Urban gardener preferences and values can affect the aesthetics, management, and vegetation complexity of community gardens
Brenda B. Lin, Peter Bichier, Heidi Liere, Shalene Jha, Edith Gonzalez, Stacy M. Philpott
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Urban Farm DB summary
An online survey across 21 community gardens in Central California asked gardeners about their aesthetic and management preferences using paired images representing common garden styles, with open-ended explanations. For the first image pair, 85% of respondents preferred a tidy and organized image, citing easier movement, better plot access and weed control from managed pathways, a preference correlated with participation in the University of California's Master Gardener program; for the second pair, preferences were not strong and 20% of gardeners declined to choose because they valued aspects of both, food-producing crops and pollinator-supporting flowering plants.