Research & reports

H. Tayal Neeraj · · Global

This chapter explores the potential of home gardening, as part of urban agriculture, to contribute to human health through improved nutrition. While home gardens can provide nutrient-dense foods, the potential health impact of soil contamination must be addressed, as urbanized soils tend to have elevated levels of heavy metals and other toxins.

RR. Sophia Ratna Haryati · PROSIDING SEMINAR HASIL PENGABDIAN MASYARAKAT · Indonesia

This study discusses the implementation of household-scale aquaponic urban farming technology in Surakarta, Indonesia, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project, a partnership between Universitas Amikom Yogyakarta and Karang Taruna Baluwarti, aimed to improve urban environmental quality and support community food security by providing knowledge on enhancing urban farming yields.

In-Kyoung Hong, Hyung-Kwon Yun, Young Chae, Sangmi Lee, Young-Bin Jung, Mi-Ra Lee · Journal of people, plants, and environment · South Korea

This study proposed and tested an urban garden model derived from the traditional Korean Gyeonjongbeop farming method, interpreting practices from Imwongyeongjeji Bolliji. Researchers cultivated vegetables on ridges and furrows, finding that Raphanus sativus, Allium fistulosum L., Brassica juncea, and Spinacia oleracea on ridges, and Hordeum vulgare var. hexastichon and Triticum aestivum L. on furrows, showed higher growth than in conventional flat fields. This method proved effective for crops vulnerable to weather and could enable year-round urban farming by utilizing winter fallow lands.

Luiz Orlando dos Santos, Fernanda Miguel Franco, Wagner da Cunha Siqueira, Arthur Guilherme Schirmbeck Chaves · Brazilian Journal of Development · Brazil (Cáceres-MT)

In Cáceres-MT, Brazil, a compact and mobile urban garden prototype was implemented in two residences with limited space. This system cultivated chives, coriander, and parsley, supplying enough food for a family of approximately 5 people during a 90-day monitoring period. A water reuse system was also integrated, and the mobile garden structure contributed to optimizing small spaces and producing healthy, low-cost food.

Rahayu Sri Waskitoningtyas, Nur Ismiyati · Abdimas Universal · Indonesia (Balikpapan)

This study investigated how urban residents of PKK RT 49 in Sepinggan Village, Balikpapan, Indonesia, engage in urban farming. Through observation and documentation, it found that urban farming benefits mothers in RT 49, enabling them to grow vegetables like chili, tomatoes, onions, lime, and pumpkin in their yards or using recycled containers.

Hilyah Magdalena, Hadi Santoso · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Indonesia (Pangkalpinang)

A Decision Support System (DSS) for urban farming using hydroponics was developed in Pangkalpinang City, Indonesia, utilizing the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. This research considered factors such as limited urban land, suitable vegetable choices, soil conditions, fertilizers used, pest disturbances, and community interest in hydroponic vegetables. Combined assessment results from expert respondents indicated that the superiority of hydroponics was the highest supporting criterion at 19.9%, and white mustard was the most preferred vegetable at 36.4%.

Baptiste Grard, Nastaran Manouchehri, Christine Aubry, Nathalie Frascaria‐Lacoste, Claire Chenu · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Global

A five-year experimental trial quantified the food production potential, soil fertility, and potential contamination of Technosols created from urban wastes for rooftop edible production. The cropping system showed promising results for food production and maintained high fertility. However, a concern was identified regarding the trace metal content of certain edible crops, specifically zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu), although most trace metal levels were below existing norms.

Alak Barman, Swarna Shome · International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) · Bangladesh

An experiment in Gazipur during 2018-19 investigated the effect of six different ratios of soil and organic materials on strawberry and marigold growth and yield for rooftop gardens. Marigold performed best with 1 kg vermicompost for 1 kg soil (T5), while strawberry showed best performance in most parameters under the same treatment. The lowest yield was recorded from 1 kg cowdung for 2 kg soil (T4).

