Welcome to fall gardens. There are five gardeners to meet here. They have been my garden "elders".
Morning glories are still glorious in the fall and will soon drop seeds for next spring.
We urban gardeners have probably lost most of our garden savvy elders. I recently met a woman whose aunties lived in a house on my block during World War II. She told me that all the backyards on the east side of the dead end of my block had been joined together during the war, to create one continuous "Victory Garden." These were the gardens that Americans were encouraged to grow so that our country could save money and stay healthy during the war. I wish I could find those gardeners and ask them all the questions that I have about growing vegetables in the city. I have been gardening since 2008, and I have found in the last few years that the best teachers are garden elders: anyone who has been toiling in a backyard like mine to figure out how to get a lot of food from a small space. I have learned a great deal from my friends in the neighborhood who garden. On this site I created three portraits of gardeners who help me the most and inspire me the most. Click on the gardeners' names above to visit their gardens. I chose to create portraits of gardeners as they are looking back on the summer and mulling over their work.