The gardens, designed by Dutch horticulturalist and landscape architect Piet Oudolf, will comprise 10,000 square feet of rectangular flowerbeds stretching along the waterfront promenade.

“We plant while remembering everyone in New York who is courageous and strong,” said Warrie Price, president of the Battery Conservancy, at the planting ceremony last month.

The Gardens of Remembrance are the first step in an extensive plan to renovate the Battery.

With an $8 million grant that the Conservancy has just received from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., it also plans to replace 30,000 square feet of asphalt with gardens, tables and chairs in a nearby area known as the Bosque, and to build a carousel and 80-foot-long wading fountain for children.

In addition, the Conservancy hopes to build a freestanding theater within Castle Clinton.

“This will be one of the great gardens of New York City,” Adrian Benepe, commissioner of Parks and Recreation, said at the planting ceremony. “It will be not just a place to have lunch, but a place to go see.”

An estimated 16 million commuters and tourists pass each year through the 23-acre park at the Battery, which is the largest open space in Lower Manhattan.