177 results
JPTokyo, Japan
A citizen project keeping bees on Ginza rooftops to make urban green networks visible. Linked to rooftop gardens and local food culture, it helped spark urban beekeeping across Japan.
gin-pachi.jp
AUMelbourne, Australia
Established in 1982 on a reclaimed 10-acre former landfill near Melbourne, CERES is an environment park and urban farm combining environmental education, urban agriculture, and social enterprise.
ceres.org.au+1
NLRotterdam, Netherlands
A rooftop farm opened in 2012 on the Schieblock in central Rotterdam, the largest open-air roof farm in the Netherlands and an educational hub for urban agriculture and climate resilience.
dakakker.nl+1
JPTokyo, Japan
Opened in 2022 atop Mitsubishi Estate's Otemachi Building, this sharing-type community farm invites anyone to take part, growing vegetables collectively under a concept of creating new urban 'commons'.
prtimes.jp+1
FRParis, France
A shared-garden framework based on the City of Paris's 2003 'Main Verte' (Green Hand) charter, under which resident associations run gardens on city plots, committing to public access, events, composting and organic growing to spread social bonds and greenery.
paris.fr+1
KRSeoul, South Korea
Urban agriculture promoted as policy by the City of Seoul, with box-shaped plots on rooftops and building gaps where residents grow vegetables together; the city and districts subsidize most setup costs and run classes that foster community.
m.koreatimes.co.kr+1
ESSeville, Spain
A permaculture garden on about 5,000 m2 of vacant land in Seville's historic centre, occupied by residents in 2004 for communal use. Grounded in recycling and self-management, it remains a rare green space and site of environmental education downtown.
una.city+1
USSan Diego, United States
The IRC turned a 2.3-acre vacant lot in San Diego's City Heights into an urban farm for refugees and immigrants. Opened in 2009, around 70 families grow foods from their homelands while putting down roots in a new country.
sandiego.gov+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A community resource in the London Borough of Lewisham for better mental health. In its green spaces people grow and cook food and make art together, a leading social-prescribing site supporting recovery and empowerment.
centreformentalhealth.org.uk+1
JPTama, Japan
In 2014 Aiwa Elementary in Tama became Japan's first Edible Schoolyard, modeled on Alice Waters' Berkeley program. The school garden and kitchen serve as 'living classrooms' where children learn through all five senses, from sowing to harvest, cooking and eating, as a formal subject. Pupils experience nutrient cycles, the interconnection of life and ties to their community.
edibleschoolyard-japan.org+2
NZAuckland, New Zealand
A neighborhood compost hub in Auckland's Kaipatiki that accepts residents' bokashi food scraps, turns them into compost for a teaching garden, and offers free workshops via Compost Collective in pursuit of the city's 2040 zero-waste goal.
kaipatiki.nz+2
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A movable organic garden built inside builders' skips in the middle of the King's Cross redevelopment in London. Made largely (~90%) from reclaimed materials, with beehives and bug hotels, it turned a gap space into a site for youth education and community.
globalgeneration.org.uk+1
JPOsaka, Japan
Launched Osaka's first urban beekeeping on the rooftop of the Yanmar Building in Umeda's Chayamachi district in March 2010. Rather than honey itself, its aim is promoting local greening through bee pollination and providing food and environmental education. It has expanded with an experience-based apiary in Hattori Ryokuchi park.
u-mitsubachi.com+1
JPFukuoka, Japan
A Fukuoka (Hakata) based NPO devoted to urban beekeeping and public outreach about honeybees. Under the motto that a town where bees fly is a good town, it keeps bees on building rooftops and other sites, drawing attention to the city's vanishing nature and linking people with nature and their community.
seibutsutayousei.city.fukuoka.lg.jp+1
JPNagoya, Japan
An urban-beekeeping NPO based in Naka-ku, Nagoya, formed in the wake of the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity COP10 held in Nagoya. It keeps bees on a rooftop in the Nishiki district to raise interest in biodiversity and the environment through downtown beekeeping.
maruhachi-project.com+1
USChicago, United States
A West-Side Chicago urban-beekeeping cooperative founded by three urban beekeepers in 2004. Originally aimed at job training in an area with scarce employment, it now runs more than 50 hives across the city with a focus on education, health, and awareness of urban nature.
chicagohoneycoop.com+1
USSeattle, United States
A demonstration completed in fall 2012 that turned two concrete walls at the University of Washington's Gould Hall into urban habitat, combining a biodiversity green wall, an edible green screen, and rainwater harvesting. Roof-collected rainwater irrigates hop and kiwi vines, demonstrating reduced energy use, heat-island mitigation, and increased urban biodiversity.
sustainability.uw.edu+1
USNew Orleans, United States
Founded in 2006, this was the first replication of Alice Waters' Berkeley Edible Schoolyard. Gardens encircling the school and a kitchen classroom serve as living classrooms where students at low-income public charter schools learn from seed to table as part of the regular curriculum, now spread across four FirstLine schools.
edibleschoolyard.org+1
USBrooklyn, New York, United States
Opened in 2010 by transforming a concrete parking lot at Brooklyn's P.S. 216 into a half-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom, this is the NYC demonstration school. Children learn from seed to plate while growing about 160 crops, and the model has expanded to network schools in East Harlem and the Bronx, reaching thousands of students.
edibleschoolyard.org+1
JPChuo, Tokyo, Japan
Opened in spring 2022 on a building rooftop in Tokyo's Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, this urban community garden grows about 200 species of edible plants. Run by Heiwa Real Estate with Edible Schoolyard Japan as an 'edible schoolyard' in the city, it hosts food education for the nearby Sakamoto Elementary School and community exchange, and has won green-city awards.
edibleschoolyard-japan.org+1
JPChuo, Tokyo, Japan
Following its work at Aiwa Elementary in Tama, Edible Schoolyard Japan extended edible education to central Tokyo, where pupils of Chuo Ward's Sakamoto Elementary School take edible lessons linked to the nearby Edible KAYABAEN rooftop garden. It brings garden-based food education, from seed to table, into an inner-city public elementary school.
