s whole history and like telling it.
- Bring water and a bathroom plan. Most gardens don’t have public restrooms. Our NYC public bathroom guide has backups.
- Want in for real? Most gardens take new members. Ask the volunteer at the gate.
Looking for more that costs nothing? See free things to do in NYC.
Questions about anything in this guide? Reach MUSEENYC at museenyc.art@gmail.com or @museenyc on Instagram.
Thirteen gardens, one Sunday afternoon → museenyc.com