Oyster Bay: A Just-Opened Free Piet Oudolf Garden
Piet Oudolf's first public garden on Long Island opened on 17 October 2026: one acre of perennials and grasses inside a 409-acre Gold Coast estate, and nothing to pay at the gate. Late autumn is what it was planted for, when seed heads and bleached grasses carry the borders and the two greenhouses do the warming.
Planting Fields to Oyster Bay village
🌾 Oudolf's acre, then the greenhouses
The gate is at 1395 Planting Fields Road, and admission is free. Start with the one-acre Oudolf garden, planted around the estate's historic Rose Arbor: perennials, tall grasses and seed heads left standing on purpose, with three low mounds built for sitting. Late in the season the colour thins and the structure takes over: bleached grasses, seed heads and the browns Oudolf plants on purpose. Then step into the Main Greenhouse and the Camellia House, open 10am to about 4pm Wednesday to Monday and closed Tuesdays, free and no booking, for orchids, cacti and palms.
🥙 Lunch in the village afterwards
Back in the village, The Audrey opens at 11:30 every day and keeps the midday card casual: flatbreads, toasts and shared plates, with coffee poured the same way. Two hours between the garden and the glasshouses lands you there in the early afternoon, and the room runs on towards evening, later on Friday and Saturday. It sits a few minutes from the platform, which makes it the last stop before the train home.
🧭 The shape of the day
The Oyster Bay branch runs from Penn to the end of the line, usually with a change at Jamaica, and weekend trains come about every two hours. Fix the return train before leaving the city. The park sits about a mile and a half west of the station: 30 to 40 minutes on foot, or a few minutes in a taxi from the rank. Grounds open daily 9am to 5pm. Drivers pay $8 to park on weekends and holidays through 16 November. Greenhouse hours shift with the season; check the site before a cold-weather visit.
