Best place to watch a robin and a rat frolic in the wild

It was a rare urban moment: in the Fenway Victory Gardens at dusk, a summer breeze redolent through the hundreds of blooming flowers, a pert robin intently hopped down a path between two of the park's 500 or so plots. The object of its quest? A jolly rat, taking in the sun's last rays, who joined his new feathered friend in a bucolic gambol. Perhaps this is a metaphor for the way the Victory Gardens reconcile the beauties of nature with the hard realities of the city. Be that as it may, this piebald patchwork of community gardens, founded in 1942 to grow vegetables for the home front during World War II, offers a lush and various respite from asphalt and traffic, its grid of scrupulously maintained, highly individualistic tracts along the banks of the Muddy River unfolding a seasonal display of flora as well as attracting an exotic assortment of wildlife and birds. And not just rats. "I've heard there are rats there, snacking on the vegetables," says Boston Parks Commission liaison Bob Pessek. "It's disconcerting to see them, but lots of birds are attracted as well. We get quite a few visitors passing through here to see the Rose Gardens further down who stop and say, wow, what's that?"

Fenway Victory Garden, Park Drive and Peterborough Street, Boston residents can apply to till a plot of their own by calling (617) 267-6650.