The Last of the Victory Gardens in the Fens

In the Back Bay Fens, a short walk from Fenway Park, more than five hundred small plots crowd seven and a half acres of parkland: tomatoes, roses, bean poles, a few folding chairs. These are the Fenway Victory Gardens, planted in 1942 when the federal government urged Americans to grow their own food for the war effort. Across the country, victory gardens eventually supplied a large share of the nation's fresh vegetables, and nearly all of them disappeared after the war. This one did not. In 1944 a gardener named Richard D. Parker helped found the Fenway Garden Society, which spent decades turning back proposals to replace the plots with other uses, including a parking lot. The gardens were later named for him. They sit within Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace and are the last World War II victory gardens in the country still in continuous use.