Resistance

Why was Maral’s plot forcefully decluttered, while other gardeners with exten- sive structures on their plots were left largely undisturbed? The stories of two other gardeners illustrate the dynamics of power in the garden, the space for resistance, and the connection to neighborhood change. An older and disabled gardener, Tai had a plot many considered to be more visually egregious than Maral’s, with exten- sive scaffolding visible through the chain-link fence close to the main entrance. She was a sophisticated gardener who conducted experiments on her plot, even cross- breeding plants to create unique varieties. During the forceful cleanup of Maral’s plot that winter, Tai received a harsh reprimand from the city worker for the appearance of her plot. One of the “lawyers” gave Tai a written notice to clean up her plot or face Maral’s fate. In a vivid illustration of just how differently people see the garden, Tai asked me and others to serve as her eyes and imagine what her crit- ics would say about particular aspects of her plot. She was unable to see the same physical features in the same manner as the proponents of the green space vision. For her, everything had a purpose connected directly to the needs of her plants.

During the intervention, Tai wanted to know exactly which structures were in violation and asked for it in writing. Over the course of the next 6 months, Tai replaced some of the plastic and metal with more attractive wood, and a few of her objects were discarded by the steering committee. Nevertheless, much of her struc- ture remained intact. In resisting the green space imperative, Tai not only drew on her reputation as a master gardener and on her experience with the operation of urban community gardens, but also on the extensive social capital she built in the garden through the sharing of knowledge, material goods, and goodwill. Some of her biggest critics qualified every statement about the ugliness of her plot with avowals of her generosity and kindness. And those who were less interested in the green space vision insisted that she be left alone to garden in her own way, and con- ceded that her dedication to recycling was worthy of praise. She was able to find people to help her interpret the legalistic language of the written warning and con- struct responses in English. Moreover, Tai drew on her own residence in the public housing development to confuse and complicate arguments about the local commu- nity seeing the garden as an eyesore. For instance, she countered arguments about local residents’ being offended by the ugliness of her prominently situated plot by saying that she also lived across the street. All of this made it difficult to mobilize much support for a forced cleanup of Tai’s plot. By building multiple connections with people across lines of categorical difference and complicating morally tinged discourses of localness (see also Martinez 2010), Tai was able to push forward her farm vision of the garden, resisting the replication of stratifying structures that placed her in a vulnerable and powerless position.

Vision Prevails Over Rules

Meanwhile, Martin, a middle-aged gardener who immigrated from Eastern Europe decades prior, had the largest structure in the entire garden. A skilled craftsman, he had built an enormous oblong cold frame, covered in  milky  plastic  in the cold season. Unlike Maral and Tai, Martin built with clean lines and econ- omy, and maintained a consistency of building material, using uniform pieces of wood rather than recycled metal and plastic. Enormous  plants  thrived  under-  neath the cold frame, cultivated by custom cross-bred worms and irrigated by a system of small rain spouts. He saw nothing in  common  between  his plot and those of Maral and Tai, but on the emotional winter day of the cleanup, the city official pointed out his plot as violating rules against structures. Martin was not there to defend himself, but he did not need to be. Members of the steering com- mittee directed the conversation immediately toward the beautiful, lush,  and  orderly paradise inside Martin’s cold frame, which was  not apparent  because of  the plastic covering it, and encouraged the city worker to go check it out  for himself. It is not that Maral, and especially Tai, did not have an extensive knowl- edge of gardening and utilize complex and innovative  techniques.  It  is  that,  unlike Martin, the materials and the methods they used did not conform to the  visual standards of the increasingly popular urban agriculture practices of gentri- fying New York. Unlike Tai, Martin did not need to actively draw on his institu- tional knowledge or social networks that transcended visions of the garden, although as a middle-class white man and a respected gardener, he would have had considerable resources there. The design of his plot, while violating the Parks Department rules about structures, strongly conformed to the  aesthetic guidelines  of the green vision associated with urban food production trends described  by Zukin (2010), and would withstand challenges.