ediblekayabaen.jp+1
GBLondon (national), United Kingdom
Launched in 2007 by the Royal Horticultural Society, this is the UK's largest school-gardening campaign. It gives children aged 2–18 opportunities to grow plants and connect with nature, supporting over 30,000 schools and groups and some 2.1 million children, and promotes gardening as a teaching tool through teacher training and resources.
rhs.org.uk+1
JPKobe, Japan
Kobe's urban-farming push covers gardens in downtown parks, vacant lots and rooftops where residents grow and harvest their own food. Beyond raising interest in agriculture, it builds community and tackles city issues such as putting vacant land and houses to use, with the city's Machi no Noen Navi guiding people to the spots.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
JPKobe, Japan
A Kobe City effort in the rural Kita and Nishi wards to promote urban-rural exchange and rural settlement. In countryside only about 30 minutes from the city center, rural-settlement coordinators bridge visitors to residency amid vacant-house and abandoned-farmland challenges, while residents, students and universities work on satoyama biodiversity conservation and terraced-field restoration.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
JPNerima, Tokyo, Japan
Using Tokyo's Agricultural Landscape Conservation District system, Nerima designated the Takamatsu (2015) and Minami-Oizumi (2019) districts. It carries dwindling urban farmland forward as open space and protects the agricultural landscape community-wide — a leading case of urban farmland conservation.
city.nerima.tokyo.jp+1
JPYokohama, Japan
Under its Midori-Up Plan, Yokohama develops citizen farms and harvest-experience farms and, since 2014, runs the 'Yokohama Farm Expedition' agri-tour. It officially expands opportunities for residents to engage with farming while conserving farmland that remains in the large city.
city.yokohama.lg.jp+1
JPSaitama, Japan
Saitama operates several municipal community farms, including recreation gardens and the Citizens' Forest Community Farm, with instructor-supported plots, giving residents farm experience, community exchange and nature learning — a participatory urban-agriculture policy harnessing a designated city's greenery and farmland.
city.saitama.lg.jp+1
JPHadano, Kanagawa, Japan
Hadano's first experience-type farm, opened April 2018 with support from JA Hadano and the city's urban-farmland conservation council, using spring water from a nationally designated source and featuring a biotope pond.
jacom.or.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A new-farmer network coordinated by the Tokyo Agricultural Council that used the 2018 lease facilitation law to achieve Japan's first new entry into farming via leased productive greenland in 2019.
tosinouti.or.jp+1
JPNishitokyo / Higashikurume, Tokyo, Japan
An area-management organization created alongside the redevelopment of the large Hibarigaoka Danchi spanning Nishitokyo and Higashikurume, Tokyo. Its hub 'Hibari Terrace 118', a renovated former housing block, includes a community garden and lawn plaza where residents connect through planting, harvesting and seasonal events.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPHino, Tokyo, Japan
One of UR's danchi-regeneration projects reusing the blocks of the former Tamadaira Danchi (1958) in Hino, Tokyo. With the ~45-plot 'Hidamari Farm', a 'Colony Garden' inspired by Danish kolonihave, and a fruit-bearing yard, it is garden-equipped rental housing where residents and locals connect through growing food.
ur-net.go.jp+2
JPMinato, Tokyo, Japan
A rooftop paddy and field in Mori Building's Roppongi Hills where, for over 20 years, residents and workers and their children have planted and harvested rice. A pioneering case embedding a Japanese agricultural landscape and community activity within a high-rise mixed-use development.
mori.co.jp+2
JPMinato, Tokyo, Japan
An orchard, edible garden and urban beekeeping programme within the large green spaces of Azabudai Hills (opened 2023). An ~200 sqm orchard grows 11 fruit species plus herbs and edible plants; children's honey harvests and greening workshops connect residents, workers and citizens to food and farming in the city centre.
azabudai-hills.com+2
JPChiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
An urban-beekeeping project by Mitsubishi Estate and the Ecozzeria Association on rooftops in the Otemachi-Marunouchi district. Area workers join beekeeping, honey harvesting and forage planting, with the honey circulating back into the district — a worker-participation model of rooftop food/biodiversity town-making.
ecozzeria.jp+2
JP京都市 / Kyoto, Japan
A rain garden built by Kyoto City at a road intersection using traditional garden-making techniques such as karesansui (dry landscape). It takes in road runoff through an inlet and temporarily stores and infiltrates it in a gravel bed (suhama) up to ~30 cm thick, simultaneously delivering flood mitigation, groundwater recharge, heat-island relief, water purification and landscaping—an iconic multifunctional green infrastructure case.
city.kyoto.lg.jp+1
JP東京都世田谷区 / Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
The corridor created by undergrounding the Odakyu line (Shimokita Senrogai) was regenerated as continuous green infrastructure of a rain-garden plaza, open meadow and planting strips. The municipal Shimokita Rain Garden Plaza is designed so people can cross on stepping stones even when water pools, delivering stormwater management, biodiversity and community. The citizen group Shimokita Engei-bu is deeply involved through planting, beekeeping and composting.
shimokitazawa.info+2
DEアンダーナッハ / Andernach, Germany
A unique German city-led project that replaced ornamental flowerbeds with edible crops in public space, free for citizens to harvest. Spanning ~8,000 sqm in the city center plus 13 ha in the suburbs, it is internationally known as multifunctional productive green infrastructure delivering food supply, biodiversity, social cohesion and education at once.
use.metropolis.org+2
USニューヨーク市 / New York City, United States
GrowNYC has built more than 120 rainwater-harvesting systems, rain gardens and bioswales in community gardens and schools across the city. In combined-sewer New York, these capture and reuse rainwater on site, diverting over a million gallons a year from the sewer system while enabling citizens to grow more food, conserve water and improve water quality.
grownyc.org+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A greened low-rise terrace of a Takeshiba office tower with a rice paddy, vegetable beds and beehives, run as corporate branding offering growing experiences to workers and local children.
