Garden 85

One of the longest of the garden films in the JoAnn Elam Collection, “Garden 85″ appears to document the entirety of the 1985 growing season of Elam’s backyard garden in Logan Square, Chicago. From the beginning, Elam is shown preparing the land and planting the crops, with some of the earliest footage directly related to ” Collards Garden 1985 ” (F.2011-01-0116). From then on, the film follows her in her meditative work as the plants grow larger, produce a variety of vegetables like tomatoes, peas, bell peppers, and eggplant, and eventually die to be cleared out for the next year. Leader occasionally appearing in between segments is labeled “Early June,” “Late June,” “Early July,” “Early Aug,” and “Late Aug,” suggesting the film was shot and edited chronologically over the season.