Seedfolks

Author: Paul Fleischman

Kim started it. She didn’t know she was starting it, but she needed a way to connect with the father who had died before she was born. He had been a farmer when the family lived in Vietnam, but there were no fields in Cleveland—the only piece of land nearby was a trash-filled vacant lot next to the apartment house.
Kim chose a secluded corner, cleared out trash and weeds, dug into the soil, and planted lima beans. She vowed to take care of them and make them grow so her father’s spirit would know that she was his daughter. She didn’t know someone was watching…
As early spring (too early for lima beans) becomes true spring, and then turns into summer, a garden takes shape. One by one, others notice that this forgotten place where everyone dumped their garbage could be something more. They clear their own spots and plant vegetables or flowers. A woman who knows what it takes to get things done pulls the right strings to have the city clear out the accumulated trash. Individually and together they transform the lot from a weed-choked eyesore into a beautiful garden, and they undergo a radical transformation themselves.

Thirteen people tell their individual stories about the garden, each from a unique point of view. All of the individual stories build on one another to tell a larger story: of how the neighborhood becomes more than just a cluster of buildings—how it becomes a community of people connected by the garden.