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Mytoi, the Japanese garden on Chappaquiddick: how to get there on the Chappy ferry, the 15-car lot, hours and admission by season, the pond and bridge, birch walk and camellia dell, the story of Hugh Jones, Mary Wakeman and the rebuild after Hurricane Bob, rules, accessibility and when to go.
Mytoi is fourteen acres of Japanese-inspired garden in a pine wood on Chappaquiddick, a pond with an island you reach by an arched bridge, a birch walk, a camellia dell and a stone garden, kept by the Trustees of Reservations and reached by a three-car ferry with no timetable. It is the quietest place we know on the island, and one of the few that is as good in November as in June.
Through the entrance gate on Dike Road: the garden opens on the pond and the bridge almost at once.
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Mytoi is on Dike Road, a little under three miles from the Chappaquiddick ferry landing. Take the On Time ferry from Edgartown (it runs continuously, a few minutes across, no schedule to check), follow Chappaquiddick Road about two and a half miles to the sharp right-hand bend and carry straight on along the dirt Dike Road; the garden is three-tenths of a mile up on the left, with a small lot for fifteen cars. Roadside parking is prohibited and enforced, so if the lot is full, wait or come back. Many people bike it, which solves the parking and suits the pace. Our Chappaquiddick guide covers the ferry fares, the road and what else is out there.
Open every day from sunrise to sunset, all year. From May through October non-members pay $10 per adult, with children 12 and under free; Trustees members pay $5 or nothing depending on membership level. From November through April the garden is free for everyone. There is an honor box at the gate when nobody is there, and the entry fees are what pay for the pruning.
The arched footbridge to the island in the pond, on a clear day. Nearly everyone who visits stops here first.
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Hugh Jones, an Edgartown architect who had been posted to Japan in the military, began the garden in 1958. He named it Mytoi, which is simply "my toy" spelled to look Japanese; it has no meaning in the language. Jones tended it until his death in 1965, the island conservationist Mary Wakeman looked after it from then on, and in 1976 she gave it to the Trustees, who extended the land in 1981. Then in August 1991 Hurricane Bob flattened it: uprooted pines, shrubs torn out, the pond choked. The landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy redesigned the garden in the years after, and volunteers rebuilt it by hand. What you walk through today is largely her plan, thirty years grown in.
The path is a loop and the garden reveals itself in rooms. The pond with its island and bridge is the center; look for painted turtles on the stones and the goldfish under the bridge, and for the ospreys that fish it in summer. The birch walk is at its best in the low light of morning or late afternoon. The camellia dell flowers in spring, the azaleas after it, and the stone garden and the hillside garden hold the structure in winter when everything else is bare. There is a small open shelter for sitting out a shower, and benches placed exactly where you want them. An hour is about right; it is not a big garden, and it rewards going slowly.
The tall spruce above the bridge, and the pines reflected in the still water below it.
No bicycles and no dogs inside the fence, which the Trustees ask for plainly and which the garden needs. Visitors keep to the paths, keep their voices low and leave the stones where they are. The garden is at its best when there are fewer than ten people in it, so early mornings, the shoulder months and gray days are the quiet times, and a gray day suits a Japanese garden. Our rainy day guide lists it for that reason.
The paths are gravel and packed earth with gentle grades, and the loop around the pond is manageable for a sturdy stroller or an all-terrain chair with help; the bridge is stepped. Year-round portable toilets at the lot include an accessible one, and the Trustees are adding adaptive equipment on their island properties, so ask them what is available before you cross. The accessibility guide has the ferry and bus details.
The small open shelter above the plantings, its shingled roof framed by rhododendrons and pines.
Late May for the azaleas and the first turtles; October for the color in our photographs; a still January morning for the stone garden and the silence. Mytoi pairs naturally with the rest of Chappy: continue down Dike Road to the Dike Bridge and the Cape Poge beaches, or go back to the fork for Wasque Point at the island's southeast corner, both Trustees properties with their own fees in season. Water and lunch are worth bringing, because there is very little to buy on Chappaquiddick, and so is the time of the last ferry if you stay for the evening. The word Chappy itself, and a few others you will hear on the boat, are in our island glossary.
The bridge and pond on a bright day, the trees doubled in the still water.
| Where | Dike Road, Chappaquiddick, a little under three miles from the Chappy ferry |
|---|---|
| Hours | Sunrise to sunset, every day, all year |
| Admission | May to Oct: $10 adults, children 12 and under free, members $5 or free; Nov to Apr: free |
| Parking | 15 cars; no roadside parking; bikes welcome to the gate |
| Rules | No dogs or bikes inside the fence; stay on paths |
| Size | 14 acres, an hour's loop |
| Since | Begun 1958 by Hugh Jones; cared for by Mary Wakeman after 1965; Trustees since 1976; rebuilt after Hurricane Bob 1991 |
Hours, admission, parking and rules are from the Trustees' Mytoi page as of September 2026. The history follows the Trustees and the Vineyard Gazette's 2023 account of the garden. The photographs are ours, across several autumns and springs. Fees change with the season and the Trustees revise them most years, so check before you go.
From May through October non-members pay $10 an adult, children 12 and under free; Trustees members $5 or nothing depending on level. From November through April the garden is free for everyone. There is an honor box at the gate, and the entry fees pay for the pruning.
Sunrise to sunset, every day, all year. It is one of the few island places as good in November as in June.
Take the On Time ferry from Edgartown, which runs continuously with no schedule, follow Chappaquiddick Road to the sharp right-hand bend and carry straight on along Dike Road; the garden is a little under three miles from the landing, with a lot for fifteen cars. Roadside parking is prohibited and enforced, so many people bike it.
Nothing in Japanese. Mytoi is simply “my toy” spelled to look Japanese. Edgartown architect Hugh Jones, who had been posted to Japan, gave the garden that name when he began it in 1958.
Fourteen acres in a pine wood: a pond with an island reached by an arched bridge, a birch walk, a camellia dell and a stone garden, kept by the Trustees of Reservations since Wakeman gave it to them.
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