I would call them gardens of hope. In the midst of war and brutality, people still have hope for peace, for change, for living, growing things. Nurturing plants is a way to express caring and kindness that may not be shown otherwise.

Not to hijack this thread, but would you include growing a container deck garden(and no automatic irrigation) in 45C heat of Saudi Arabia, or a garden in Brazil over run with army ants as gardens of hope, or exercises in futility?

On another forum there was a recent posting about the chief parks superintendent in Baghdad and his efforts to regreen the city in midst of the civil war going on there. I have a hard time imagining how they recruit employees to do the work when the working conditions are so precarious, and city water supplies so inconstant. I suspect that most americans have no real idea of living in a war zone, since we have not been invaded within living memory, and have no concept of being occupied by foreign forces.

It would seem that monastery gardens during the middle ages were also a similar concept of gardening for both sustenance and solace in very dark times, and the gardens at the Alhambra were also being created when the Moorish empire in Spain was contracting and under constant attack.

"people make them in the most adverse conditions"

I'll take just that phrase and give this memory: We used to visit Tijuana in the summer once in a while in the 60's and 70's when we lived near San Diego. At the border there was a wide space that looked like a dry river bed along the border that was traversed by a bridge. This was filled with shacks made of scrap aluminum or scrap wood. The people who lived in the shacks made paper flowers to sell in the town. They emerged from their dirty poor shacks with huge immaculate crepe paper flowers, maybe 3' across, in all colors -- white, turquoise, hot pink, hot yellow, hot red.

To get to the real point, some of the shacks sported tiny flower beds or window boxes with bright annual geraniums (pelargoniums). The scene left a lasting impression. Somehow they managed to create a bit of cheer in that place.

A while back, the city cleared out all the shacks.

Well, I wandered from the main topic here. I never thought of these little 'gardens' as defiant, just a spot of color in hard lives.

I agree with the hopeful aspect - the desire of something coupled with the expectation of obtaining it. If the seat of hope is in the human will, once infused though buffeted by desperate circumstances, it survives. Reflects a human trait, too, the desire to nurture something you may not see come to fruition.

It is an amazement to see gardens scratched from the dust of a ghetto - survival is a strong motivator - a Japanese garden from collected rocks and shrubs; a little plot for a moment's distraction, or a connection back to the familiar.

A defiant garden is more an idea of achieving than it would be of resisting. Coaxing a beet to grow in the Warsaw Ghetto kind of puts a perspective on the "blank slate" situations people seek help with though, doesn't it?

Ink, That sounds like such an interesting book! I put it on hold at my library. I read reviews for the book and this line from one critic caught my eye; "Sometimes gardens can become a last-ditch attempt at civility in an insane world."

I think it's about making order in chaos, creating beauty in the face of ugliness, and focusing on life in the presence of death.

I also know that, for me, tending to my garden helps my depression. It's something about the combination of hard work, being outside, and the full sensual pleasure of it all. And the boost to my sense of competence when what I've wrought actually produces something.

Thanks for the info on the book. Can't wait to read it.
Patty

A number of years ago DH and I walked the Heart Mountain, WY. WWII Japanese internment camp on a blustery fall day. We were alone walking with the ghosts of a population suddenly captured and thrust into a poorly run, starvation situation. All remains of the camp have been removed except for the covered underground storage pits where the inmates stored potatoes and root crops they grew. Even today I can feel the same sense of brute survival I felt then that drove them to plant and grow food on top of that windswept mountain in a difficult situation.

"Defiant Gardens" is an excellent title for a book on this subject. Planting a seed in the ground, watching it sprout, waiting for the blossom while surrounded by great adversity is an individual's way to defy the 'enemy'. It must be linked onto one of the survival genes in that complicated DNA chain.

As a few worthies are gathered I can tell you that a friend of mine journalising in Lebanon set some plants in pots on a balcony and it connected him to a place that we can become too familiar with and forget the power of. I just love the Italian connection to the tomato and the fact that, according to the book mentioned this plant has a stronger pull than whatever else may be connected with a sense of belonging.

My own garden has special reasons for being, but nothing so poignant as in these tales.

This was in the paper perhaps a year or so ago, with a picture. A soldier requested the makings of a bit of lawn, with which he made a lawn of about 3' square, or a very small rectangle, right there on active duty, and he kept it up, and it reminded him of home. Does anyone remember this story? I doubt I remember it exactly.

Maro

Maro, I thought of that too. They water with their water bottles, and the caretakers rotate as the soldiers come in and go home. Here is the story:

Here is a link that might be useful: military grass

That's the one! Thanks, Spunky.

I remember reading a story about a prisoner of war. I don't remember which war or where he was but after his release, he said that the reason he survived when so many didn't was that he thought of his gardens and his grape vineyards. Every day he would think about the work he would be doing if he were home. He said it gave him the hope to survive.

About 11 years ago, we were in Maine, working for the summer. Our son, then 19, was hospitalized in Portland for 5 and a half weeks. We thought he might die. The hospital did not know how to help him. It was a very trying time for our family. We were living in a travel trailer on the property of my husband's supervisor. Knowing I loved to garden, he and his wife told me "You can do what ever you want in the yard. Just give us a list of plants you want and we'll get them or you can mailorder them and we'll pay for them." I spent many hours planning and planting. I will always be grateful to them for that because the gardening and prayer helped me keep my sanity during that very difficult summer. And in case you're wondering, our son is quite well now. These same folks arranged for him and me to fly to the West coast and live a month with her brother, a physician who specializes in nutrition and food allergies. As long as he avoids the foods he is allergic too, he does well.

Sweet stories. (I was expecting the thread to be about evil Home Owner Associations.)

-VW