On

// stories from Eden //

By Lauren di Matteo

June 30^th, 2020

After coming across an article about a diverse community garden in City Heights, we decide to take a drive down to see what we can find. It begins as a beautiful…letdown. It’s just after noon and while the garden is buzzing with life amid lofty banana trees and sugar cane, with butterflies flitting around every flower in bloom, the place appears vacant. How is an urban garden that’s divided into nearly ninety plots, with gardeners from 45 different nations completely vacant?

Wandering a little further, we finally spot a small Karen family somewhat hidden under a canopy, shrouded behind the large leaves of several banana trees, chattering and eating lunch. With a little wind in our sails, we continue exploring until we happen upon one lone woman working a double-sized parcel of land, with no reverence for the ruling sun.

We stand at the fence, watching her quietly move from one task to the next—we’re entranced. Having zero gardening experience, we’re fascinated to see what she’s growing and what it is one does with a garden as large as this one. Not wanting to make her uneasy by staring, we turn slightly, admiring the sunflowers growing along the exterior of her plot, awkwardly waiting, hoping she might turn around and engage us. Then she does.

She looks up, a bit confused by our presence, and we respond with huge smiles and overly excited hellos, waving our hands rapidly like fools. She’s intrigued enough to move toward us.

Pointing to the sunflowers towering above us, we praise their beauty. She admires them along with us, taking no credit for them as she explains that someone planted sunflowers elsewhere and the wind must have carried their seeds over.

Their long, green stems stand at attention, lining her fence but not daring to enter in, simply offering their beautiful flowers as a gift. She reaches up and to my dismay begins tearing off some of the large leaves. Noticing my reaction, she points to the small plants below, their growth hindered by a little too much shade being cast over them. She doesn’t lay a hand on the flowers though. Looking up at them, she beams, “I like them.”

She introduces herself as On, and we do our best to mimic the very rounded “o” sound. Originally from Cambodia, she currently lives with the eldest of her seven children. She’s had this plot for six years and though her daughter doesn't want her coming and working so hard at her age, she does it anyway. She defends her decision by telling us this garden is good for her soul and she firmly believes it’s the fresh air that keeps her healthy.

Looking out at her crops, she discloses how much she misses Cambodia. When she was a young girl she used to work the land alongside her father because he didn’t have any sons. There were, "No tractors,” she explains, “only the cow.” Her father led the way plowing the soil with the cow while she followed behind planting seeds.

With a nostalgic smile she describes her younger years, delighted that she now spends her later years doing the same. She misses her father, misses her home, but this will do.

Here she digs and plants, waters and gathers her daily sustenance, just like she did in Cambodia. When she steps into this space from the surrounding urban neighborhood, she returns to a familiar place; it seems to be the closest she can get to her native land.

Throughout this little community, On has a reputation for producing the most crops and spending more time here than anyone else. She practically lives in the garden. Most of the growers have a couple of people to help them, but they shake their heads when they speak of On working her plots all alone.

For many, this is a place to labor and socialize, but On is a worker bee, offering a few kind words before quickly returning to her work. She plants enough to provide food for her own family as well as sell to local grocery stores to cover the cost of water and planting again.

While there are seasons when various plots become overgrown— neglected when life’s troubles take over—we’ve never seen it happen to On. Her garden is always filled with perfectly symmetrical rows of vegetables like mustard greens, water spinach, amaranth and more. It is lush, green, and flourishing as if it were spring year-round. No matter the time of day, we always find her tending to her garden with love and care, and somehow, it seems to take care of her too.