Maria stands in her intensely cultivated backyard garden in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Maria's lovely Bensonhurst, Brooklyn home.

A papaya plant grows in a pot on Maria's front porch. "I ate it and I just stuck the seed in there" she said.

The beautiful grape arbor that Maria has trained over the patio in front of the garage.

The arbor provides shade and lots of sweet table grapes.

Maria grows some of the loveliest grapes we have ever seen.

Maria's lush backyard garden where she grows from left to right tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans as well as herbs in the foreground, and squash along the fence in the back.

Maria harvests long, sweet, yellow peppers.

Maria likes these peppers because they produce so abundantly. Look how many peppers are on each plant!

Close up of the long, sweet peppers Maria grows.

Maria uses these plum tomatoes for sauce.

Maria grows unusual yellow pear tomatoes.

A third variety of tomatoes from Maria's garden.

An eggplant ready to be harvested.

Beautiful, ripe eggplant

Trellised cucumbers hang from the vine.

Maria has allowed a lettuce plant to mature for seed. A nearby cucumber uses it as a climbing support.

Maria grows hard squash which she trellises along her fence. She wraps large fruits in netting and hangs them from the fence so that they don't pull the plant down with their weight.

Maria's beans are trellised against a wall on the edge of her garden.

A potted strawberry ripens in the sunshine on Maria's patio.

Potted herbs including basil and rosemary sit on a ledge close to the house.

Fresh mint grows in a pot.

Beautiful blooming oleander reminiscent of Italy.

Close up of the oleander blooms.

Maria's persimmon tree is full of fruit, but they won't be ripe until the late fall.

Maria sent us home with some delicious peaches from her property just outside the city where she has many fruit trees.

She also sent us home with lots of peppers and eggplant. Grazie!