The back-lane garden

Awa has lived for two years in an apartment overlooking the back lane. Behind the building, there is a patch of ground where nobody ever goes, with old boards, weeds and a rusty bicycle. Awa thinks that this place could be more beautiful. One spring evening, she invites three neighbours over: Samuel, a student, Madame Tremblay, a retiree who has always had a garden, and Ahmed, the ground-floor neighbour.

Awa explains her idea: they will clean up the corner, then make a garden; it will be prettier than now and cheaper than buying their vegetables. Madame Tremblay says that this corner is the sunniest in the lane and that the tomatoes will be better there than anywhere else. Ahmed asks if the children will be able to help, and Awa answers that they will have their own planter box, the smallest but the most colourful. Samuel proposes a list: they will need boxes, soil and tools, and he will go to the hardware store on Saturday. He adds that raw lumber will be cheaper than ready-made boxes, but that it will take more work, and Madame Tremblay says that more work is better, because they will learn.

Two weeks later, the corner is unrecognizable. Ahmed's children plant radishes, because that is the vegetable that grows the fastest, and Awa chooses tomatoes and hot peppers, like at her mother's. Then, one night in May, the cold comes back and half of the plants turn black. Awa is disappointed, but Madame Tremblay says that they will start again, because the second time is often the best.

The summer is long and hot. In August, Awa picks her first hot peppers, stronger than the ones from the grocery store, and the children's radishes are eaten before they even reach the kitchen. On the last evening of summer, everyone gathers in the lane and Ahmed brings a soup from the garden. Awa says that next year they will make it bigger, and that it will be even better.