tokyu-land.co.jp
JPTokyo, Japan
Urban beekeeping launched March 2016 on the rooftop of Mitsukoshi's Nihonbashi flagship — a clear example of a for-profit (department store) using city ecology and local food culture for its own branding.
mi-journey.jp+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A rooftop community garden at IKEA's flagship Greenwich store (opened 2019), where a retailer combines branding with citizen participation by opening the space free to the community.
ikea.com
CAVancouver, Canada
A hotel chain's rooftop beekeeping program begun in 2008, spanning 20+ properties — a flagship corporate CSR linking brand sustainability with guest participation.
fairmontbeesustainable.com+1
USNew York, United States
A real-estate firm built a Brooklyn Grange-operated organic rooftop farm atop its office building for tenant employees — a flagship corporate (real-estate) branding rooftop farm.
agritecture.com
JPTokyo, Japan
A participatory farm inside Yebisu Garden Place run jointly by the Urban Farmers Club NPO and Sapporo Real Estate — a corporate-partnership case turning a developer's complex into a citizen growing space.
workmill.jp+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A temple parking lot in Sumida, Tokyo turned into a community farm by citizens through the priest's free loan (completed 2020) — a pattern of interim citizen greening of idle temple land.
note.com+1
JPTokyo, Japan
Community gardens created under the JR Chuo Line viaduct by the NPO birth and JR East with citizen participation (since 2014) — a pattern for using railway viaduct gap space for citizen greening.
npo-birth.org
JPKawasaki, Japan
A Kawasaki planned-road site (~640㎡) used by the community as interim greenery/growing space until the road project advances — a pattern of citizens temporarily using a government project site.
mlit.go.jp
JPYokohama, Japan
An under-used Yokohama city soil-storage site turned into an interim community garden by a local group — a pattern of citizens temporarily using government under-used land.
mlit.go.jp
JPIshinomaki, Japan
In tsunami-hit Ogatsu (Ishinomaki), citizens turned disaster- and relocation-vacated land into a flower garden (opened 2012, relocated/reopened 2018) — a model of interim land use and community recovery.
gardenstory.jp+1
GBGlasgow, United Kingdom
A Glasgow program (since 2011) putting stalled development sites to interim use as citizen gardens, with the city enabling temporary use via short-term leases and grants — a leading overseas example.
glasgow.gov.uk
ATVienna, Austria
A Vienna program (since 2015) that funds citizens to temporarily turn public space into gardens, growing spaces and parklets — an overseas model of government funding citizen interim use.
planetizen.com
FRParis, France
Paris's 2015 citizen greening permit and Parisculteurs calls open public space and rooftops to citizen/operator urban farming via temporary occupation permits — a leading institution-based interim-use example.
parisculteurs.paris
USChicago, United States
A Chicago land trust (founded 1996) that secures citizens' otherwise-temporary community gardens permanently by taking title and leasing back at a nominal fee — the 'permanent-protection' end of interim use.
neighbor-space.org
CNShanghai, China
Opened in July 2016 as Shanghai's first open-community urban farm. A narrow vacant lot, left unused because a major municipal tunnel runs beneath it, was transformed into a resident-participatory permaculture garden.
journal.hep.com.cn+1
CNShanghai, China
Completed November 2019, a ~450 m² community 'habitat garden' reclaimed from a rubble dump, with native plants, a pond and vegetable beds that provide habitat for urban wildlife while connecting residents to nature. It is the first of Shanghai's habitat-garden network (24 gardens by 2023).
nature.org+1
CNShanghai, China
Completed July 2020, a large ~5.2-hectare community garden in Zhuanghang Town, Fengxian District. Drawing on the area's rice-farming identity, it is an open agricultural park centred on children's farming experiences and food education.
mooool.com+1
CNShanghai, China
A citywide movement begun in 2014 to spread resident-participatory community gardens across Shanghai. Led by the non-profit Clover Nature School, co-founded by Tongji University's Liu Yuelai, it turns neglected spaces into citizen-built edible green areas.
theworldofchinese.com+1
CNShenzhen, China
Launched by the Shenzhen government in 2019, the 'We Garden' program is a government-led participatory model in which residents jointly turn idle urban land into green spaces and community gardens; several hundred had been built by the end of 2023.
mdpi.com+1
TRIstanbul, Turkey
Historic market gardens (bostans) surviving along Istanbul's Theodosian Walls since Byzantine and Ottoman times. While preserving organic urban agriculture and heirloom seeds, gardeners, citizens and activists have joined forces to resist redevelopment plans. The Yedikule marul (lettuce) has become a symbol of their struggle.
anfenglish.com+4
LBBeirut, Lebanon
Amid Beirut's economic crisis and food insecurity, a citizen-run urban-farming garden on the rooftop of an art center. As a counter to monocultural and monopolistic structures, it offers a model of local cooperation grounded in sharing and collaboration.
beirutartcenter.org+1
RUSaint Petersburg, Russia
A resident-led urban gardening community on the Karpovka River embankment on St Petersburg's Apothecary Island. It links the island's 18th-century history of medicinal-herb gardens with contemporary urban gardening practice.
city-farmer.ru+1
RUKazan, Russia
A community garden running since 2017 in Kazan's Gorkinsko-Ometyevsky Forest. Within an urban nature park surrounded by new residential developments, residents tend plots and enjoy harvests alongside lectures and workshops.
entermedia.io+1
COBogotá, Colombia
A district program of urban and peri-urban agroecological agriculture run by Bogotá's José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden. Since 2004 it has trained citizens and supported gardens, and is regarded as a Latin American reference case.
bogota.gov.co+1
CAToronto, Canada
An 8-acre urban farm in Toronto's vulnerable Jane-Finch neighbourhood dedicated to food justice, education and sustainability. It was founded in 2013 with Everdale Environmental Learning Centre and the TRCA as founding partners.
