High Line Blog

Beneath the concrete planks and beautiful plantings is an advanced system for water drainage and retention. Photo by Iwan Baan.

While you’re walking along the High Line, you may not realize it, but below your feet is an intricate drainage system that helps to reduce storm water runoff and helps to keep our planting beds healthy.

Here’s an inside peek at what’s happening under the surface of the world’s longest green roof.

Mother’s Day is May 13. Are you looking to make your Mom’s day even more special this year?

Now until Saturday, May 12, you will receive a complimentary High Line Plant Guide with your purchase of our newly-created High Line Note Cards – the perfect gift for moms.

Visit the High Line Web Shop to purchase a note card set today. Orders placed by Sunday, May 6 are guaranteed to arrive by Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 13.*

Ten local teens spent their spring break working side-by-side with High Line Gardeners while they learned about green jobs from a variety of guest speakers. Photo by Joan Garvin.

As part of our ongoing community engagement initiative, we are always looking for new ways to involve our closest neighbors.

This past week, we piloted a new program we call Green Corps, offering a paid alternative spring break to 10 local teens who spent a week getting hands-on experience with our gardeners and learning more about green jobs.

“Green Corps was a good experience,” Javier Montero, 17, noted after participating in the week-long project. “I think it is important to do because [the High Line] is a place for many people to come and they come from many different places. [Now] I have got a taste of how it is to be a gardener.”

See photos and read quotes from our exciting first Green Corps crew after the jump.

The genus Cercis includes 10 species of shrubs, commonly referred to as redbuds. On the High Line you’ll find 5 different cultivars, or types. Pictured here is Cercis canadensis 'Appalachian Red'. Photo by Barry Munger.

The High Line’s planting design is inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew up between rail tracks after the trains stopped running in the 1980s. Today, the High Line includes more than 300 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees — chosen for their hardiness, adaptability, diversity, and seasonal variation in color and texture. Some of the species that originally grew on the High Line’s rail bed are reflected in the park landscape today.

This week we share with you one of our gardeners’ current favorites.