Manhattan oasis, senior housing vie for space

New York

SPHINXES greet you regally as you enter from Elizabeth Street. The carved lions beyond look like three-dimensional heraldic emblems. Cabbage-white butterflies skim over tomato plants that are ready for an end-of-summer harvest. Readers turn book pages idly. Lovers conspire in the shade of two abundant pear trees.

How unlikely in a hard-edge part of Manhattan: This tiny, beguiling, ragtag version of the Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy, sandwiched between Spring and Prince streets.