Research & reports

Krista Steffen · Digital Commons - Hamline (Hamline University) · Global

This project aimed to design a language-focused curriculum for English Language Learner (ELL) students, delivered through hands-on learning in a school garden. By synthesizing research on ELL, science, and outdoor education, eight best practices were identified to guide the curriculum's development. Findings indicated that garden-based education can effectively promote language development and improve student academics for ELLs when these strategies are applied.

Pernille Malberg Dyg, Karen Wistoft · Environmental Education Research · Denmark

An exploratory multiple case study in Denmark examined the "Gardens for Bellies" school garden program and its role in student wellbeing. The study indicated that the program promotes student wellbeing through positive emotions from being outdoors and positive social interactions, which seemed to affect self-esteem. While the majority of students experienced wellbeing, it is not documented whether these effects influence long-term wellbeing or planetary care, and not all students thrived in the garden's open space.

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.

Renee Raiden Boyer, Ben Chapman · VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) · Global

This handbook outlines recommended agricultural practices for food safety in school and community gardens. Topics include food safety, site selection, pesticides and fertilizers, handwashing, water and irrigation, composting, garden design and animals, sanitation, and tools.

José Darío Barragán Romero, Johana Andrea Gutiérrez Rivera · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This document illustrates how urban agriculture is being applied in Bogotá, with the assistance of the Bogotá Botanical Garden (JBB), particularly in educational institutions. The objective is for young people to understand the benefits of urban agriculture through educational processes and replicate this information in their homes. The work consists of three parts: a photographic record of the gardens in educational institutions assisted by the JBB, the creation of a list of plant species suitable for cultivation in Bogotá, and a compilation of research related to the JBB on urban agriculture.

Katrina Hoch · · Global

Involving children in decisions and preparations for activities, particularly in natural settings, increases their enthusiasm and understanding of the food system. A 2015 systematic review of 13 studies found that participation in school garden programs led to an increased preference for vegetables. School gardens provide individual, interpersonal, and social benefits, engaging children in broader themes such as protecting biodiversity.

Fabiola Mejía, Clara Liliana Montero, Lina Marcela Arango, Emily Johanna Bermúdez · Letras ConCiencia TecnoLógica · Colombia (Bogotá)

At the Escuela Tecnológica Instituto Técnico Central (ETITC) in Bogotá, Colombia, a process for utilizing organic waste through composting was implemented. Following an "Urban Agriculture" workshop, organic waste from the ETITC cafeteria was collected and identified. Different mixtures were created to produce compost, which was then used in seedbeds and for transplanting seedlings. This research aimed to demonstrate the potential of using organic waste for compost production.

Kay Whitehead · Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes · Australia (Adelaide)

The public school at Plympton, although one of the smallest in the suburbs of Adelaide, has a reputation of its own. The headmaster, Mr. J. Greenlees, is an enthusiast in manual training.

Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler, Jared T. McGuirt, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Jennifer Garner, Karla L. Hanson, Jane Kolodinsky, Marilyn Sitaker · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · Global

This qualitative study examined nutrition educators' (n=20 in telephone interviews, n=17 in focus groups) experiences, knowledge, and beliefs about local foods. Most educators identified as local food advocates, but few had direct experience with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Variability across seasons, financial issues, and risk of spoilage were identified as challenges of using seasonal, local foods within programming.

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.

Mustafa Ürey · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Global

A descriptive content analysis of 162 articles published between 2000 and 2015 in 21 journals examined trends in school gardening practices. The analysis found that school garden practices aim to develop academic performance and healthy living skills, primarily involving pre-school and primary school students. These practices were found to positively affect academic performance, healthy living skills, and individual and social skills development.

Rachelle Toinette · · Global

This paper describes an internship experience at the FReDD association, which works on disseminating and valorizing audiovisual materials as a means of raising awareness and educating the public on sustainable development and environmental issues. The internship involved tasks such as video transcription, audiovisual research, participation in various events, and notably the creation of educational sheets for a young audience on the themes of food and urban agriculture, addressing sustainable development challenges.

Hannah Powell · Educating Young Children: Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood Years · Australia

Kurilpa Community Child Care in West End operates a multi-age forest school program weekly at a local community garden's wild-space native plants area. This initiative enables children from a highly urbanized area to develop meaningful relationships with the environment and benefit from ongoing exposure to local green spaces.

Kate Wright · Cultural Studies Review · Australia (New South Wales)

A postdoctoral project involving collaboratively planting and maintaining a community garden on land that was once part of the East Armidale Aboriginal Reserve in New South Wales, Australia, began in 2014. This research offers a personal narrative of involvement in an anti-colonial multispecies research project within the confines of a neoliberal university, interrogating the potential and limitations of anti-colonial projects undertaken from colonial subject positions predicated on social and environmental privilege.

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.

