Innisfree Garden

Tucked into the low hills of Dutchess County is hidden one of the absolute gems of the Hudson Valley, Innisfree Garden. Search out this marvelous expansive garden and luxuriate in the unique design and landscape.

Conceptualized in the oriental style, the garden surpasses the models upon which it is based. "Saucer" gardens are designed as relatively intimate spaces whose lines and plantings draw you in and around the spaces through their combination of earth, plantings and water. Innisfree is a sequence of these intimate spaces exquisitely planted and maintained highlighted by natural and created high vantage points allowing you to rise above the gardens and view them from multiple perspectives. As you wander through the gardens you walk through cascading water in a gorge then down through an expanse of lawn and back up again atop a rough stone pergola. All the time surrounded by plantings of perennials and drifts of tall grasses.

Innisfree is an American garden created with an oriental sensibility, not a Japanese garden recreated in America. You are immersed in a uniquely American interpretation of an ideal garden and landscape. The small gardens at Innisfree all face out to a spectacular lake reflecting the sky and clouds into the manicured landscape. And the lake itself acts as it's own "saucer garden" filled with water lilies and surrounded by a broad path inviting you to walk the lake and view it also from many angles. The path takes you out around the lake, across a bridge and up onto high ground opposite the small gardens. You walk through small glens, dense forests and broad manicured avenues.

Innisfree Garden is a unique and totally friendly experience. Benches abound for quiet contemplation, paths are for the most part easily graded and exceptionally well maintained. Although Innisfree is not 100% handicapped accessible, it is mostly so and fairly available to all levels of disabled persons.

Getting to Innisfree can be just a little tricky as it is not completely obvious and definitely not well marked. Approach Innisfree on Route 44, between routes 82 and 44A carefully look for a blue sign on the south side of Route 44 pointing the way to Innisfree. You will be turning onto a small well paved two lane road. At the next intersection the road jogs a bit and the paving starts to get worse, but keep going. Down the road on your left you will pass a small Rockefeller University Research Center and then you will enter Innisfree.