Research & reports

Farm Hack · Farm Hack · United States

The official Farm Hack tool library page. Anyone can submit a tool via 'Add a tool', and each tool page carries 'I built (or modified) this tool' / 'I like this tool' voting and a comment section, with tags (e.g. Smart Farm, Post Harvest, Irrigation and Water Management) for browsing and filtering. It functions as a community-accumulated record of member-built and modified farm tools.

· Wikipédia (français) · France

French Wikipedia entry on 'jardin ouvrier' (workers' garden), tracing origins to Félicie Hervieu's initiative in Sedan (1889), Abbé Lemire's 1896 league, the rapid growth of gardens in the Paris region from 48 in 1904 to 1,515 in 1913, and a nationwide total of 250,000 gardens by the end of World War II. The law of 26 July 1952 formalized the term 'jardins familiaux'.

· Wikipedia (English) · Singapore

English Wikipedia entry on community gardening in Singapore. The 'Community in Bloom' scheme, launched in May 2005 at Mayfair Park Estate, had grown to over 2,000 community gardens by 2025. The 'allotment gardens' scheme, introduced in 2016, expanded at roughly 300 plots per year from 2016 to 2021 and had exceeded 2,500 plots by 2025. A 2022 survey found 88% of plants grown were edible.

· Wikipedia · Global

This Wikipedia article on social capital defines it as networks of relationships that are productive towards advancing the goals of individuals and groups, and presents Robert Putnam's distinction between bonding social capital (the value assigned to networks between homogeneous groups) and bridging social capital (the value assigned to networks between socially heterogeneous groups). It cites criminal gangs as generating bonding capital and choirs or bowling clubs as generating bridging capital, illustrating that social capital is not always beneficial to society as a whole.

· Wikipedia · United States

This Wikipedia article on Robert Putnam's 2000 book Bowling Alone describes its central argument as the reduction in all forms of in-person social intercourse in the United States, evidenced by decreased voter turnout, attendance at public meetings, service on committees, and an aggregate loss in membership and volunteers in many existing civic organizations. It cites the example that while the number of people who bowled increased over the prior 20 years, the number who bowled in leagues decreased. Putnam attributes the decline in civic engagement since 1965 to roughly: television/electronic entertainment 25%, generational change 50%, pressures of time and two-career families 10%, suburbanization/commuting 10%, and unexplained 15-20%.

· Wikipedia · United States

This Wikipedia article on Seattle's P-Patch community garden program states the name derives from the Picardo family farm in the Wedgwood neighborhood. It reports about 90 P-Patch locations around the city, which in 2023 donated a total of 33,438 pounds (15,167 kg) of produce to food banks and meal programs. It also describes a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) P-Patch on the roof of a Mercer Street parking garage at Seattle Center, opened in 2012, whose planned 2020 closure was averted following public protest.

NYC Parks (New York City Department of Parks & Recreation) · NYC Parks · United States

This NYC Parks page introduces GreenThumb, established in 1978 and described as the nation's largest urban gardening program, sustaining over 550 community gardens and supporting thousands of volunteer gardeners across the five boroughs. It explains the program originated from derelict vacant lots left by the city's 1970s fiscal crisis, and operates through three teams—Community Engagement, Operations, and Planning and Programs—providing free materials, technical assistance, and educational workshops.

· Wikipedia · United States

This Wikipedia article covers the Liz Christy Garden, described as the first and oldest community garden in New York City. In 1973 Liz Christy founded the Green Guerillas and petitioned the city for access to a vacant lot for $1 a month; the garden was officially created in 1974. Located at the corner of the Bowery and Houston Street in Manhattan, it is now managed by about 20 volunteer gardeners. It was renamed in Christy's honor after her death in 1985, became a legally protected community garden in 2002, and was included in the Bowery Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

This Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) page explains Japan's key laws on citizen farms. The Act on Special Measures Concerning the Lending of Specified Farmland, enacted in 1989, created Farmland Act exceptions for short-term lending of small subdivided plots, and a 2005 amendment allowed entities other than local governments and agricultural cooperatives to open citizen farms. The Act on Promotion of Citizen Farm Development, enacted in 1990, promotes farms equipped with facilities such as tool sheds and rest areas, while the 2018 Act on Facilitation of Lending of Urban Farmland makes it easier to lease urban farmland (productive green land) for citizen farms.

