John Follmer is an Iraq war vet and an adviser to Los Angeles County on military and veterans affairs, who works with homeless vets on the tough streets of Los Angeles.
But on Thursdays, he's a gardener.
"We are here in the center of the largest city in the United States, and aside from an occasional helicopter, it's hard to imagine you're only a quarter mile away from the 405 freeway," Follmer says, standing in the dappled sunlight under the trees.
This garden, built in 1968 on the West LA Veterans Affairs Campus, had fallen into wild disrepair when Follmer found it six years ago and started to clean it up.
"It's just such a peaceful place, and I think that this place truly is a deserving place for the veterans," he says.
There's a chain of koi ponds with giant goldfish and some newly planted Japanese maple trees, and Follmer is hoping for active beehives soon.
Veterans volunteer at the garden every Thursday. One Air Force veteran comes and spends the whole day breaking sticks into mulch, a kind of meditation. Some just come to soak in the serenity.
"We always tell the vets, like, 'You don't have to come here and work. The simple art of stepping into the garden justifies its purpose,' " says Follmer.
The garden fills a grotto on the north side of the gigantic 387-acre West LA campus, which was donated in 1888 specifically for use by veterans. In 2012, an NPR investigation found the VA was using the campus for all sorts of other questionable things, while thousands of veterans slept on the streets. Many lawsuits, protests and government promises later, housing for more than 1,200 vets has been built and there's construction all over the campus. But it's years behind schedule.
The Trump administration has sent a mixed message. The president promised to supercharge building here, but then failed to fund a single new bed in this year's budget request. VA told NPR that funding will come later. And the White House has required VA officials and advocates to sign NDAs about construction on campus, drawing bipartisan complaints from Congress.
Follmer is intimately acquainted with the tumult regarding the campus. For him, the garden is an escape.
But he says it's also a key part of what this VA campus needs if it's going to be a community and not just a giant homeless shelter.
"The vets are a little upset because they get this far up North Campus, and there's no supermarkets, there's no coffee shops, there's nothing. And I have to keep telling them, just hold on, something will come, and then it is our job as veterans to make the most of it," he says.
The dream is to make it a community where vets want to live permanently – not just when they get back on their feet. There's enough room for preferential housing for hundreds of middle-class veterans who work at the VA hospital, or student veterans. Follmer wants to have movie showings in the natural amphitheater below the garden. Vets recovering from addiction especially need things to help occupy their time, he says, and maybe inspire them.
"Every single Thursday from sunup to sundown, we're out here with master gardeners. When something was left for 20 years of neglect, now we're learning what to take back, what to throw away. … This is proof that one year of consistency can beat back 20 years of neglect," he says.
He sees that in himself, in lots of other veterans who find their way here, and in the rough beauty of the still-unfinished garden.
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