Sam Mercer conceived of a private garden in the middle of the Old Market while traveling from Paris to Omaha in 1985. The garden was to sit directly behind the Indian Oven restaurant at 1052 Howard St on a gravel lot that was occupied by parked cars and trash bins. It would feature a cloister in addition to 22 bronze sculptures that were exhibited in Switzerland. The sculptures were created by his wife, Swiss artist Eva Aeppli.
Opened in 1987, the garden is only accessed by going into the Old Market Passageway and then entering the Garden of the Zodiac Gallery. As you enter the garden, you step onto a covered brick walkway. Along the walkway are 12 walls representing the signs of the Zodiac. In front of each wall is a bronze head that symbolizes the constellations.
As you look further inward from the walkway and you see a garden that is open to the sky. Within the garden are 10 heads covered in gold leaf. These heads represent the planets, the Sun and the Moon. They are carefully placed in the alignment they held at the time of the sculptors birth on May 2, 1925. In the center of it all surrounded by plants, flowers, vines and herbs is a small pond that represents Earth.
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