blackcreekfarm.ca+1
CAToronto, Canada
Two rooftop farms on the TMU (formerly Ryerson) campus that combine food production, research and community engagement through ecological rooftop farming. It began when a 2004 green roof was converted into a market garden in 2013 by a student-led initiative.
torontomu.ca+1
INMumbai, India
A Mumbai city-farming movement that opened a community farm on space offered by the director of Maharashtra Nature Park. Aiming for a community farm in every suburb, it spreads organic growing through terrace farms and school programmes.
cityfarmer.info+2
INKolkata, India
The world's largest sewage-fed wetland and a Ramsar site where Kolkata's peri-urban community produces food and treats sewage through collective practices. Spanning ~12,500 hectares, it performs the threefold functions of food production, sewage treatment and drainage.
indiawaterportal.org+2
IDMalang, Indonesia
Launched in February 2012 by RW 23 leader Bambang Irianto in Malang's Purwantoro area, 'Glintung Go Green (3G)' is a resident movement that transformed a flood-prone, crime- and sanitation-challenged kampung through alley-wall gardens, vertical farming and water-infiltration wells, achieving food security and environmental improvement.
mongabay.co.id+1
JPOsaka, Japan
An approximately 153-square-meter urban community garden opened beside Kuho Park in Osaka's Semba district in March 2025. Its name draws on 'coton' (cotton) and 'co + on', evoking Semba's textile-industry heritage and a wish for soft, cotton-like human connections.
coton-farm.com+2
JPKobe, Japan
A Tanemaki LAB venture, centered on Kobe, that multiplies urban gardens on rooftops, idle land and in parks. With small empty-handed gardens and dispatched farmers, it spreads greening, community exchange and the joy of urban farming, and has expanded into local distribution such as the KOBE Veggie Bus.
tanemakilab.jp+2
JPKobe, Japan
A park-based community garden opened in April 2021 in a corner of Hirano Outlook Park in Kobe's Hyogo Ward. Growing citrus such as yuzu, figs and plums, its community plaza, garden and membership learning plaza create a place to engage with farming in the city.
eatlocalkobe.org+2
JPKobe, Japan
A community garden at Zaimokucho Plaza along Kobe's Hyogo Canal. Using planters made from reused maritime wooden pallets, it grows strawberries, over ten kinds of herbs, figs, citrus, hops and radishes, creating a place for community farming and exchange on the canal bank.
city.kobe.lg.jp+1
TWTaipei, Taiwan
Taipei's citywide urban-farming policy launched in 2015 under Mayor Ko Wen-je. Through four garden types-community, school, rooftop and allotment-it converts scattered vacant spaces across the city into edible green infrastructure.
doed.gov.taipei+2
TWTaipei, Taiwan
A flagship neighborhood-level case of the Garden City program, where Jin'an Li residents turned neglected spaces into three green sites-a rooftop vegetable garden, a rainwater farm and a corner herb garden-while weaving in local history and creative placemaking.
peopo.org+1
TWTaipei, Taiwan
In Nangang's Jiuzhuang, residents transformed a neglected, dumping-prone plaza into a community garden. It is the subject of an academic case study (Sustainability journal) on how community gardens support urban health and well-being.
mdpi.com
TWNew Taipei, Taiwan
Launched in 2015 as Taiwan's first 'participatory rooftop farm' scheme, where community residents jointly maintain green roofs, strengthening local cohesion while practicing low-carbon living. The Dongying Li activity center in Yingge District is a flagship site.
epd.ntpc.gov.tw+1
KRSeoul, South Korea
A citizen-participatory urban farm on Nodeul Island in the Han River. A formerly neglected artificial island was turned into a community garden for safe food and neighbourly exchange, becoming one of the symbolic sites of Seoul's urban agriculture.
news.seoul.go.kr+1
KRSuwon, South Korea
Tapdong Citizen Farm in Suwon, a citizen-participatory urban garden on land affiliated with Seoul National University's College of Agriculture. It offers organic allotment plots and seasonal flower fields as a place of healing and community for urban residents.
suwon.go.kr+1
MYKuala Lumpur, Malaysia
An approximately 8-acre urban farm regenerating neglected land in central Kuala Lumpur. Addressing the climate crisis, lack of open space and food insecurity, its harvest is donated to soup kitchens and the underprivileged. In 2022 DBKL recognised it as a model community garden under LA21KL.
kebunkebunbangsar.org+2
JPSendai, Miyagi, Japan
The Sendai Furusato-no-Mori project is a collaborative effort to rebuild eastern coastal Sendai's seaside forest, lost to the tsunami, with citizens' own hands. After planting that began in 2011 it has raised some 27,000 seedlings, shifting since 2021 to tree-nurturing and coastal nature learning.
sendai-furumori.org+1
JPMatsue, Shimane, Japan
A project in Matsue's Oba/Sorayama district where the NPO Machizukuri Network Shimane and Shimane Prefecture jointly regenerate degraded farmland. Residents grow 'edible' fruiting trees and vegetables together, cutting CO2 and renewing local interest in farming and food while the restored land is used as citizen farms.
pref.shimane.lg.jp
JPKochi, Kochi, Japan
A citizen farm opened by Kochi City in the Kagami and Tosayama areas where residents grow vegetables and flowers amid the nature of the Kagami River headwaters. It offers downtown residents a place to connect with mountainous-area farming and nature, supporting exchange and food education.
city.kochi.kochi.jp
JPKitanakagusuku, Okinawa, Japan
An organic community garden run by Sunshine Farm in Kitanakagusuku, reviving the traditional Okinawan home plot 'atai-guwa' as an edible garden. Across fields, a paddy and a plaza, residents of all ages grow vegetables, rice and herbs and share the harvest.
note.com+1
JPToyama, Toyama, Japan
An urban farm running beekeeping and growing of sweet potatoes and edamame on the Toyama Civic Plaza rooftop since 2018. It serves as a food-education and awareness space focused on pollinators and the urban environment.
