Stroll through Washington Square Park on a sunny morning and it’s easy to be swept up in the little moments of beauty – bees drifting between coneflowers, bursts of goldenrod dotting the beds, a quiet bench shaded by flowering dogwood. What’s less visible, but absolutely essential, is the effort it takes to keep the park lush and thriving.

Washington Square Park isn’t a natural landscape, things don’t necessarily proliferate on their own. Behind every pastel bloom and emerald lawn is a small but mighty horticulture team, proudly funded by the Washington Square Park Conservancy, which supports NYC Parks to hire these vital staffers in addition to purchasing all the plant material, tools and supplies required to get the work done. This public-private partnership is the reason the park looks the way it does – vibrant, diverse, and well maintained.

Over the years, the Conservancy has grown from supporting seasonal gardening help to providing the funds and materials needed for a committed horticulture team of a full-time and seasonal gardener and a weekly contracted crew of additional help to make a significant impact in the park. Under the careful guidance of the newly appointed Horticulture Coordinator, a position created and funded by the Conservancy, the park is thriving.

That coordinator is Tyson, a longtime NYC Parks gardener with deep knowledge of Washington Square Park and the surrounding district. While he has a long history in the park, having spent the last 8 years as NYC Parks District 1 Gardener, this new role gives him the time and tools to bring greater structure and oversight to all horticultural efforts in Washington Square Park. He’s laser focused not just on day-to-day maintenance, but on the longer-term planning and attention to detail that a complex system like this needs, and that wouldn’t be possible without the Conservancy’s support.

Newest to the horticulture team this year is gardener Infinite. He spent last season getting to know the park’s maintenance side as a Parks Opportunity Program (POP) worker. After expressing an interest in deepening his knowledge and skills in horticulture, Infinite went through the NYC Parks process to become a gardener and came back to Washington Square Park on a seasonal staffing line, eager to get his hands in the dirt alongside Tyson during these busy blooming months. 

Unsurprisingly, there are tasks that take more than two people to accomplish, and that’s why the Conservancy funds a professional landscape crew to assist in the park each week. This added support allows Tyson and Infinite to stay focused on high-skill tasks and longer-term strategy, while also ensuring that larger maintenance jobs get done on time. All of this – the structure, the leadership, the labor – is only possible because the Conservancy stepped in to fill a need that public funding alone couldn’t meet. And the results in the park are tangible. 

One of the most exciting recent shifts in the park’s horticulture has been a growing focus on native and climate-adapted species. In the last year alone, the team planted more than 2,300 perennials throughout the park. It may sound straightforward, but planting native species in a dense urban environment is anything but straightforward. The park’s current climate soil is very different from the environment that many New York native plants adapted to thousands of years ago. It takes research, experimentation, and time to determine which plants will succeed, which will fail, and which will actually flourish under the pressures of foot traffic, air pollution, and changing weather patterns.

The benefit is well worth the effort. These plants support pollinators, provide food and shelter for urban wildlife, and reduce the frequency of costly seasonal replanting. The native plant initiative is not just about aesthetics (although it could be, with how stunning they are). It’s about building a more sustainable, resilient, and ecologically vibrant park for all to enjoy.

There’s no such thing as a typical day for a gardener in Washington Square Park. Tasks range from the visible to the invisible: reseeding lawns by hand and fencing them off until they’re ready for another season of lounging; weeding and maintaining the garden beds to remove trash; collecting leaf litter and other green waste and transforming it into mulch and compost for use elsewhere in the park;. And those spring blooms that seem to appear overnight? They were planned and planted last fall, or last year. 

It’s hard work. It’s daily work. And it’s the kind of consistent stewardship that makes the difference between an average public lawn and a true urban oasis. The impact of horticulture in Washington Square Park reaches far beyond beauty. Well-maintained green spaces contribute to public health, offering stress relief, cooler microclimates, and space to rest, connect, or simply breathe a little easier. Thoughtfully chosen plantings benefit our local ecology, helping pollinators, improving air and soil quality, and buffering the impacts of urban heat. It goes so much deeper than breathtaking blossom displays. It’s about investing in a park that serves its community in every season and ensuring that it continues to do so for years to come.

Washington Square Park has always been a beloved gathering space, but its continued beauty is no accident. Every daffodil, every shaded bench, every lush lawn is there because someone invested time and resources in it. The Conservancy is proud to work alongside NYC Parks to ensure that this beloved green space has the team, the tools, and the long-term care that it needs.

As you pass by a bed of purple coneflowers or admire the bright flash of tulips in spring, take a moment to recognize the people who planted them, the structure that supports them, and the organization that helps it all bloom. If you’d like to support horticulture at the park, visit www.washingtonsqpark.org/donate.