The John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden is a 4-acre (16,000 m2) Japanese garden in Mill Neck, New York, providing a retreat for passive recreation and contemplation.
The garden was begun in 1960 for Ambassador and Mrs. John P. Humes upon their return from Japan, and built over the next four years. In 1980 it was donated to the Wild Life Sanctuary, and opened to the public in 1987. In 1993 the Garden Conservancy assumed management of the garden.
The garden is built on steeply sloping terrain, and aims to invoke the sensation of a remote mountain village. It contains a lake, and tea house in the shoin-dzukuri style of the Ashikaga period, brought from Japan by Ambassador Humes.
Moving through the garden, where the views, textures and balance of elements have been planned following Japanese aesthetic principles, visitors experience a walking meditation inducing inner peace. Stepping stones are used to control the rate at which one moves through the garden, encouraging moment-to-moment reflection. The garden suggests a hillside landscape beside the sea, where gravel paths represent streams that form pools and cascades, eventually flowing into the ocean represented by a pond.
Of special interest in the garden are the tea house, tea garden, stone lanterns, mosses, waterfall, pond, and a collection of related North American and Asian plants.
The Humes Japanese Stroll Garden is operated by the Garden Conservancy through an agreement with the Humes Japanese Garden Foundation, which owns the property.
Famous quotes containing the words john p, japanese, stroll and/or garden:
“There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment—and nothing more corrupting.”
—A.J.P. (Alan John Percivale)
“No human being can tell what the Russians are going to do next, and I think the Japanese actions will depend much on what Russia decides to do both in Europe and the Far East—especially in Europe.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“We stroll amiably together, careful never to peer into one another’s shadows.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“It gets to seem as if way back in the Garden of Eden after the Fall, Adam and Eve had begged the Lord to forgive them and He, in his boundless exasperation, had said, “All right, then. Stay. Stay in the Garden. Get civilized. Procreate. Muck it up.” And they did.”
—Diane Arbus (1923–1971)