Research & reports

Georgia Pollard, James Ward, Philip Roetman · Sustainability · Australia (South Australia)

This paper explores the economic sustainability of home food gardens in South Australia using new data from the Edible Gardens project online survey. While saving money is a top motivation for many respondents, the study notes that it remains to be seen whether current gardening practices actually support this aspiration. The paper concludes that more work is needed to measure the full costs of different gardens to better predict their financial accessibility and economic sustainability.

Laura Isabel Bedoya Corrales, David Alberto García Arango, Jovany Sepúlveda-Aguirre, Camilo Andrés Echeverri Gutiérrez, Leidy Catalina Acosta Agudelo · Producción + Limpia · Global

Urban agriculture promotes vegetable cultivation in cities, but it requires germinating seeds to obtain seedlings in order to initiate this practice in a sustainable and practical manner.

Georgia Pollard, James Ward, Philip Roetman · Horticulturae · Australia (South Australia)

A systematic review of literature from 1975 to 2018 on urban agriculture yield research found that only 5 out of 25 articles actively collected water use data from the perspective of water use efficiency, all from purpose-built experimental gardens. Given the scarcity of literature on urban agriculture water use efficiency and measurement, a case study from South Australia demonstrated the diversity of water pricing, sources, and irrigation methods. Four equations for calculating urban agriculture water use efficiency (WUE) were proposed.

María Angélica Flórez Trujillo, Catalina Andrea García Pinilla · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This report details an internship project conducted in 2017-2018 with 4th and 5th-grade students at I.E.D. Julio Garavito Armero J.M. in Bogotá, Colombia. The project, "Mother Earth Arts," aimed to foster environmental awareness and agricultural knowledge by addressing urban growth's environmental problems. Students created a vertical garden and learned about food security through planting organic aromatic and medicinal seeds.

Romana Brunner · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Switzerland (Luzern)

This report documents an urban gardening project implemented at Jugendkulturhaus Treibhaus Luzern from October 2016 to November 2017. The project's main goal was to participatively involve youth and young adults in urban gardening, fostering their identification with and appropriation of the space. The report details the project's planning, execution, organization, and the difficulties and insights gained during its implementation.

Dania de la Caridad González Gort, Arelys Valido Tomés, Roberto Vázquez Montes de · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba (Camagüey)

A study on "The New Hope" farm in Camagüey, Cuba, evaluated human urine as a fertilizer for corn cultivation under family farming conditions. Family-collected human urine, stored for six months and applied in dilution, was compared to a mineral fertilizer and an unfertilized control using a randomized block design with 18 sample plants per treatment. Results showed that human urine yielded equivalent results to mineral fertilization, with no significant differences, but both differed from the unfertilized treatment, concluding that urine is an economic alternative for family farming.

German Ricardo Paredes-Guzmán, Pedro Antonio Forero-Palomino · Ciencia y agricultura · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study identified consumption habits to implement home gardens using urban agriculture methods in Altos de Cazucá, Soacha, Colombia, a region affected by forced displacement and malnutrition. Semi-structured interviews with Loma Linda neighborhood residents identified the most consumed agricultural products suitable for home gardens. Peas and carrots were the most accepted and consumed (90% and 86% respectively), while quinoa was the least consumed (8%).

Johnson, Anna, Black, Richard · RMIT Research Repository (RMIT University Library) · Oceania

"Urban Sanctuary" showcases contemporary houses in urban Australia and New Zealand that demonstrate inventive ways of integrating outdoor spaces into domestic living. These projects feature various forms of gardens, including vertical gardens, micro-green spaces, rooftop gardens, courtyards, and reworked traditional gardens. The work explores how homes can interact with these diverse garden spaces.

Kelsey Wapenaar, Aideen DeSchutter · Journal of Childhood Studies · Global

This paper consists of a series of moments evolving from an inquiry with a community garden plot, involving children's, educators', and families' experimentations and processes of "coming to know" the garden. Through this inquiry, it was found that a community garden is open to a plurality of possibilities. This entangled process of coming to know engages the imaginary and involves layers of touching, hearing, seeing, drawing, talking, writing, and storying the garden.

Joseph González, Itza Morales, Alain Cuenca García, Vladimir Villarreal · Revista de Iniciación Científica · Global

An electronic system was developed to create a controlled environment for urban garden seedbeds within a small greenhouse. This system uses humidity and temperature sensors connected to an Arduino UNO microcontroller, managed by the FreeRTOS real-time operating system. It generates the necessary environmental conditions, including irrigation, heating, and ventilation, to ensure proper seed germination and seedling growth, thereby preventing losses and production delays.

Renan Borro Celestrino, Silvia Cristina Vieira · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

This study surveyed the implementation cost and presented the step-by-step operation of small-scale aquaponic systems for family agriculture and peri-urban areas. As a descriptive and experimental research, a practical experiment involved feeding 27 kg of fish, with their waste nourishing 144 Crespa Lettuce seedlings. The findings suggest that aquaponic systems tend to be a sustainable alternative due to low implantation costs, practical management, and healthier production from organic plant nutrition and the non-use of chemicals.

Marie Davidová, Ondrej Michalek, Katerina Horak Goryczka · ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) · Global

This work expands the edible landscape concept from the COLridor I project to the "Non-Anthropocentric Refreshments" event at Maker Faire Prague. It involved preparing a seed bombing picnicking cuisine and installing a QR code mapping game with fast food-oriented prototype recipes. These concepts embed information-generative and self-iterative agendas into urban landscapes using low-tech technologies that leverage personal devices and internet connections.

