Gumbo Lane

This slightly surreal scene captures Wanda Gág’s rapture over the garden at her rural retreat Tumble Timbers. She nicknamed the garden Gumbo Lane. It produced nothing more exotic than lima beans and Swiss chard, but to Gág it was something primal and passionately alive. The plants sprout eyes, the wooden posts rear up like snakes, and the grape arbor appears ready to charge. The little building at upper right was the outhouse for Tumble Timbers, which had no electricity or running water.