Gardens have always been places of leisure, pleasure and production; they reflect identities, dreams and visions. Deeply rooted in their culture, gardens have immense symbolic potential. The recent revival of horticulture has focused less on the garden as a romantic refuge than as a place where we might imagine the future and develop solutions. Urban farms, vertical gardens and other innovative projects in art, architecture and urban planning demonstrate that the present return to the garden is no timid retreat, but a pioneering quest for a world in which social and ecological justice count for something.