Chinese Garden, Snug Harbor, SI

Snug Harbor on Staten Island, NY is a destination for the histo presto 
practitioner as well as the horticulturalist. The Chinese Garden is not, no 
way, don't bother. Forget the NPR hype.

I like stones, I like stones a lot, and this is a walled in garden of stones. 
There are few plant specimens yet nothing as interesting as the weeds 
thriving in my yard. Unfortunately, this is not a very complex, intriguing, 
or thoughtfully assembled collection of stones. I've seen more interesting 
stone collections in a Catskill riverbed. Go to Hell in the Grand Caymans for 
an example of a dramatic stone garden. 

Most disturbing is the sloppy mortar work throughout using very wide gray 
Portland cement joints. It causes one to wonder what Chinese craftsmanship is 
to talk about, which is if this garden was not secretly built by underpaid 
Portuguese masons in yellow face - that is the level of fakery I hallucinated 
creeping around the edges of this space. Bad karma, bad feng shui, no 
consideration of ley lines. Not, for me at least, a place of meditation, 
excepting with a wiener and iced cappuccino, extending the international 
flavor, both of which were not, thankfully, present to intrude upon the 
moment.

For some reason a solid gray Portland mortar joint that is consistently in 
excess of an inch in width I find depressing. There is something lacking in 
the details at this garden that a lime mortar with a dark brown aggregate, a 
native to Staten Island, would improve. There is a feeling that this garden, 
fenced off from the historic site of Snug Harbor and the surrounding 
buildings, is not improved by the addition of an overlooking concrete block 
faux castle tower, something of a Scottish bastardization, with a token 
vineyard. If I was inebriated during my visit I would not be writing this 
review.

Then there are the colored pebbles. It is a repeated walkway motif of 
hexagonal tiles of tan and black ovoid pebbles. The tiles are oddly placed in 
locations that make no sense -- near the entrance to the site they make a 
reasonably absurd attempt to escape beyond the monotonous steel fence 
enclosing the compound. If you want to see a really fine example of pebble 
work go to Kykiut, the JD Rockefeller estate in North Tarrytown on the Hudson 
where you will find a refined, though as authentically questionable with the 
imported stalactites in the grotto, manifestation of stone and vegetation.

As to the tile roofing, stucco walls and woodwork… I've felt a greater sense 
of excitement visiting the rest stops on the NY State Thruway -- which I 
honestly do find to be exciting. Which leaves us with the Chinese Garden gift 
shop that did appear to have interesting trinkets and a polite docent.

The one good detail, worth looking at between your feet, is a pavement of 
what appear to be slate colored bricks in a herringbone pattern. A good 
photograph would suffice to make up for the travel time to reach the garden 
to see this, so please don't rush out the door for this alone.

If visiting NYC and it is Oriental culture that you want a taste of, go for a 
walk in China Town in Manhattan, an odd place to get a haircut, or better 
yet, take the subway to Flushing, Queens, which, though predominantly Korean, 
is alive and real, a very good place to purchase fishing tackle.

][<en