Research & reports

Lee M · PubMed · Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, urban agriculture faces significant challenges due to government disapproval of public land use for farming and difficulty in obtaining credit. A 1983 survey in Addis Ababa found that 17% of 1352 households produced their own food on less than 25 sq. meters, with 90% of non-farmers citing lack of land. Despite urban agricultural cooperatives demonstrating 70% higher member income, their lack of government legalization prevents access to loans for productivity improvement.

Kasipathy Kailasapathy · Ecology of Food and Nutrition · Sri Lanka

This study developed a model school garden (28m²) in Sri Lanka to provide part of the nutritional requirements for school children. The garden produced an average daily yield of 813g of vegetables, supplying significant percentages of a 10-12 year old child's recommended daily intake, including 115% of calcium, 151% of iron, 557% of vitamin A, and 1222% of vitamin C.

Williams, Patrick Neal. · K-State Research Exchange (Kansas State University) · United States (Manhattan, Kansas)

A five-month study of children gardening in the Manhattan Community Garden, Manhattan, Kansas, investigated differences in self-esteem, horticultural knowledge, and garden quality. Children without other siblings gardening showed higher self-esteem, gained more horticultural knowledge, and had better appearing gardens than children with other siblings gardening.

Pauline Raphaely · Birkhäuser Basel eBooks · South Africa

Food Gardens Unlimited is an educational project in South Africa that teaches disadvantaged urban populations to grow food in small areas using limited resources. The project provides five-day training courses, step-by-step directions, and subsidized seeds through existing institutions. It aims to deliver physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits to participants.

W.P. Holtz, H.J. Mooy · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · United States

A 1982 final report presenting the design and construction of a community greenhouse in Newark, New Jersey, United States. It includes photographs and drawings of the greenhouse construction along with a demonstration of budgeting information.

William E. Roweton · Psychological Reports · Global

This study discussed the instructional advantages of growing vegetable seedlings in an introductory child psychology course. The project drew students' attention to the importance of nutrition in child development, as well as the popularity and practicalities of urban gardening. Additionally, the activity of "raising" plants proved to be a provocative analogy to "rearing" children.

Yoshiharu OKAMOTO, Tsuyoshi Yoneda, Zyunichi Tamazaki · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

This study investigated the actual conditions of school gardens at 77 primary schools in Osaka City, Japan. Based on the findings, it designed a model plan for creating school gardens in urban primary schools; the average garden area was 956 sq m, and the average utilization rate (garden area relative to available space) was 37.1% — figures the study characterizes as insufficient both in space and in tree variety for maintaining trees as teaching materials — and it examines how to most effectively use the limited available space given these constraints.

Harry Wals · Aménagement et Nature · Netherlands (The Hague)

This article describes mesologic education as a link between specialized environmental courses in schools. It details how The Hague's Local Office for School Gardens supports teachers in environmental education by offering practical assistance, living animals, maintenance examples, and facilities to their pupils.

Clifford W. Scherer · Journal of Applied Communications · United States

A 1970 article situates the traditional rural orientation of agricultural extension audiences historically, noting that 66% of the U.S. population was rural when the land-grant colleges were established, and that more than a quarter of the population still lived on farms 52 years later when the Smith-Lever Act created the Cooperative Extension Service. The abstract text provided contains only this historical background and no specific findings about the actual use of radio public service announcements for urban agriculture.

Rayna Sharova · Soviet Education · Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, labor education was introduced into general schools shortly after World War I, with manual training for boys and handwork and domestic science for girls. After 1921, "Subotniks" (Sundays) were organized for pupils to perform mass work, including harvesting on school property, planting trees in drought-ridden lands, and cultivating school gardens and flower beds.

Aleksandr Filatov · Soviet Education · Russia (Moscow)

This text suggests that school garden areas in large industrial centers like Moscow should be integrated into the city's green spaces, functioning as well-planned squares within their district subdivisions. It asserts that this integration does not conflict with the garden's designated role as a living laboratory for the school.

Margaret H. Oliver · The American Biology Teacher · United States

An article by Margaret H. Oliver discussing the school garden as an outdoor laboratory for science teaching, published in The American Biology Teacher in 1953.