siminplaza.co.jp
JPMoriyama, Shiga, Japan
'Oishii Niwa,' run in Moriyama by NPO Aoi Biwako (focused on Lake Biwa conservation). Through home gardening, composting, and parent-child SDGs learning, citizens engage with food-farming and organic-resource cycling.
moriyama-ecopark.net+1
JPFukui, Fukui, Japan
Ichijodani Asakura Mizunoeki, opened by Fukui City as a farming-experience facility in 2010. Through its experience farm and biotope, families and schoolchildren learn about food and farming via rice planting, vegetable growing, and nature observation.
city.fukui.lg.jp+1
ESBarcelona, Spain
Barcelona's network of urban allotments, begun in 1997 with the recovery of the Can Mestres plots. Centred on participation by older people and vulnerable groups, it turns public land into new green and social space.
ajuntament.barcelona.cat+1
DKCopenhagen, Denmark
An organic farm on a rooftop above the concrete city. Begun in 2014, it pairs a CSA with citizen participation to shorten the distance between city and countryside.
oestergro.dk+1
ITRome, Italy
A pioneering platform that maps and links Rome's shared community gardens; since its launch, the number of such gardens in the city has grown from 40 to more than 200.
cooperativecity.org+1
PLWarsaw, Poland
A 3.6-hectare cooperative urban farm in Warsaw's Siekierki district, about 25 minutes from downtown. On former allotment land cleared for a bridge project and long left idle, residents formed a cooperative and turned it into an edible landscape.
culture.pl+3
ESMadrid, Spain
A citizen network linking community urban gardens across Madrid. Founded in 2011 to make urban agriculture more visible and to provide mutual aid, it has helped drive municipal recognition of community gardens.
wiki.ecolise.eu+1
BEWatermael-Boitsfort, Brussels, Belgium
An urban, participatory and ecologically-minded farm in Brussels' Watermael-Boitsfort district, where citizens and professionals farm together, using food to build local connection and protect the environment.
chantdescailles.be+2
CHZürich, Switzerland
A citizen-run neighbourhood farm — the last in central Zurich — operated collectively by some 600 member households, combining growing, animal husbandry, nature conservation, youth and social work to link farming and city life.
quartierhof-wynegg.ch+1
GRThessaloniki, Greece
A self-managed peri-urban cultivation project begun by citizens reclaiming an abandoned former military camp in post-crisis Thessaloniki. Regarded as one of Greece's most active citizen-led urban-farming initiatives, it demonstrates community agency against the privatisation of land.
agri-madre.net+1
JPTokyo, Japan
A long-running movement reviving Tokyo's near-lost heirloom 'Edo-Tokyo vegetables' in city schools, a horticultural high school and allotments. Over nearly 30 years more than 50 varieties have been registered, linking heritage food culture and farming to the next generation via school lunches and food education.
tokyo-ja.or.jp+1
JPTokyo (Edogawa), Japan
In Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, said to be the birthplace of komatsuna greens, urban farmers grow the heritage crop on plots dotted through residential neighborhoods and deliver directly to 92 schools, passing local food culture and urban agriculture to children via synchronized school lunches and harvest events.
ja-tokyosmile.or.jp+1
JPKanazawa, Japan
Kanazawa's 15 certified 'Kaga vegetables' heirlooms are grown, harvested and cooked by schoolchildren in integrated-study programs and featured in food-education booklets and lunches, transmitting the city's heritage food culture and history to the next generation.
www4.city.kanazawa.lg.jp+1
JPOsaka, Japan
Osaka certifies 'Naniwa traditional vegetables'—heirlooms nearly lost to urbanization—and uses them in school gardens and lunches as 'living teaching material,' letting pupils taste and learn the food culture and farming nurtured by Osaka's historic 'kitchen of the nation.'
city.osaka.lg.jp+1
USMinneapolis, United States
A Native-led nonprofit founded in 1998 with an urban hub in Minneapolis, holding 200+ Indigenous seed varieties including Cherokee corn carried on the Trail of Tears. It reconnects urban Native youth with traditional crops, cooking and culture to restore food, health and sovereignty.
dreamofwildhealth.org+1
USAlbany, United States
An Afro-Indigenous community farm that gives free home gardens to city residents in the Albany area and saves and shares seeds of African, Indigenous and Palestinian heritage crops, reclaiming ancestral farming and food culture to end food apartheid.
soulfirefarm.org+1
USDetroit, United States
Opened in 2008 by the Black-led grassroots network DBCFSN (founded 2006), this ~7-acre Detroit urban farm grows 30+ crops rooted in African-American food culture—collard greens, okra, hot peppers—to strengthen food security and sovereignty for Detroit's Black community.
dbcfsn.org+1
USSeattle, United States
Seattle's city community-garden program, begun in 1973 with ~90 sites, where immigrants and refugees grow heritage crops from their homelands—Ethiopian kale, Hmong herbs and more—recreating ancestral tastes and food cultures in the city and forming one of Seattle's most multicultural public spaces.
seattle.gov+1
NZRotorua, New Zealand
A Rotorua food-growing charity formed in 2017 that grows, harvests and stores kūmara—the key Māori heritage crop—in community gardens following the Māori lunar calendar, teaching cultivation knowledge and food culture (oral lore, karakia, waiata) to schools and the community and restoring Indigenous food sovereignty.
kairotorua.nz+1
NLAmsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam in 2025 is promoting policies to include rooftop farms in new construction through grants, building code modifications, and LEED incentives. Rooftop yields range from 2-3 kg/m² depending on crop; some cases achieve 6,310 kg annually from 150m² two-layer system. Target: supply 25% of city's food demand locally by 2030 and increase resident awareness/participation to 20% by 2026.
environmentalconsortium.org+1
HKKowloon, Hong Kong
Asia's largest publicly accessible rooftop farm (1,200 sqm) at Metroplaza in Kowloon, flagship of Rooftop Republic's 50+ urban farm network across Hong Kong.
