John Follmer came back from Iraq. Now he’s trying to bring a garden back, too.
The Iraq war veteran is leading a crew of fellow veteran volunteers rehabbing a neglected Japanese garden on the West LA Veterans Affairs Campus — a project that pairs physical labor with the kind of quiet work that doesn’t always show up in a discharge summary.
The garden had fallen into disrepair before Follmer and his crew took it on. No specific timeline for the rehabilitation was available from NPR’s reporting published Monday, June 2, 2026, but the effort is ongoing, with veterans doing the hands-on work of clearing, restoring, and tending the space themselves.
The West LA VA Campus sits on federal land that has long served — and sometimes failed — the veterans who rely on it. Restoration projects like this one are relatively rare on the property; a neglected Japanese garden isn’t the kind of thing that typically lands on a facilities priority list.
Follmer’s project isn’t affiliated with a formal VA program, according to NPR’s account — it’s driven by the volunteers themselves. That distinction matters. Veterans running their own restoration work, on their own schedule, without waiting for an agency to greenlight it, is a different kind of reclamation than anything that comes through official channels.
The garden’s Japanese design — traditionally built around principles of stillness and careful arrangement — adds a layer the volunteers may not have planned for when they first showed up with tools. Whether that resonates with the men and women doing the digging is something NPR’s reporting, illustrated with photography by Stella Kalinina, leaves open.
The VA Campus has no announced completion date for the garden project, and it’s unclear whether the effort will eventually receive institutional support or remain entirely volunteer-driven.
Originally reported by NPR. Read the original report.
