Hoboken's Secret Gardens on Display

Although open space is somewhat scarce, you don't have to leave the Mile Square for a real Japanese garden. 

Sophia and Steve (who didn't want their last named published), live on 9th and Washington and opened up their Asian-themed backyard to curious Hobokenites on Sunday, during the 13th annual Secret Garden Tour, organized by the Hoboken Historical Museum. 

When entering the back yard, the soothing sounds of a waterfall and soft instrumental music come from a set of speakers—which are, of course, camouflaged as rocks—and help visitors forget about the busy Hoboken streets for a minute.

The garden is divided into three parts, said Steve, to give you the idea you're passing through rooms. He said he sees the backyard as an extension of the house.  

The first "room" houses a large buddha statue, which was flown in from Indonesia, white shoji screens and a dining table. The middle part is a garden space with a little pond and a large rock-sculpture in the middle. Bamboo couches make the back of the garden the perfect place to hang out after a warm summer day.

"I snuck in a few naps today in between tour groups," Steve said. 

The wooden path leads you through the garden in a zig-zag, based on the popular belief that it makes it harder for evil spirits to enter the house. It also makes the garden look bigger, Steve said. 

And while Steve and Sophia wanted an Asian themed garden, there's at least one American touch: the Buddha rests on a piece of Hudson River driftwood that stranded in Hoboken and was recovered by one of the garden's landscapers.

The annual guided tour through Hoboken's prettiest yards was sponsored by Hufnagel Landscaping, Inc., the firm that did Steve and Sophia's Japanese garden. The Hoboken Garden Club supported the event. 

The Hoboken Historical Museum's website states that gardening has a rich history in Hoboken and that it was one of Hoboken founder's Colonel John Stevens was a "garden enthusiast, importing and cultivating new plants from around the world."

Another popular stop on the tour, was the polka dot garden at the Yankee Ferry which is docked in Hoboken at 13th and Sinatra Drive. 

The garden—which was one of the bonus gardens on the tour, said organizer Melissa Abernathy—is made out of old tires. Richard and Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, who live on the 104-year-old boat, maintain the garden and its irrigation system. 

The garden currently has 88 tires, where the MacKenzie-Childs grow heirloom tomatos, corn and more. In the fall, they said, they want to organize a harvest and sell the fruits and vegetables. 

Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, whose hair is dyed in all colors of the rainbow, said she'd like to expand the garden in future years and use up the entire pier (currently the garden only takes up 155 feet of the pier, she said). 

"We want to touch the Empire State Building with a farm from the Garden State," she said. 

The tires are a representation of urban decay, but also demonstrate a creative way of recycling old materials. The polka dot garden, said Richard MacKenzie-Childs, is a creative version of an urban garden. 

Zach Shtogren, 32, who lives on the Yankee Ferry with the MacKenzie-Childs, said around 4 p.m. that approximately 200 people had stopped by and that the reactions had been positive. 

One of those enthusiastic Hobokenites was 29-year-old Erika Haydon, who had done the tour with her mother Suzanne Johnson. 

"It's so unique and excentric," she said, "it's like a movie." 

Haydon also has a garden and said she was inspired to improve her own open space. Especially the Japanese garden on 9th and Washington was among her favorites. "It's just beyond perfection," Haydon said. Still, she said she also enjoyed seeing more regular back yards, that had not been designed by landscapers.