· Wikipedia · United States

This Wikipedia article covers sociologist Ray Oldenburg's concept of the 'third place,' proposed in his 1989 book The Great Good Place. A third place is a social space separate from home ('first place') and workplace ('second place'), with examples including churches, cafes, bars, libraries, and parks. It outlines Oldenburg and Christensen's seven characteristics—accessibility, comfortable atmosphere, convenient location, unpretentiousness, established regulars, conversation focus, and lighthearted mood—and argues these spaces matter for democracy, civic engagement, and a sense of place.

· Wikipedia · Germany

Moritz Schreber (1808–1861) was a German medical doctor and university lecturer born in Leipzig, who became director of the Leipzig Heilanstalt in 1844 and wrote about children's health and the social effects of urbanization. The eponymous 'Schreber movement' arose only after his death; the first Schrebergarten was established in 1864 by Leipzig school principal Ernst Innozenz Hauschild, who leased land for children's physical exercise.

· Wikipedia (de) · Germany

German Kleingärten (allotment gardens) trace back to early-19th-century 'poor gardens' (Armengärten), with the first Schreber plot opened in Leipzig's Johannapark in 1865. Today about 15,000 clubs organized under 20 state federations and the national umbrella BKD manage roughly 867,092 registered plots, out of over 1 million plots nationwide covering about 46,000 hectares. The average plot size is 370 m²; as of 2008 the average transfer fee was €1,900 (€3,300 in large cities), average annual cost was €373, and the average user age was 60.

· Wikipedia (de) · Germany

Prinzessinnengärten was founded by the non-profit 'Nomadisch Grün' in July 2009 and operated an urban farm at Moritzplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg (between Prinzenstraße and Oranienstraße), on roughly 6,000 m² of land that had lain fallow for over 60 years. Within a month of opening it had 100 growing beds, later expanded by 300 more, using a mobile container-based structure with plants grown in recycled bread crates, Tetra Paks, and rice sacks. It kept four beehives from September 2009, opened a garden café in 2010, expanded a garden kitchen in 2011, and won the Utopia Award in 2010.

· Wikipedia (de) · Germany

The city of Andernach's 'Edible City' (Essbare Stadt) project plants vegetables, fruit, and grain on municipal green spaces under the motto 'picking allowed' (Pflücken erlaubt), letting residents harvest freely. It was first presented in 2010 at the federal 'Entente Florale' competition, where Andernach received several awards, and was subsequently extended to further areas in the city center, along the old city wall, and near the train station.

· Wikipedia · Germany

The Intercultural Garden movement was founded in 1996 in Göttingen, Germany, partly on the initiative of migrant families, with an association formally established in 1998. It began with just three gardens in Göttingen but had grown by early 2006 to about 300 members from about twenty countries, while around the same period thirty independent garden projects existed nationwide with more being created. The Munich-based foundation Stiftung Interkultur coordinates and supports garden projects across Germany.

Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv Berlin · Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv Berlin (公式サイト) · Germany

Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv Berlin has worked on education and participation since 2009. It relocated from its original Moritzplatz site in 2020 and is now based at the Neuer St. Jacobi Friedhof cemetery in Neukölln. Its activities include green-space conservation and community gardening, ecology workshops, running the neighborhood facility 'studio nagelneu' and the cultural event space 'Kiezkapelle', environmental education, guided tours, a café-restaurant, and garden projects for companies, schools, and social institutions.

ByBi · ByBi · Norway

An introduction to 'The Pollinator Passage', launched in 2015 by Oslo beekeeping organization ByBi with funding from the Norwegian Environment Agency, mobilizing citizens to create flowering 'stepping stones' across the city — from large flowering farming areas to balcony flower pots — to build urban pollinator habitat. Since its launch, Norway has adopted a National Pollinator Strategy, Oslo has established an Urban Agriculture Program and a roof/facade greening strategy, and ByBi now manages pollinator-friendly practices in the city's cemeteries and the three royal gardens of Oslo.