Rodale Institute · Rodale Institute · United States

The Rodale Institute's history page. J.I. Rodale and his wife Anna bought a 63-acre farm in Emmaus, Pennsylvania in 1940 to begin experimenting with organic agriculture, and founded the Soil and Health Foundation (later renamed Rodale Institute) in 1947. In 1948 the book 'Pay Dirt' argued that chemical agriculture was linked to declining public health.

Lydia Elzey · The American Biology Teacher · United States

This record is a research article titled "An Elementary School Garden Project" by Lydia Elzey, published in The American Biology Teacher in 1944. The abstract provides only publication details and states that the content is only available via PDF, with no further information about the project itself.

Earl R. Gabler · The Clearing House A Journal of Educational Strategies Issues and Ideas · United States

A 1942 article in The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas (Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 469-472) titled "School Gardens for Victory"; the available record provides only this bibliographic citation, with no further abstract content.

Howard Weabster Nudd · The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · United States

A 1923 essay on the role of citizen organizations in the history of American public education. It argues that developments in public education — from the establishment of the first public school through compulsory attendance, high schools, normal schools, kindergartens, evening and trade schools, playgrounds, school gardens, music, drawing, manual and household arts training, physical training, medical inspection, school lunches, school nurses, visiting teachers, and classes for children with disabilities or exceptional ability — were made possible, especially in their initial stages, by outside financial and other assistance from citizen organizations.

John Ihlder · National Municipal Review · United States (New York City)

This abstract, from "Lectures on housing" (1914), describes various activities initiated by public schools, including normal schools, kindergartens, evening schools, trade schools, vacation schools, playgrounds, and school gardens. It also mentions music, drawing, manual training, household arts, physical training, medical inspection, school nurses, special classes for children with disabilities, visiting teachers, and school lunches. Part 2 of the primer summarizes the aims and activities of the New York association.

John Ihlder · National Municipal Review · United States (New York City)

This 1914 item is a short notice of Robert Ellis Thompson's book 'The History of the Delling-House and Its Future,' priced at $1.00, appended to a summary of New York public-school activities including normal schools, kindergartens, evening and trade schools, vacation schools, playgrounds, school gardens, music, drawing, manual training, household arts, physical training, medical inspection, school nurses, classes for disabled children, visiting teachers and school lunches.

Diana Paola Betancurth Loaiza, Natalia Sánchez Palacio, Jorge Lino Moreno Aricapa · Repositorio Universidad de Caldas · Colombia

This report details the experience of implementing the Urban Community Garden in the Villa Juanita neighborhood. The project focused on fostering urban agriculture as a strategy to improve food security and promote sustainability within the community. The garden became a space for community participation where diverse sustainable agricultural practices were integrated. Through this project, social cohesion was strengthened, environmental education was promoted, and spaces for interaction and collective learning were generated.

Nina Leubrie · The Elementary School Teacher · United States

In October, upon the school's opening, many flowers were still blooming in "Grandmother's Garden" at Lincoln Park. The children desired to plant hollyhocks, hardy chrysanthemums, and bright autumn flowers in front of their building, but it was determined to be too late for fall flowers. Consequently, it was decided that spring flowers would be planted using bulbs, for which catalogues were obtained, and pictures and descriptions were studied.

Charles E. Bessey, Lawrence Bruner, Goodwin D. Swezey · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · United States

An 1903 essay on elementary agricultural education in Nebraska, United States, argues for teaching agriculture and nature study — including through school gardens — in connection with subjects such as geography, arithmetic, science, and literature, noting that Nebraska's school law required teachers to pass an examination on the elements of agriculture. The piece is an advocacy essay and contains no empirical data.

Wilbur S. Jackman · The Elementary School Teacher and Course of Study · Global

The school garden is a useful accessory for nature study from aesthetic, economic, or botanical viewpoints. While aesthetics offer strong attractions, the most important aspect is understanding plant habits and their adaptations to soil, light, heat, air, and other plants, as a garden cannot grow beautifully without this knowledge.

Flora J. Cooke, Elsie A. Wygant, Lorley Ada Ashléman · The Elementary School Teacher and Course of Study · United States

A 1902 account of a pedagogical activity in which children in the School of Education planted part of a garden for children attending the summer model school, who would then pickle, can or otherwise preserve the crops and maintain a window box of blooming plants left for the returning students. The article describes how the activity integrated manual training (building boxes and trellises), science (germination experiments, soil observation), number work (estimating costs, measuring), reading, and expression (recording growth through painting, writing and modeling) into an instructional plan.