Karácsony Zoltán · · Global

This paper presents three examples of urban plant cultivation directions. One of these,

S. Serra, P. Afonso, Tereza Cristina Lopes Duarte · Open Schools Journal for Open Science · Global

In a school in Portugal, an interdisciplinary "Green School" project, encompassing Natural Sciences, Mathematics, ICT, and other subjects, was implemented based on student interest. For this project, students were involved in planning, partnership building, execution, and maintenance of a school garden to improve school green spaces. As a result, throughout the school year, changes in behavior regarding the garden and care for green spaces were observed among participating students and the wider school community.

Rustina Untari, Angelika Riyandari, Bernadeta Resti Nurhayati, Ekawati Marhaenny Dukut, Emilia Ninik Aydawati, Alberta Rika Pratiwi, Retno Yustini, Hotmauli Sidabalok, VG Sri Rejeki · Unika Repositor (Unika) · Indonesia (Semarang)

To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and children, the Center for Women's Studies (PSW) Unika Soegijapranata provided guidance to productive women in Tanjung Mas Village, Semarang, Indonesia, on urban farming using a "regrow" method for vegetables and herbs. The guidance, mostly online via WhatsApp, involved creating modules and video tutorials. Success varied significantly among participants, with some producing many vegetables and herbs while others showed no progress.

Akhmad Satori, Yogi Nirwanto, Sri Hardianti, Faisal Fadilla Noorikhsan · · Indonesia

The "Budikdamber" (fish cultivation in buckets) aquaponics method is presented as an urban farming solution for household food needs in Indonesia, especially for urban communities with limited yard space. This method allows fish and plants to grow in the same place, providing animal protein and vegetables. It aims to enhance food security, strengthen community cohesion, and support household economies through harvest sales.

Aditya Dyah Utami, Mukti Ahmad Nur Cahya, Olivia Elfatma, Koko Setiawan · PRIMA Journal of Community Empowering and Services · Indonesia (Yogyakarta)

Urban elementary schools often have minimal green open spaces, making it difficult to implement green school programs, as seen at SD Islamiyah Warungboto Yogyakarta. Introducing verticulture technology to students is a solution, implemented through preparation, execution, and final stages. Students learn about verticulture generally, then receive training in designing verticulture systems, gaining knowledge of its benefits and supporting green school programs.

Georgia Csortan, James Ward, Philip Roetman · PLoS ONE · Australia

The productivity, resource efficiency, and potential financial savings of home food gardens in South Australia were investigated. Thirty-four citizen science participants measured and recorded garden inputs and outputs, revealing that smaller gardens were more intensive than larger ones, requiring higher inputs but also yielding higher outputs per unit area. Labor requirements were significantly lower than previously estimated, and it was calculated that 65% of the gardens should break even within five years or less and save money.

Janaina Henrique dos Santos, Clara Fagundes, Beatriz Barbalho, Nicole Massa · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Global

This report details an experience in ecological, medicinal, and biodegradable cleaning using medicinal herbs, developed by two female urban farmers. The farmers, after training, produced cleaning products for personal use and then for commercialization, aligning with agroecological urban agriculture principles. This initiative promotes income generation and women's autonomy through the use of medicinal plants and agroecological cleaning products.

Umi Nur Solikah, Tri Puji Rahayu, Tria Rosana Dewi · WASANA NYATA · Indonesia

A community-service report on an extension programme promoting "vertikultur" (vertical or tiered cultivation) as a way to optimise limited home-yard space for urban vegetable farming in Bumi sub-district, Laweyan, Surakarta, Indonesia, where household yards are typically narrow. After preparatory coordination with the sub-district office and agreement on participants and timing, the programme delivered training to women members of the Family Welfare Movement (PKK) covering the concept, benefits, models, tools, and materials, and the procedure for applying vertical-cultivation techniques.

Anisur Rosyad, Triana Yuni Astuti, Etik Wukir Tini · Jurnal Dinamika Pengabdian (JDP) · Indonesia

A 2020 report on a community service activity providing leafy-vegetable verticulture training to the PKK RT4 RW5 group at Purwosari Indah Housing in Baturraden District, Banyumas Regency, Indonesia. Using polybags arranged in tiers on racks built from bamboo and gutters, the program trained participants through counseling and hands-on demonstration plots to grow caisim, kale, pakcoy, mustard greens, leeks, and celery; partners were able to grow leafy vegetables successfully, but the harvest remained limited to self-consumption or sharing with neighbors rather than being sold.

