Stone steps leading up through a manicured Italianate garden at Duke University — palmettos, gazebo, dense green canopy beyond

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Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Late May

North Carolina·May 24, 2025·2 min read

55 acres of curated garden on the Duke University campus in Durham. In late May the south is at peak humidity, the cypresses are deep green, and the koi pond is still enough to fish in.

Duke Gardens — properly, the Sarah P. Duke Gardens — sit on 55 acres in the middle of Duke University's West Campus in Durham. They were founded in 1934 and have been continuously expanded since, currently divided into four named gardens with the Italianate Terraces forming the central spine.

I visited in late May, which is when the south stops messing around about being the south. The humidity arrives in earnest, the cypresses have darkened to their summer green, and every leaf on every plant is at maximum size.

Wide stone steps climbing through formal terraced gardens with palmettos, low hedges, and a small white gazebo at the top — The Italianate Terraces. The white gazebo at the top is the signature view from below.

The terraces are the classic photo — wide stone steps, formal hedges, palms on the lower beds, gazebo at the top. From the bottom of the stairs you get the full layered view.

A still green pond at Duke Gardens with one person fishing on the bank, dense tree canopy behind — The koi pond. Catch-and-release fishing is allowed in some seasons — at the right time of day the surface is glass.

The koi pond is in a different section, set back into the wooded part of the garden. It's smaller than it looks in photos — maybe 30 yards across — but the canopy above it is so dense that the temperature drops noticeably when you walk down to the water.

Late May in Durham is hot. The shade in the woodland section of the gardens is a real reprieve, and you can easily lose an afternoon walking the trails between sections.

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