Manabika Sheel, Mohammad Bashir Ahmed, Shamim Ahmed Kamal Uddin Khan, Md. Matiul Islam · Fundamental and applied agriculture · Bangladesh (Khulna City)

A study in Khulna City from March to April 2018 interviewed 60 rooftop gardeners to analyze the scenario and problems of rooftop gardening. The study found that gardeners earned very poor economic benefits compared to their expenditures, with most preferring it as a hobby (98.33%) or for aesthetics (90%). Severe problems included excessive heat (91.67%), lack of proper nourishment (87.08%), and roof load (72.92%).

Dalmiro Cazorla-Perfetti, Pedro Morales-Moreno · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Venezuela (Coro)

This paper records the presence of deutonymphs of two mite taxa, Uroobovella Sensu lato Berlesse, 1903 and Cosmoglyphus Oudemans, 1932, in the urban area of Coro, Falcón State, Venezuela. These mites were found attached to the legs and/or abdomen of adult Desmometopa Loew, 1866 and Spalangia Latreille, 1805 specimens. The specimens were collected inside a dwelling, specifically in a plastic container with compost for growing vegetables and on the windows.

Cynthia Frazier · ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) · Global

This story describes the transformation of a garbage-filled empty lot into a beautiful green space through community effort. It illustrates how community gardens and green spaces can spread throughout a neighborhood, from parks to rooftops. The narrative inspires people to create community gardens and highlights the importance of bees and butterflies.

Shelley Burgin · International Journal of Environmental Studies · Global

This paper reports a desktop survey investigating the drivers of sustainability that motivate leisure-time gardening in private (backyard) and public (community) gardens, against a background of limited understanding of sustainability at the individual level. The survey found little mention of the "three pillars" of sustainability, and they were seldom interlinked. The study suggests the necessity to raise awareness of sustainability in an individual’s everyday leisure activities.

Harriet Gross · · Global

This chapter reflects on the psychology of gardening, examining the relevance of gender, age and the 'gardening career,' and discusses gardens as sites of resistance and empowerment, as seen in community gardening projects. It describes guerrilla gardening — cultivating someone else's land, more surreptitiously than community gardening, by planting or sprinkling seeds at night without the landowner's permission — and horticultural therapy as a form of occupational therapy that occupies people through work, crafts and gardening, concluding that the range of psychological concepts explored in relation to gardening shows there is no single psychology of gardening.

Heidy Yohana Tamayo Ortiz · El Tiempo · Colombia

An article on Medellín's 'Huertas con Vos' program, featuring a roughly 270-square-meter garden shared by 5 households in the Doce de Octubre neighborhood, saving each household about 50,000 pesos a month. The city has about 100,000 food-insecure vulnerable households, of which 10,000 are prioritized; in 2018 the program built 700 new gardens (450 urban, 250 rural), aiming for 1,707 gardens total over three years.

· Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Internet of Things, Data and Cloud Computing · Global

A smart, portable indoor aquaponics system with remote control of watering and lighting and live camera updates is proposed, aimed at urban dwellers lacking time or space to grow their own food.

Mastura Safayet, Md. Faqrul Arefin, Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan · Journal of Urban Management · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

This study explored the current practices and challenges of rooftop farming in Mirpur and Mohammadpur areas of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Researchers interviewed two practitioners and surveyed 60 non-practitioners. Findings indicate that rooftop farming can improve air quality, reduce atmospheric carbon, and lower stormwater management costs, with most non-practitioners willing to dedicate at least 50% of their roof space to it.

Filiz Çelik · Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology · Global

This study explains the emergence, design, maintenance, and importance of edible landscapes in urban environments. Edible landscaping integrates food plants as design features for both aesthetic value and consumption, aiming to reconnect people with local food systems. It encompasses a variety of garden types and scales but does not include food items produced for sale.

Janneth Jara-Samaniego, M.D. Pérez-Murcia, M.A. Bustamante, C. Paredes, A. Pérez‐Espinosa, Irene Gavilanes-Terán, Marga López, Frutos C. Marhuenda‐Egea, H. Brito, R. Moral · PLoS ONE · Ecuador (Chimborazo Region)

This study developed a field-scale demonstration project in Ecuador's Chimborazo Region to evaluate composting technology for managing organic waste from food markets and urban gardening. Three co-composting mixtures were prepared using market waste and pruning materials. All piles showed suitable composting development with significant organic matter decomposition, and the resulting composts lacked phytotoxicity and possessed suitable agronomic properties for use as organic fertilizers.

Emilee Bell · ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) · Global

Carol Hand’s book "Growing Green: Urban Gardening" weaves a history of gardening with practical application, inviting readers of all ages to introduce gardens into their lifestyles. The book explains global gardening traditions and future trends, emphasizing the many benefits of gardening, new vocabulary, and do-it-yourself methods. It discusses community, school, home, and personal garden options, as well as strategies for combating challenges urban dwellers might face, such as pollution, space, and vandals.

Quintana Piñeros, Jacqueline Lisette · · Colombia (Bogota)

This proposal is based on studying the climatological behavior of the main Bogota River basin and its vegetation characteristics to identify suitable native species for urban agriculture. It also proposes a rainwater harvesting system design for hard surfaces, specifically the laboratory building terrace at El Porvenir citadel of Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. The system would comprise storage, transport, and filtration systems, culminating in a drip irrigation system.

Gaston E. Small, Brendan Sisombath, Lauren Reuss, Russ Henry, Adam D. Kay · Compost Science & Utilization · Global

The study measured the effects of different barley mash to wood chip ratios on nutrient retention in compost and subsequent vegetable yield. Nine compost piles (1 m3) were constructed with varying ratios, and the 50:50 mixture maintained internal temperatures above 55°C for 30 days. When the finished compost was used in raised-bed garden plots, arugula and tomato yields increased with compost barley mash content, but less than 5% of N and 2% of P were recycled into new vegetable production.