rooftoprepublic.com+1
DEBerlin, Germany
One of Germany's largest community gardens, created on Berlin's iconic former airport field, Tempelhofer Feld. Cultivating public open space with movable raised beds, it embodies the idea of the urban commons (Allmende) and doubles as a knowledge and networking hub for urban gardening.
allmende-kontor.de+1
DEBerlin (nationwide), Germany
A German education program built on the idea that the field is the best classroom, fostering children's understanding of food and nature through school gardens. Its hands-on curriculum, cultivating a corner of the schoolyard or school grounds, builds appreciation of food, healthy eating and awareness of food waste. It has grown into the largest school-garden network in the German-speaking world.
gemueseackerdemie.de+2
ITFlorence, Italy
Located on Borgo Pinti in Florence's historic centre, said to be the only urban garden inside the UNESCO World Heritage zone. It regenerated a disused athletics track, practising sustainable growing with recycled materials and water-saving irrigation alongside food and environmental education. It is known for creating community space and greenery in the heart of a tourist city.
ortidipinti.it+2
DKCopenhagen, Denmark
A vacant plot in Copenhagen's former industrial district of Refshaleøen transformed into one of Scandinavia's largest urban farms. Integrating fields, bees and chickens with a restaurant, it models regenerative agriculture and food experiences in the city, carrying forward the ØsterGro legacy of connecting people and nature through farming and food.
oenshave.dk+2
NOOslo, Norway
A permanent commons of art and urban agriculture created on reclaimed land above a highway tunnel in central Oslo. Conceived by the artist group Futurefarmers' Flatbread Society, it weaves food culture and land stories around a boat-shaped public bakehouse (2016) and an ancient-grain field, and has become Norway's flagship urban-farming site.
loseter.no+2
IEDublin, Ireland
A collective garden in inner-city Dublin bearing the name of the old 'Mud Island' area mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses. Residents transformed a derelict site that had cost the city thousands to clear each year into a green community hub, notable for fully collective cultivation with shared harvests. It has won multiple awards as a leading Dublin community garden.
mudisland.ie+1
MXMexico City, Mexico
A 1,650 m² urban farm on an earthquake-cleared site in Mexico City's Tlatelolco district. Growing by agroecological principles, with an edible forest and seed bank at its heart, it delivers food education as a model of agrarian urbanism.
cultivaciudad.org+2
ZWHarare, Zimbabwe
A pioneering centre on the outskirts of Harare that has taught permaculture and organic farming for over three decades. Credited with influencing nearly every related project in Zimbabwe, from urban and peri-urban gardens to rural farms, it trains practitioners of climate-resilient agriculture around the capital.
fambidzanai.org.zw+2
NGLagos, ナイジェリア
Self-help horticultural gardens managed by residents in the Eti-osa Local Government Area of Lagos, Nigeria, utilizing road set-backs to address limited land availability while greening the community.
doi.org
JPTokyo, 日本
Tokyo-based rooftop urban garden program utilizing multiple building rooftops to transform unused spaces into agricultural, educational, and community activity spaces.
sciencedirect.com
PLWarsaw, Poland
Citywide program established in 2017 to support Warsaw inhabitants in setting up and managing community gardens. Offers access to knowledge, materials, capacity building, and networking.
interlace-hub.com
JOAmman, Jordan
Community-based urban garden project led by UN-Habitat and funded by UNEP in Amman. Includes greenhouse and mushroom room for consistent yields. Local residents form management groups.
jordan.un.org
SGSingapore, Singapore
Launched in 2005 at Mayfair Park Estate, adapted from Canada's movement. Over 1,900 community garden sites across Singapore. Residents apply for plots awarded by ballot. Central to Singapore's '30 by 30' food security target.
neighbourhoodlife.com.sg
KRSeoul, South Korea
Urban agriculture policy initiated in 2012. Seoul boasts about 200 hectares of rooftop farmland. Creating 264 Seoul-type Urban Vegetable Gardens. Farm clinics held at 4,000 urban farm sites across 19 districts.
english.seoul.go.kr
USDenver, USA
Denver Urban Gardens operates a culturally-inclusive seed program that crowd-sources plant variety requests to create a catalog of hard-to-access seed varieties appropriate to the local climate.
dug.org
USMulti-city, USA
USDA-led national initiative launched in 2009; expanded nationwide in 2022. Increases fresh food access in underserved communities, supports wildlife habitats, and enhances urban green space.
guides.loc.gov
GRAthens, Greece
Large-scale community farm project in Antonis Tritsis Park, Athens. 50,000 square meters of park land transformed into community food production area. Integrates urban greening with food production. Operates with citizen participation and educational programs. A significant-scale example of urban agriculture in Greece.
astydama.com+1
CLSantiago, Chile
Urban agriculture initiative led by NGO Cultivos Urbanos in Santiago. Encourages citizens to develop a new relationship with nature through workshops on native plants, herbs, and bushes. Integrates indigenous plant culture recovery with sustainable urban agriculture. Operates across multiple Santiago neighborhoods.
unsustainablemagazine.com+1
GHAccra, Ghana
Launched in December 2023, the Accra Home Gardening Initiative encourages urban households to grow vegetables. Approximately 50% of Accra residents maintain small backyard gardens. Positioned as a climate-adaptation strategy.
cityfarmer.info+1
CZPrague, Czechia
Kokoza established Prague's first community garden in 2012. As of February 2024, monitoring 150 gardens in Czechia (69 in Prague area, 14 in Brno). Advocates for garden integration into city plans and policies; establishes gardens for developers, corporations, and communities.
nadacevia.cz+1
FRParis, France
An edible facade in Paris: hops climbing a 600 m2 wall on the Bastille opera house terrace farm.
freshplaza.com+1
BDDhaka, Bangladesh
A rooftop greening and urban agriculture program run by Bangladesh's agriculture extension agency to green and feed the dense city of Dhaka
unb.com.bd+1
ZWBulawayo, Zimbabwe
An organization advancing urban farming and greening in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo, fostering community nurseries and farmer cooperatives
greenhut.org
USNew York, United States
An iconic East Village community garden that became a flashpoint of anti-development protest.
