When I first saw this garden, the gardeners were simply making use of an abandoned lot, and little work was done aside from tending to the plants themselves. Later they formed an organization and bought the land, and immediately the garden was developed with everything from water hoses to brick pathways to a little fish pond. Originally, this was the site of a bolt & chain factory, of which the long wall still stands, covered with vines, to the left. Metal and concrete artifacts of the factory, which was destroyed by fire some thirty or forty years ago, have been emerging from the soil all through the years. This is still the winter appearance, but by summer's end this scene will be bursting with corn stalks and tomatoes and sunflowers and sweet potatoes and every sort of food and spice. On some weekends the adjacent pavements will host flea markets and fund-raising barbeques.

My neighborhood changed a ruined, barren patch of dirt into a place where the Earth pours out her gifts, much to the delight of people, bees, butterflies, and cats.