Sunken Gardens, Lincoln

City Formal Garden (Lincoln Parks And Recreation), Built As A Depression Era Relief Project · Lincoln, Nebraska

Sunken Gardens is a small formal garden in Lincoln, Nebraska, on South 27th Street at D Street beside Antelope Park, run by Lincoln Parks and Recreation. It was dug in the early 1930s as a Depression-era relief project, when men on city work relief turned a low, rough patch of ground into a terraced garden set below street level, and it has been rebuilt and replanted since. Each year the city's gardeners choose a new colour theme and plant what is often described as tens of thousands of annuals, so the beds look different every summer. Stone walls and steps drop down to lawns, a long reflecting pool and lily ponds with fish, framed by clipped hedges and shade trees. Admission is free, with no gate or ticket. The whole garden takes 30 to 45 minutes, so it works best as a pleasant hour in a Lincoln day, paired with the Lincoln Children's Zoo next door, the Antelope Park rose beds or the Capitol and the Haymarket. It is in colour from about June to October; in winter the beds are bare, and on summer weekends wedding and portrait photographers crowd the steps.

South 27th Street and D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68502, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: as a city park, the garden is open every day from early morning to late evening, roughly 6 am to 11 pm, all year, with no staff desk and no closing bell. The water features usually run only from late spring to early autumn. The traps that ruin a visit are coming in winter, when the beds are bare; coming in late May just after planting; and arriving on a summer Saturday afternoon when wedding and portrait sessions fill the steps. Confirm current park hours with Lincoln Parks and Recreation before relying on them.

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