Green Dome

Green Dome Garden is a tiny wedge of space by McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Stone paths wind through raised beds of flowering perennials and shrubs, and along the way benches allow visitors to sit and contemplate.

It was begun in 1997, and to this day is maintained by volunteers.

Here a violet clematis flowers in a sprawling mound. Behind, a shrub rose with single flowers and the architectural shape of an ornamental grass. In the foreground, a variegated juniper adds some color and sparkle.

Next to the garden is a space where volunteers make compost, bringing food waste from nearby apartment and restaurant kitchens to turn into the brown gold of garden compost.

Here shade-loving saxifraga stolonifera, or the strawberry begonia plant, clambers up the cobblestones.

On the sunny, south side of the garden, bold purple irises bloom in the foreground. Behind, yellow irises, coral bells, and a silver, spiky cardoon plant.

The teardrops of Dicentra spectabilis, the showy bleeding heart, gently sway behind the wrought iron fence.


Having a garden like this in an urban setting is a sign of a great neighborhood.