Warrie Price, On The Battery's Sustainable Landscape Design
This is part of a series with Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit dedicated to toxic-free, nature-based gardening. You can grow an organic farm right in the middle of downtown Manhattan and use it to teach and feed people. Photography courtesy of The Battery Conservancy. In 2004, Piet Oudolf, then relatively unknown, designed the master horticultural plan for The Battery. It doesn’t surprise me at all when autocorrect changes “Warrie” to “warrior.” She’s been a beloved and fierce advocate for conservation and sustainable horticulture for decades. A: I was asked by Betsy Barlow Rogers [founder of the Central Park Conservancy] to create a nonprofit for The Battery. Q: How did The Battery Conservancy begin? Thanks to the efforts of Warrie Price and The Battery Conservancy, the promenade’s cracked, barren blacktop was transformed into a perennial haven planted for biodiversity and beauty—and always taken care of without toxic chemicals. I think from the beginning, I wanted to make the park its own destination, not just a passageway. Q: Why are public parks and gardens important to city life? A: Beauty never stops healing the soul, and gardens are beautiful: green gardens, multi-color gardens—all plant life. Also, public parks and gardens in cities are unexpected, so they’re cherished. “The gardens here are the essence of what the park is. We know everyone loves the bikeway gardens. We’ve been voted number one on the most beautiful part of the Manhattan bikeway,” says Price. That’s an additive to good health and a good feeling versus dealing with the stress and the problems that surround you in a very urban setting. Q: Why was it important to be toxic-free from the start? A: I learned a lot about conservation from Mrs. Johnson. She helped Lady Bird Johnson found the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX, where she is also a founding director.] A detail of a planting in the Bosque garden, designed by Oudolf. The parks department found our perennial gardens to be much more economical than cutting hedges and mowing lawns all the time. A: We’ve been working with Audubon NYC and now have more birds in the park than ever before. We’re feeding them along the way. Q: What are you doing for biodiversity? What a difference a garden makes. We have also decided to support our native bees as much as possible. We cultivate everything—our urban farm, forest farm, all the gardens, lawn maintenance—without chemicals and always have. Q: What are the challenges of having a public park during climate change? A: For a thousand years, there has been the relationship of landscape to water. Come talk to us about creating bioswales and reserve tanks under climbing structures and climbing mounds. A couple of weeks ago, when we had a deluge of rain from a storm, the playscape didn’t flood. We’re now able to share that knowledge with others. Above The brainchild of BKSK Architects and Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architect and Partners after Hurricane Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, the playscape was designed to capture water and recover easily from flooding. For so long this park was all about water gazing, to paraphrase Melville, and now it’s a landscape about learning. A: I love the beginning of the morning. I’m happiest when I see the way people interact with the garden—especially the children. The people make the programs come alive. Q: Do you have a favorite time in the garden?