Swale floating park returns this spring with a new look

March 21, 2017

Photo courtesy of Strongbow

With spring officially here, it’s the perfect time to visit your favorite park. While there are plenty to choose from, there’s only one that floats on water. As reported by Time Out, Swale, the collaborative floating food forest, which let visitors pick free produce last summer, is back with an updated design–“a blossoming apple orchard surrounded by garden beds filled with herbs, fruits and vegetables.” In a collaboration with Strongbow, the newly designed barge will be docking at public piers from April through October.

Swale in 2016

Last summer’s Swale was built on a 130- by 40-foot floating platform and contained an edible garden. Its goal was to function as both a sculpture and a way of providing free healthy food to NYC residents. The artist behind Swale, Mary Mattingly, works in sculpture and photography that focuses on environmental, economic, and political change. In 2014, Mary created a partially-submerged houseboat on the Delaware river called WetLand that served as artists’ residences.

Swale in 2016