Kim
A nine-year-old girl who was born in Vietnam and lives in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. She is the first one to plant beans in the vacant lot, due to a longing to connect with her deceased father who was a farmer.
Ana
An older woman whose Romanian parents were born in a village named Groza. She has lived in the neighborhood and watched it change over the course of many years. She worked as a typist for the Parole Department for twenty years.
Wendell
An older man who remarks that he and Ana are “the only white people left in the building.” Wendell is a school janitor who grew up on a farm in Kentucky.
Gonzalo
A teenager who was born in Guatemala and moved to Cleveland with his family. He watches over his uncle Juan.
Tío Juan
Juan is Gonzalo’s uncle. He speaks neither English nor Spanish, but rather an Indigenous lanuage. He was a farmer in Guatemala and grows food in the garden.
Leona
An African-American woman who grew up at her grandmother’s house in Atlanta. Her Granny loved goldenrod and Leona decides to plant it in the garden. She gets the Public Health Department to remove the garbage from the lot.
Sam
A seventy-eight-year-old Jewish man. Sam loves words. He also loves being friendly to others and trying to repair the rips in the neighborhood's social fabric.
Virgil
A young girl whose father is from Haiti. Her father makes her dig out five plots in his scheme to plant baby lettuce to sell to fancy restaurants.
Sae Young
A woman who moved to Cleveland from Korea with her husband. They own a laundry shop but her husband died young. She was robbed and attacked and has been afraid of people ever since.
Curtis
A twenty-seven-year-old African-American man known for his big muscles. He plants tomatoes in the garden in an effort to win over his former girlfriend, Lateesha.
Lateesha
Lateesha once dated Curtis but she dumped him when she found out he was cheating on her. She loves tomatoes and Curtis grows them to try to win her over.
Royce
Royce is a fifteen-year-old Black teenager. Royce sleeps in the garden at night and says his dad beat him up and kicked him out. At first, the others are afraid of him. But soon they learn he’s kind and works well with his hands. He begins to help the others and they, in turn, help him.
Nora
A British nurse who cares for Mr. Myles. She takes Mr. Myles out for walks and encourages him to participate in the garden by planting a plot.
Mr. Myles
An elderly Black man. He had a stroke and can’t walk or talk. He seems to be losing his interest in life but he becomes animated again when he plants flowers in the community garden.
Maricela
A sixteen-year old girl of Mexican descent. She is pregnant and doesn’t want to have a baby but her parents won’t let her abort or adopt. Maricela doesn’t like gardening but she participates in the garden as part of a program for pregnant teens.
Amir
An Indian business owner in the Gibb Street area. Amir grows beautiful purple eggplants that everyone in the garden admires.
Florence
The descendant of formerly enslaved people who migrated from Louisiana to Colorado. Florence can’t garden due to her arthritic hands, but she watches the garden closely and feels proud and protective of it.
