Relating to nature, food and community in community gardens

Urban Farm DB summary

A study critically examining the motivations and practices of community gardeners in relatively affluent neighborhoods, based on participant observation and semi-structured walking interviews at three community gardens in Sydney, Australia. It analyzes how people fit food production into their everyday lives, how they develop relationships with plants, and how these in turn shape relations among people in a community group. The study finds that to fit gardening into busy lives, people strategically choose plants with biophysical qualities suiting both personal and communal circumstances, that tensions can arise from growing and sharing food on communal and private plots, and that these tensions can also prompt reflection on individual and group roles within the community.