Plantlife · Plantlife · United Kingdom

An overview of Plantlife's 'No Mow May' campaign, urging people in the UK to stop mowing their lawns during May to let wildflowers grow and support bees and butterflies. The page states that approximately 97% of the UK's flower-rich meadows have been lost since the 1930s, and notes there are around 23 million gardens in the UK, meaning even small patches can add up. It encourages extending the practice beyond May into a year-round 'No Mow Movement' of managing lawns with mixed grass lengths for nature.

NHS England · NHS England · United Kingdom

NHS England's official page on 'social prescribing', a form of personalised care in which GPs and other health professionals refer patients via link workers to non-clinical, community-based support (group activities, advice services, etc.), centred on the question 'what matters to me?'. It targets people with one or more long-term conditions, those needing low-level mental health support, people who are socially isolated or lonely, and those with complex social needs. NHS England set a goal of at least 900,000 people being referred to social prescribing by 2023/24.

Edible Schoolyard Project · Edible Schoolyard Project · United States

The official site of the Edible Schoolyard Project, a non-profit founded in 1995 by chef and food activist Alice Waters. Its mission is to use organic school gardens, kitchens, and cafeterias as a teaching tool for nutrition, self-responsibility, and community values alongside academic subjects. It runs its own model programs, Edible Schoolyard Berkeley and Edible Schoolyard Stockton, in addition to providing edible education curricula, teacher training, a public resource library, and a network connecting edible-education programs across the US and abroad.

株式会社アグリメディア · 株式会社アグリメディア · Japan

The official site of 'Sharebatake', a members-only rental farm plot service operated by AGRIMEDIA Co., Ltd. Seeds, seedlings, fertilizer, and tools are provided on-site with experienced advisors on hand, letting members show up 'empty-handed'. It operates nationwide across regions including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka, with about 118 farm sites and roughly 15,138 plots as of end of July 2026.

ローカルフードサイクリング株式会社 · ローカルフードサイクリング株式会社 · Japan

The official site of LFC Compost, a bag-based home composting product for kitchen scraps operated by Local Food Cycling Inc., part of the Borderless Group. Users simply 'add' food waste and 'lightly mix' it to compost, with support via LINE chat, balcony-gardening classes, and compost consultation/collection events also offered. Its subscription compost-set product has received 1,016 reviews with a 4.51/5 rating.

· Wikipedia · Global

A Wikipedia article on 'victory gardens' — vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at homes and in public parks during World War I and II to supplement food rations and boost civilian morale. In the US during WWI, over 5 million gardens were established, with produce valued at more than $1.2 billion by war's end. In WWII, the US had 18 million victory gardens by May 1943 (12 million urban, 6 million farm-based), accounting for about one-third of US vegetable production; in 1944, 9-10 million short tons were harvested, matching total commercial fresh-vegetable production. In Britain, allotments roughly doubled to about 1.4 million by 1943.

· Wikipedia · United States

A Wikipedia article surveying the history and present state of community gardening in the United States. It traces early examples such as the Moravians' garden in Bethabara, North Carolina in the early 1700s, Detroit's municipally sponsored 'Pingree's Potato Patches' of the 1890s, World War I/II victory gardens, and the founding of the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) in 1978. Current figures cited include over 3,000 gardens statewide in New York, over 550 gardens on New York City property (plus 745 school gardens), about 1,400 gardens in Detroit, over 800 documented in Chicago, about 180 in Boston, and Seattle's P-Patch program with 1,900 plots across 68 locations totaling 23 acres.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · United States

EPA's Brownfields and Land Revitalization program page describes grants and technical assistance for assessing, cleaning up, and reusing contaminated land. As of June 2026 it lists $270 million in brownfield grants and a $1.5 billion investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The page does not directly discuss urban agriculture.