The Gardens That Grew From Rubble

In 2008, Mark Covington stood on Georgia Street in Detroit and saw nothing but abandoned houses, shattered windows, and lots choked with waist-high weeds. His neighbors were leaving. The banks had written the neighborhood off. Every reasonable metric said this place was dead. Covington started planting vegetables in the empty lots anyway. He hauled away trash by hand. He broke through concrete to reach soil.…