The Gardens of Baghdad

Public space and private solace are hard to come by in Baghdad, where locals take much pride in their gardens and landscaping.

"Gardens remain one of the few flourishes of public ornament on Baghdad's otherwise brown streets, defiant displays of foliage amid concrete blast walls and security checkpoints. And in its middle-class neighborhoods, Baghdad is a city of surprising topiary sculptures: leafy ficus trees are carved in geometric spirals, balls, arches and squares, as if to impose order on a chaotic sprawl. The trees provide a startling counterpoint of color and contour to the uniformly tan and rectilinear houses and walls surrounding them."