Rebecca Laycock Pedersen, Zoë Robinson · Local Environment · Global

This paper systematically reviewed literature on University Community Gardens for Sustainability (UCGS) to suggest directions for future research. UCGS face challenges with transient and inexperienced student gardeners but have the potential for a lasting impact on young people's food behaviors. The literature shows that UCGS have similar benefits to urban community gardens, with a greater emphasis on educational and environmental sustainability benefits.

Pjilmah Waken Waken, Tania Paul, Waken, Pjilmah Waken, Paul, Tania · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Global

A study and intervention report addressing the decline in consumption of traditional vegetables in Papua New Guinea (PNG), which is adversely affecting family nutrition and increasing rates of malnutrition and obesity. Traditional vegetables are climatically adapted to PNG, require lower inputs, and are described as superior in food value to globally popular vegetables, historically providing a large share of daily protein, vitamin, and mineral intake in the village diet. The research found that people lacked awareness of the nutritional value of traditional vegetables, considering them "backward" and "poverty" food, even though the vegetables remain strongly connected to culture and "home." The project trained smallholder farmers in pest and disease management and seed saving to reduce input costs, worked with families and communities to raise awareness of traditional vegetables' nutritional value, trained families in gardening and cooking, and created new recipes using local vegetables. Planned next steps include work with maternal-child clinics linked to hospitals and school-based programs combining teacher education, school gardens, and incentive-based lunchboxes. Some growers have applied their seed-saving skills to set up small-scale seed businesses.

Ai-Ran Lee, Jae-Min Park · Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture · Global

Against a backdrop of growing interest in aesthetic and cultural community gardens in Korea, the study analyzed community garden design guidelines from six sources across the UK, Canada, the USA, Australia and Japan to draw out their characteristics and implications. Most guidelines are published freely online and follow a chronological structure of introduction, site selection, design, construction and maintenance, but the design sections were found to offer inadequate drawings and case images and little explanatory detail.

Illana C. Livstrom, Amy Smith, Mary Rogers, Karl Hackansan · Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies · Global

A qualitative case study of "Grounding Roots," a community-based collaborative educational program that aims to build food, environmental, and cognitive justice through sustainable urban agriculture and horticulture via intergenerational communities of practice. Drawing on Linda Tuhiwai Smith's framework of decolonizing methodologies, the study examined both the ways a Community-University partnership engaged in decolonizing work through research and practice, and the ways the same partnership served to preserve colonizing practices, using deductive coding grounded in decolonizing-practice theory. Identified decolonizing practices included implementing a program of worth to the community and youth, building from community-led agendas, and prioritizing community healing and transformation over academic research agendas. Identified colonizing practices included inequitable power hierarchies within the leadership team and in garden groups, deficit-oriented talk about minoritized youth, and the devalorization of youth voice. The study concludes that researchers doing community-based work need to examine the white supremacist roots embedded in their own practices, embrace decolonizing and humanizing approaches, engage in community-driven agendas that prioritize process over product, facilitate distributed leadership in collaboration with community members, and produce work of genuine value together with the community.

Jeanne McCarty, Vanessa Ford, Joe Ludes · Childhood Education · Global

This piece notes that one innovative approach to learning is to change the venue itself. While traditional schooling takes place within walls, it states that an outdoor environment offers significant benefits for learning through experience.

Equipo LS · Ladera Sur · Chile

This article lists ten benefits of urban community gardens. It reports that the first urban community garden in Chile's capital was a 2007 municipal project in La Pintana, on a 700 sq m plot divided into 11 gardens. By around 2012, roughly 40 such spaces already existed in Santiago, and new projects such as the Barrio Yungay initiative have continued to spread since.

Hagolani-Albov S.E. · Focus on Geography, Vol. 60, No. 1 · Finland (Helsinki)

This photographic study documents four forms of urban agriculture in Helsinki — colony allotments, market gardens, box gardening, and community-supported agriculture — tracing over a century of practice and illustrating how urban farming is spatially and institutionally embedded in the city.

Rita Beck Neal, Nanci Weinberger · Bryant Digital Repository (Bryant University) · Global

School garden programs have a long history of success, primarily in elementary schools. Child care centers are well-suited for gardens due to year-round operation, but teachers often lack familiarity with gardening and plant science. Obstacles to implementing gardens in child care environments include teachers' unfamiliarity, concerns about messy outdoor settings, and strenuous labor.

Michael Kennedy · OpenSIUC (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) · Global

Community gardens can serve as important local greenspaces to address environmental degradation and educate individuals about the importance of food and the environment. However, certain barriers need to be overcome and addressed before community gardens are successfully implemented. Participation and interaction within community gardens may provide a pathway to long-term commitment to sustainability, encouraging individuals to adopt more environmentally supportive behaviors and a deeper commitment to environmentalism.

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.