en.wikipedia.org+1
USNew York, United States
A legendary circular garden on the Lower East Side, a pioneer of the urban gardening movement.
en.wikipedia.org+1
USNew York, United States
A garden that anchored a neighborhood scarred by drugs and violence, lost to development.
en.wikipedia.org+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
Valued as an environmental asset mitigating pollution, but lost to housing redevelopment.
andyworthington.co.uk+1
DEBerlin, Germany
A neighborhood garden that lost its original site to an investor's apartment plans.
rosarose-garten.net+1
CAToronto, Canada
A volunteer-tended garden inside a city park, bulldozed by the city without warning.
blogto.com
GBLondon (Beckton), United Kingdom
One of London's oldest city farms, run by Newham Council. In 2022 its closure was decided as part of the borough's austerity budget (a further £7.6M of cuts).
newhamrecorder.co.uk+1
USLos Angeles, United States
One of the largest urban farms in the US (~14 acres), active from the 1990s to 2006. A vacant lot seized for an incinerator that was never built became a self-organized garden where immigrant residents grew traditional crops as a hub of food and culture.
en.wikipedia.org+1
PLWarsaw, Poland
MOST cooperative reclaimed a 3.6-hectare abandoned allotment site in Warsaw's Siekierki district. Residents created a cooperative to ensure well-being, nature connection, environmental responsibility, and social bonds.
cityfarmer.info+1
SEStockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Municipality-led community gardens. Studied as sustainability and community building model. Research focus on incentives and participation mechanisms.
cambridge.org
SEMalmö, Sweden
Malmö city-wide urban farming initiative. Integrates social interaction, health, biodiversity, and climate action. Multiple formats deployed across parks and squares.
talkofthecities.iclei.org
HUBudapest, Hungary
Budapest peri-urban agroforestry and community gardens. Case study of agricultural preservation amid post-socialist urbanization. Research focus on urban-rural relationships.
tandfonline.com+1
SGSingapore, Singapore
National Parks Board initiative. 1,600+ community gardens with 50,000 members. Schools and community centers as hubs. Promotes rooftop and vertical farming. 2020 social enterprise urban farm grant program launched.
ourworld.unu.edu+1
NZWellington, New Zealand
Urban food forest developing in Wellington's inner city as of May 2025. Research on post-disaster food security potential. Studies on vegetable self-sufficiency rates and nutritional content from community gardens.
doi.org
NZChristchurch, New Zealand
Urban food forest developing in Christchurch's inner city as of May 2025. Community-led food production and environmental regeneration initiative.
verticalfarmingforum.com
AUSydney, Australia
700+ community gardens across Australia with ~20,000 weekly participants. Cultivating fresh produce, learning, relaxation, and community connection.
doi.org
USNew York, United States
A pioneering for-profit rooftop soil farm operating across several NYC buildings, balancing commercial production with education and community, and widely cited as a model for urban rooftop agriculture.
brooklyngrangefarm.com
COBogotá, Colombia
Urban agriculture network led by Bogotá's Botanical Garden. Part of public policy to strengthen 20,000 urban and peri-urban vegetable gardens. Cultivates over 120 nutritious plant species.
sciencedirect.com+2
THBangkok, Thailand
Thammasat University's rooftop farm is Asia's largest organic facility spanning 236,806 sq ft. Grows over 40 edible species of crops including rice, indigenous vegetables, fruit trees, and herbs. Integrates modern landscape architecture with sustainable food production, renewable energy, organic waste management, and water conservation.
architizer.com+1
CZPrague, チェコ共和国
Community garden movement in Prague launched 2012, expanded rapidly: 10 gardens by 2013, 24 by end of 2017, 42 registered public gardens currently. Spread to larger cities and towns, with expansion to smaller municipalities (Nový Jičín, Ústí nad Labem, Blatná) after 2018. Growing public recognition of social farming; legal frameworks for support in development.
adaptacepraha.cz+1
USSeattle, United States
Seattle Parks integrated community gardens into public park spaces with clear roles, participatory planning, and community engagement
sciencedirect.com
ITPadua, Italy
Participatory spatial planning process in Padua using multicriteria analysis to identify suitable community garden sites for inclusive urban development
frontiersin.org
HUBudapest, Hungary
Budapest's grassroots community garden movement transforming vacant urban lots. Supported by KÉK Contemporary Architecture Centre since 2010, with nearly 80 active gardens documented.
eu-opensci.org+1
COBogota, Colombia
Bogota operates an agroecology network of 8,000+ urban gardens mapped and networked via platform. Mobile app (AUPA) launched in 2022 delivers digital training and support. Aims to strengthen 20,000 gardens and train 40,000 people.
use.metropolis.org
CLSantiago, Chile
Santiago community gardens restore native Chilean plants while producing food. Operating in districts like La Pintana, they promote food democracy and ecological citizenship through participatory action.
frontiersin.org
DEBerlin, Germany
Intercultural community garden in Berlin's Wedding district. On 6,000 m² space, citizens gather to garden, cook, and participate in workshops on environmental education and nutrition, using recycled building materials.
raumstar.de+1
DEBerlin, Germany
6,000 m² ecological and social garden on Moritzplatz, transformed from vacant land. Designed as an inclusion and community garden for the neighborhood, with growing, processing, and cooking workshops.
eea.europa.eu+1
MXMexico City, Mexico
Mexico City formed the Urban Garden System (SHU) in 2024 with Sedema, UNEP, and local allies. On a 3,600 m² plot, they cultivate traditional milpa (corn, climbing beans, squash association) and conduct workshops on traditional cultivation systems.
sedema.cdmx.gob.mx+1
DKCopenhagen, Denmark
Organic rooftop garden opened in March 2011 on Blågårds School in Nørrebro. Copenhagen was named European Green Capital in 2014, and now has active urban agriculture and colony garden culture, with emerging technologies like vertical farming.
