Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus, you get strawberries.

Ron Finley, known for promoting “guerrilla gardening” in South Central Los Angeles, frames gardening as both healing and resistance. Calling it “therapeutic” highlights the mental and emotional restoration that comes from tending living things and reclaiming agency in environments shaped by stress, scarcity, and neglect. Calling it “defiant” points to the political edge of growing food in places often labeled “food deserts,” where residents have limited access to fresh produce and little control over local land use. The punchline—“Plus, you get strawberries”—underscores the practical payoff: joy and nourishment are not abstract ideals but tangible, edible results.