Nicholas Henderson, Quentin Lefèvre · Sens-Dessous · France

This article investigates biology, economics and landscape through the lens of a relational paradigm that the author identifies as pervasive across both the social and life sciences, positing the relational nature of the world as an actant reality that remains largely invisible. It also examines the human relationship to the living world amid what it frames as a crisis in that relationship, and analyzes a shared permaculture garden as a manifestation of "relational design" — an approach to design centered on relationship.

Wanti Mindari, Widi Wurjani, Purnomo Edi Sasongko · Jurnal Peduli Masyarakat · Indonesia

A community outreach report on urban farming training and planting-media modification for the women farmers' group PKK RT 03/RW 08 in Rewwin, Waru, Sidoarjo, Indonesia, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Planting media mixed soil with non-soil materials (compost, rice husk, cocopeat, manure), with drip irrigation applied twice daily (morning and evening) and NPK fertilizer given as a base dose plus four follow-up applications of 20 g per plant. In a demonstration plot growing tomatoes in 5-kilogram pots, the medium combining soil, compost, husk, and manure produced the highest and best tomato yield compared with mixes lacking one of those components.

Camille T. Dungy · Ecotone · Global

An essay by poet Camille T. Dungy arguing that every politically engaged person should have a garden, recommending that those without access to land join or organize a community garden, or grow plants in containers in whatever space is available. The essay contends that a garden's constancy and the patience required for it to grow are key to sustaining political engagement, concluding that a garden is never wasted space.

Jakob Laage‐Thomsen, Anders Blok · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Europe

Drawing on a case study of a civic-driven permaculture garden in Copenhagen, Denmark, this article develops an analytical grid for the imaginative and material domain of public aesthetic norms that shapes tensions over interventions in, and valuations of, the city's multiform green spaces. It models this domain along two axes — "orderliness" versus "wildness," and "pastoral nature" versus city-nature "imbrication" — and uses the grid to make sense of internal debates and external criticisms surrounding the Copenhagen permaculture garden. It explains how and why the garden struggled to secure a legitimate place in a city otherwise committed to urban nature, and argues that attention to variable aesthetic commitments around urban greenery helps recast questions of urban sustainability politics.

Vladimir Mikadze · Journal of Urban Design · Canada

A study tracing the inception and development of an unauthorized community garden (guerrilla garden) that emerged from a re-appropriated composting site in a municipal park in Montreal, Canada. It identifies the main reasons and mechanisms that allowed the garden to persist in a high-profile location for a period of time, and examines the garden and its effects on surrounding space in relation to landscape urbanism and its pursuit of a new urban development paradigm.

Ken Muramatsu, Akane Bessho, Takahiro Yamazaki, Akiko Iida, Makoto Yokohari · Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan · Japan

This study examined "Katte-Kosaku," unauthorized cultivation on the riverbed of the Hanami River in Chiba City, Japan, from a social well-being perspective. It found that the practice has a welfare function that improves the quality of life of socially vulnerable people, and that a certain number of people in the surrounding community tolerate the activity.

Mirna Meidina, Baroto Tavib Indrojarwo · Jurnal Sains dan Seni ITS · Indonesia

In response to growing interest in urban farming among Indonesian city residents, this design study produced an educational visual guidebook aimed primarily at women aged 20-30 with mid-level income and at least a diploma education who want to start urban farming. The design process involved an experimental drafting and layout study, a depth interview with urban farming practitioner and researcher Dr. Sitawati and a graphic designer, and observation at sites including Eco Green Park Malang. A post-test survey of 45 respondents representing the target audience across two sub-districts assessed preferences for systematics, layout, illustration, hierarchy, and information-delivery efficiency. The result was a 204-page reference book in four chapters covering urban farming basics, garden design, plant care, and miniature garden construction, using color vector illustrations and infographics.

Padmanabha M., Streif S. · Applied Sciences · Global

Designs and validates a low-cost modular programmable controlled-environment device for quantitative study of growth in plants, fungi, and insect larvae. It consists of modular units including a sensor cluster measuring gas concentrations, air properties, and growing-medium properties.