This story was originally published in The Providence Eye, a nonprofit newsroom covering events and issues of concern in Providence. Read more at pvdeye.org.

PROVIDENCE — You might find yourself doing a double take at an urban garden. Never mind the buildings rising up around it, or the cars whizzing by; people stop to gaze at the brilliant shades of green, the flowery blossoms, maybe even vegetables. Someone had the gumption to do this in the middle of a city block. Whose garden is it? And what has inspired them to work so hard in it?

For some homeowners, their little garden may be their private oasis. For city residents who have snagged a spot in one of Providence’s 52 community gardens, it can be a chance for socializing with others as well as growing food — maybe even enough to sell at a farmers market.

One special garden, at 1240 Westminster St. in the West End, is open every May through October on a lot large enough to hold a small home. It’s overflowing with flowers, vegetables, fruit, and greenery, some in pots, some in raised beds. Pollinator plants abound, attracting butterflies and bees.

For more than 10 years, it has been the passion project of a diverse group of people. Many have different physical and developmental needs. Others, who work at ReFocus, the nonprofit that owns the garden lot, are committed to helping those with differing abilities reach their full potential. URI master gardeners visit every week from May through October, volunteering because they know what gardening can do for a person.

ReFocus, a human services agency that supports people in 12 group homes in northern Rhode Island, houses one of its two Providence centers at 1228 Westminster St., across a small parking lot from the garden. Individuals served by ReFocus’ other Providence branch, at 45 Greeley St., come to the Westminster Street garden as well. Some of the people ReFocus helps live in its group homes; others live with family members or on their own, with support from the agency.

Most of the individuals ReFocus serves in Providence, even if they never work in the garden, love to visit it. One normally quiet gentleman associated with the ReFocus Center on Greeley Street comes to the garden and sings at the top of his lungs.

“The garden becomes a part of them,” said Ricky Campbell, co-assistant coordinator at ReFocus and project coordinator for the garden. It allows them to socialize, holding cookouts, birthday parties, and karaoke nights. Once a week after gardening, they stroll to Ogie’s Trailer Park restaurant nearby, as part of a program called “Weed, Water and Walk.”

The ReFocus individuals who sign up to work in the garden get to dig right into their own space. For starters, they decide, with the help of a master gardener and ReFocus staff, what to plant in their section. Plots are in raised wooden beds or cinder block towers, making the garden accessible for those with mobility issues. What’s more, this year, Diane Madsen, one of the URI master gardener volunteers, helped introduce two concepts that had everyone’s gardens thriving even more: “square foot gardening,” which means each raised bed is divided into multiple “square foot” sections, and “companion planting.” For that, all the ReFocus gardeners got to choose flowers and vegetables that complemented each other in the same shared bed.

Participants also have carte blanche to decorate their garden beds as they wish. ReFocus lists “urban gardening” in a category of activities called “Express Yourself,” which includes performing arts, digital photography, and storytelling.

The garden blooms with as many decorations as plants, from painted ceramic frogs and painted rocks to garden gnomes, whirligigs, a PRIDE flag, a banner saying “BLESSED,” a sign saying “Denise’s Blueberry Patch,” and a stick with “BETTY” written on it in a rainbow of colors. For the costume party in the garden on Oct. 31, everyone turned their plot into an homage to either Halloween or autumn.

One way that the individuals at ReFocus learn to feel useful and creative, thanks to gardening, is by sharing the vegetables and herbs they grow and making food to feed others. All the vegetables are organic; even the insect spray they use on the plants is organic. One individual who is non-verbal loves to help in the kitchen, cooking and tasting food.

As Abby Gallant, ReFocus’ associate director and director of training, noted, so many of the ReFocus individuals “are always at the receiving end of care. We wanted to change that.” They make salsa, dill pickles, and pesto pasta salad. In this way, they are empowered and help make others’ lives healthier.

Helen, 66, maneuvers to her plot using a cane. She knows a lot about gardening, growing cucumbers, eggplant, carrots, beets, beans, Swiss chard, peppers, spring onions, and mint. In March and April, she will help lead classes for other ReFocus gardeners on how to start plants as seeds in milk jugs.

“It’s wonderful. You get to watch your plants come to life,” she said. “Come on, babies, grow.” She looked at one of her square feet: “That square’s name is Joey. Hi, baby.”

For Helen, gardening is also a connection to her past, and in that way, it is healing. She grew up in South County, alongside a father who gardened. She talks about her sister, Rosemary, who died at age 62. “She had cancer of the throat. They thought they got it all. I’m gonna name a butterfly after my sister.”

URI master gardener and ReFocus volunteer Audrey Pincins, who has a certificate in horticultural therapy, is well aware that gardening has been proven to be therapeutic, even helping to improve the hearts of people in palliative care.

Helen was recently crowned “Gardener of the Week,” and received a metal butterfly as a prize. Any of the ReFocus individuals who tend to their plot twice a week are eligible for the award, which comes with a prize and an interview. Their photo and interview are posted in the building, and when they win, said Campbell, “You’d think we’d given them a million dollars.”

When ReFocus opened its doors on Westminster Street in 1996, the garden was a vacant lot near a decaying house. In 2012, ReFocus was awarded a grant from the city to buy the lot from its owner to turn it into a garden. The organization was convinced that gardening was an activity that could help their people socialize and be empowered by learning skills.

“Our mission,” Campbell said, was and is “to integrate our individuals into normal everyday life.”

By the time ReFocus bought the land, an urban farmer named Nathaniel Wood had been renting the space for about two years, and the house was gone. Wood had cleared some of the lot, brought in compost to dilute the lead in the soil, and begun to sell vegetables, fruit, and flowers at farmers markets. When he suddenly was notified he had to leave, some in the community protested to the city on his behalf, and the city let him choose another lot in the West End for a garden.

“I was upset. Now I’m happy,” said Wood, who co-farms Foggy Notion Farm in Johnston. “It’s great what they’ve done. It’s still a garden, a green space with food growing. I see it and think ‘Well, this is cool.’”

Neighbors love to stop by the ReFocus garden. The URI master gardeners have led them on tours of the garden during neighborhood strolls, offered soil testing, free seeds and planting calendars, and answered questions.

ReFocus, which is a member of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, wants to use its garden to help do more for the community, Campbell said. They know that food insecurity is a real issue. They hope to get a grant from the city to build a greenhouse in the back of the lot, which would help increase production.

Gaze into the ReFocus garden from the street and you see the names of the plants everywhere, scrawled on the sticks next to them: zigzag golden, mountain mint, pearly everlasting, hollyhock, sage, queen of the Alps, noble yarrow — the list goes on and on. If you’re lucky, some of the ReFocus individuals will be in the garden, tending to their plots. And maybe you’ll think to yourself, “Oh, that’s who gardens there. What an inspiration!”

Ellen Welty is an ardent fan of Providence, where she has lived since 2000. Originally a magazine editor and writer in New York City, she is a freelancer.