Innisfree Garden

Innisfree Garden (150 acres (61 ha)) is a nonprofit public garden in the Chinese style, located at 362 Tyrrel Road, Millbrook, New York. The garden is open Tuesday through Sunday, from May 7 to October 20; an admission fee is charged.

The garden was established 1930-1960 as the private garden of Walter and Marion Beck, inspired by the garden of eighth-century Chinese poet and painter Wang Wei (王維) (698-761). It opened to the public in 1960 under the direction of landscape architect Lester Collins, the Chair of Harvard University's Landscape Architecture program.

Innisfree is an American garden with streams, waterfalls, terraces, retaining walls, rocks, and plants based on principles of Chinese landscape design. Most of the plants are native, and rocks come from the local forest. Tyrrel Lake (40 acres) is a large, deep glacial lake from which water is pumped into a hillside reservoir, and thence to the garden's water features.

See also