The Plants of Virgil Village

A photo essay

One of my favorite things about LA is the way in which nature overcomes human structures. Bougainvilleas take over fences, jasmine vines wrap themselves up light poles, concrete alleys teem with citrus fruits from neighboring yards, and palm trees grow in the middle of the LA River. There’s a wildness to the city that keeps me on my toes. In recent years, with waves of gentrification, there are efforts to tame the city’s natural unruliness, to cut down trees, to trim bushes, to uproot imperfect gardens and bring in landscape designers and create manmade order.

A year and a half ago, I set out to photograph the plants of my neighborhood for the LA Times Plants Instagram page. I wanted to capture the colorful weeds, fruit trees, and oddly shaped bushes that create such vibrancy in this little pocket of the city.

Looking back at these images, I wonder if we’re headed into a cookie cutter future where nature is always controlled. What would it look like to learn to live with this wildness? To understand and respect its beauty? To embrace it as part of our urban identity the way so many longtime communities have already been doing?