Defiant gardens are found all around us. Gardens—even individual plants growing in bits of soil—in deserts, prisons, hospitals, highway medians, vacant lots, refugee camps, rooftops, dumps, wastelands, cracks in the sidewalk: these are all examples of defiant gardens, gardens created in extreme or difficult environmental, social, political, economic, or cultural conditions. These gardens represent adaptation to challenging circumstances, but they can also be viewed from other dimensions as sites of assertion and affirmation.

Little did I realize when doing research on Defiant Gardens that the garden stories I would unearth were only the beginning. Readers of Defiant Gardens, and those who have heard my talks, have been generous enough to share their stories with me. They are inspirational and often astounding. Their stories follow.

I addition in this section I have included a selection of the original source materials of stories I recounted in Defiant Gardens.

If readers of this site have additional defiant garden stories to share in peace as well as wartime please email Kenneth Helphand, and I will post your stories on line.

A good place to start is to listen to:

“Tending ‘Defiant Gardens‘ During Wartime” by Ketzel Levine.
Ketzel interviewed individuals whose stories I tell in the book. To listen to their stories in their voice brings you closer to the true meaning of defiant gardens.
Go to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5435131

Defiant garden stories continue. The following are found on this site, but there are many more. Please send me your story.

• Afghanistan
• Ghetto Gardens
• Guantanamo
• Iraq
• Japanese - American Gardens
• POWs
• Prison
• Vietnam