CATHERINE WINT: “It’s different than a park, in that sense, because individuals in a community garden have to have a relationship and they have to work democratically and they have to come up with procedures to enable them to share this very small space in a way that’s going to benefit everyone.”

However, these individuals also create gardens that are unusual because of their mix of plants. A Mexican immigrant family working in one garden plants a species of red pepper commonly used in Mexican food. Next to that crop are peony flowers planted by a Chinese immigrant who misses his homeland.

Community gardener Lori Harris looks at the green space that her now ninety-year-old father helped create in Harlem. It was a trash-filled lot when he started working on the project in nineteen seventy-one. Lori Harris is proud as she talks about the true success of the garden.

LORI HARRIS: “You have to give back to Earth. You can’t just take everything from it. You’ve got to learn how to recycle and clean up. You know, people think groceries come from the grocery store, but they come from a farm. They start somewhere. So you really have to treat Mother Earth right and she treats you just the same. [LAUGH]”

Patowmack Canal

FAITH LAPIDUS: Our question this week comes from the American island territory of Puerto Rico. Leidyonor Muniz Quinones wants to hear about George Washington’s Patowmack Canal.