For years, I've driven on the Garden State Parkway in Clifton and wondered about the scene flashing by on the side of the road: a maze-like network of makeshift wooden fencing, rows of plants and people bending over or toiling with rakes and shovels. It was all right under the towering PSEG power lines.

This week, I finally pulled off the next exit to check it out.

And I found a community garden that's been operating since 1979. It has no name as far as I can tell. But for those who work the soil there, it's a little bit of heaven in a very unlikely place.

There's a 94-year-old veteran, longtime Clifton residents, retired police officers and firefighters, and immigrants from Korea and the former Yugoslavia. Oh, and one guy named “Tony Beans” - because this is Jersey after all.