A ribbon of community garden at Hardy Park in Washington, D.C., has steadily worked its way along the fences of the ball courts and play areas, as longtime neighborhood residents and newcomers pursue the will of their green thumbs. But community gardening can be a thorny proposition.

The blade of a J.D. Napier hoe is longer across the bottom than the top. The Kentucky blacksmith makes the hoes from old saw blades and coal mine roof bolts.

In southeastern Kentucky, coal mining and its artifacts are never far out of sight. And, tough as the terrain is, nor are gardens.

Spanish garden and landscape designer Javier Mariátegui passed through Washington, D.C., in March 2017, on a U.S. tour of talks and discussion of his 2016 book, “Gardens for the Senses.” Here, he offers images and commentary about his home garden in Guadalajara.

A milkweed giveaway at the DuPont Circle Farmers Market on Sunday May 28, 2017 went by in a hurry, with people seeking the plant to support monarch butterflies.

I wasn’t really thinking about a home brew when my relationship with a coffee tree began in the late 1990s.

When lilacs new in the dooryard bloom.

It is as if a botanic bomb dropped and blew up in slow motion with foliage and blossoms.

Tomato seedling agitation. Geranium anti-aging gas. Mysterious lantana mortality. It’s all part of the puzzle of shipping plants.