gradynewsource.uga.edu+1
DEBerlin, Germany
Berlin's highest urban gardening project located on the rooftop of Neukölln Arkaden shopping centre. Features herb and coloring plant cultivation, with guided tours and garden experiences for visitors.
cityfarmer.info+1
NLRotterdam, Netherlands
Europe's largest open-air rooftop farm at 1000m² on the Schieblock in Rotterdam. Produces vegetables, edible flowers, fruits, and herbs while keeping bees. Community-operated
brightvibes.com
NLAmsterdam, Netherlands
16-hectare organic farm in Amsterdam West featuring innovative cherry and raspberry cultivation, free-roaming hens, CSA section, organic shop, and meeting rooms. Exemplary community-participatory agriculture
iamsterdam.com
DEBerlin, Germany
Community-operated gardens on the former Templehof airport grounds in Berlin. Produces vegetables and fruits, hosts educational workshops, and serves as a community meeting space. Exemplary resident-led urban farming
foodtank.com
FRParis, France
City of Paris program launched in 2016 to accelerate urban agriculture. Identifies diverse sites (rooftops, walls, parking lots, vacant lots) for farmer production. Goal of planting 100 hectares of vegetation across Paris
resilientcitiesnetwork.org
FRParis, France
Network of 10 rooftop farms across Paris operated by Agripolis (since 2017). Produces ~1000kg vegetables daily in high season. Vertical closed-loop system using no water waste and no pesticides. Operated by ~20 farmers
positive.news
DKCopenhagen, Denmark
Denmark's first rooftop farm, opened in 2014 atop a former car-auction house in Copenhagen's Østerbro district. With a 600 m² organic growing area plus a greenhouse, henhouse and beehives, it connects food and nature in the heart of the city through a CSA and volunteers.
wonderfulcopenhagen.com+1
SGSingapore, Singapore
NParks' nationwide citizen gardening programme 'Community in Bloom', begun in 2005 at Mayfair Park Estate, together with the 'Allotment Gardening' scheme introduced in 2016. In the land-scarce city-state of Singapore, they spread citizen food-growing and gardening across estates, parks and rooftops.
gardeningsg.nparks.gov.sg+1
SEGothenburg, Sweden
Gothenburg's colony and allotment gardens, begun in 1903 inspired by the German colony movement. Alongside around 3,000 colony plots, shared urban-farming gardens run by growing associations have spread in recent years, actively supported by the city.
gothenburggreenworld.com+1
MXMexico City, Mexico
Created in 2013 by the NGO Cultiva Ciudad as a citizen initiative on the ~1,650 sqm site of a demolished, earthquake-damaged housing tower, Huerto Tlatelolco is one of Mexico City's largest community urban gardens. It hosts 120+ plant varieties and runs a community composting program with 40 local families, functioning as a hub for agroecological education and citizen participation.
cultivaciudad.org+1
FIHelsinki, Finland
Dodo's urban-farming centre on a former railway turntable in Helsinki's Pasila yard — an open hub with a greenhouse, café and gardens that has helped lead Finland's citizen-driven urban gardening movement.
kaantopoyta.fi+2
NOOslo, Norway
A public urban farm in Oslo's Bjørvika redevelopment that links urban farming, art and community — an ancient-grain field, gardens, a public bakehouse and allotments on a former container port, growing food and green space in the heart of the city.
loseter.no+2
SEStockholm, Sweden
A mobile community garden on a disused Stockholm railway track, started in 2012 and inspired by Berlin's Prinzessinnengärten and New York's High Line, where citizens farm collectively and create a hub for food and culture.
axfoundation.se+1
DKCopenhagen, Denmark
Denmark's first rooftop farm, built atop a five-storey former car-auction building. Run as a CSA in which citizens invest and participate, with an on-site restaurant serving the harvest.
oestergro.dk+1
NLAmsterdam, Netherlands
A self-harvest urban farm on a former sports-park site in Amsterdam-Noord, run by a collective of eco-entrepreneurs where members harvest weekly from naturally-farmed beds.
stadstuinderijnoordoogst.nl+1
ESBarcelona, Spain
A self-managed community garden born from the 2011 15-M (Indignados) movement by reclaiming a vacant lot — seen as a symbol of resistance to speculative development and the 'right to the city'.
hortindignat2poblenou.wordpress.com+1
SEGothenburg, Sweden
A neighbourhood urban-farming project begun in Gothenburg's Högsbo and Bergsjön that combines cultivation with citizen 'foster' sponsorship of goats and pigs.
stadsjord.se+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A 13-hectare (32-acre) urban farm and park in Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets, east London. The site had been a dumping ground for dock excavation spoil since the 1860s; when the Port of London Authority moved to transfer it for housing in the early 1970s, the Association of Island Communities ran a successful campaign to keep it as public open space, and the farm was established in 1977.
en.wikipedia.org
JPKobe (北区), Japan
A community group based in Ogo-cho, Kita Ward, Kobe, that since 2019 has been clearing neglected bamboo groves and putting the bamboo to use. Left alone, bamboo encroaches on fields, degrades the landscape and shelters crop-raiding animals, so continuous cutting is needed to return the hills to open, managed satoyama. Under the motto "tasty and fun", bamboo and shoots are upcycled instead of discarded — into domestic menma, bamboo craft and the transmission of those skills, and fertiliser made from bamboo chips. Its bamboo-chip compost is used in the Kobe Compost Project's public workshops.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1
JPKobe (須磨区), Japan
An open space on the edge of the Tainohata settlement in Suma Ward, Kobe, run by the workers' co-operative Hata, whose proposals for daily life include "a life that makes soil". Since the previous year it has run a cycling garden: vegetable scraps from its kitchen are broken down by microbes in the garden composter into soil, that soil goes back to the beds, the beds become habitat for a range of living things, and flowers and vegetables are harvested and eaten. It invites neighbours and users to compost at home too, using the compost themselves or bringing any surplus back to Hata, so the cycle is shared.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+1