Research & reports

Fernando Richter · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Global

This article examines the current boom in urban agriculture, noting a shift from its historical function of food production to a focus on recreational and leisure activities. It suggests that symbolic dynamics associated with new-ruralism, consumption, and a nostalgic search for authenticity converge in this phenomenon. The study proposes that Leisure Studies offer a valuable perspective for understanding the complexity of urban agriculture as a leisure experience.

Esteban Sinde Stompel · Navarra forestal: revista de la Asociación Forestal de Navarra · Global

Mushroom cultivation is being introduced into urban garden design and as a real silvicultural alternative to be implemented on forest land. In the latter case, the production of saprophytic fungi on valueless wood waste offers a notable environmental advantage by recycling biomass and providing a highly nutritious ecological food.

Shelly Errington · Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture · United States (California)

This research article is by Shelly Errington, focusing on visible and audible aspects of culture. The author is in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz and uses her kitchen garden and edible landscape to imagine being part of the farm-to-table crowd.

Xavier Fontich Vicens, Mariona Espinet Blanch, Germán Llerena del Castillo · · Global

This record concerns writing in a school agroecology project and the recovery of an urban garden. It is based on the publication's abstract, as part of a monograph titled "Teaching and Learning Scientific Discourse."

Chen Hui-fan · Anhui nongye kexue · China (Zhengzhou)

This article analyzes the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model in Zhengzhou and proposes a new Chinese-style CSA model, "daughter-in-law in the city, her husband outside the city," inspired by roof vegetable gardens. This model is presented as beneficial for organic agriculture development and urban roof greening, offering a mutually beneficial practice for combining roof greening and agriculture. It is described as a green economy approach that promotes ecological environment protection and urban-rural economic development.

Marlene Wurfel · Earth Common Journal · Canada (Edmonton)

This article presents a case study of the Parkallen Community Garden in Edmonton, Canada, which began its first growing season in Spring 2012. The garden transformed an unused strip of lawn into a communal "edible food forest" and won the City of Edmonton's top community gardening award in its first year. The study details how the permaculture design was implemented and interpreted within the gardening community.

Nicholas A. Read · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · United States

A field-trial study conducted in the United States, where small-scale urban agriculture has become more prevalent due to the availability of abandoned property and demand for locally grown produce. Weed suppression is described as a major concern for urban growers, with mulch valued as an inexpensive, readily available control method. Black plastic mulch, the industry standard, is impermeable and difficult to remove and dispose of; newspaper end-rolls (unprinted remains from newspaper printing) are proposed as an alternative that is permeable and biodegradable but have a high C:N ratio that can reduce soil fertility and crop growth. Because plant residue alone requires large quantities for adequate weed suppression, combining newspaper with plant residues is proposed as a way to achieve adequate suppression with less material and a lower C:N ratio. The study's objective was to compare two continuous sheet mulches — newspaper and black plastic — with and without an underlying particulate mulch of killed cover crop, in field trials conducted in 2011 and 2012 measuring soil moisture, soil temperature, weed growth, weed removal cost, and collard (Brassica oleracea) performance in a low-input production system. The abstract does not report specific results.

Paz Sastre Domínguez · Revista de Estudios de Juventud · Spain

A Spanish essay reconsidering the industrial revolutions through the growth of advertising and design, examining social practices that apply New Institutional Economics organizational models—originating from the free-software movement—to material goods such as food, DIY 3D printers, open wear, open design, urban gardens, DIY biology, DIY drones, open-source hardware, non-GMO seeds, waste, bartering, social currencies and Bitcoin. It frames these projects as new forms of social contract, moral machines floating outside the state and market, but draws a parallel with current generic-drug monopolies to argue the post-patent world may not turn out as imagined.

Michael Koch, Martin Köhler · · Germany

Against the backdrop of debates on densifying German cities to meet housing demand and searching for new partnerships between citizens, businesses and municipalities, a study focuses on "new open spaces" beyond officially recorded green and open areas — traffic junctions, rail embankments, industrial brownfields, parking lots, streets, sidewalks, private gardens, schoolyards, corporate green areas, delivery zones, courtyards, rubble sites, quays, allotment gardens, dikes, drainage channels, retention basins, bridges, building setback areas, and driveways. These spaces host trends such as urban gardening, urban exploration and parkour, and across four volumes on Hamburg the study examines their actual and potential contribution to open-space provision for the whole urban population, not only the inner city or young urban milieus.

Sandy Campbell · The Deakin Review of Children s Literature · Canada

This is a review of Hadley Dyer's "Potatoes on Rooftops: Farming in the City" (Annick Press, Toronto, 2012). Although marketed by the publisher for grades 4–7, the reviewer finds the actual reading level higher — Tenth Grade on the Coleman-Liau Index and 9.2 on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test. Despite a children's-book design, the content is dense and textbook-like, moving from an introduction on food and the need for urban agriculture through small- and larger-scale urban agriculture examples to related social and political movements, with a glossary, resource list, and index. The Toronto-based author received Ontario Arts Council funding, but the review notes little Canadian content, with the book's apparent market being the United States; it cites international examples including Africa, Japan, and Scotland but says little about the practicalities of urban gardening in Canada, where growing conditions differ sharply by region (e.g., Florida vs. Edmonton). The review rates the book 3 out of 4 stars, recommending it for high school and public libraries and noting it is most useful for teen and adult readers.

Shelly Errington · Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture · Global

The available text for this article consists only of an author biography, not article content. It states that author Shelly Errington is in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studies visible and audible aspects of culture, also produces photographs, video documentary, and line drawings, and describes her own kitchen garden and edible landscape as connecting her to the farm-to-table community. The article is available only as a PDF behind access restrictions, and no further content about its actual subject matter is available from the abstract.

Michael Dubnewick, Karen M. Fox, D. Jean Clandinin · Leisure/Loisir · Canada

This autobiographical narrative inquiry follows one author's (Michael's) lived experience of gardening with his family's gardens and two community gardens, Heritage and Eco, in Edmonton, Canada. Using narrative inquiry methodology, the authors present institutional, community and personal narratives from Michael's gardening experience to illustrate gardening as a leisure practice shaped by multiple, sometimes paradoxical, contexts of people, cultures and communities.

Vesna Popović, Jelena Živanović Miljković · Institute of Agricultural Economics eBooks · Europe

A study analyzing trends in community gardening in Europe, with particular focus on Belgrade, Serbia, in relation to permaculture design principles. It notes that while intensive urban agriculture carries ecological risks related to soil, water, air, climate, biodiversity, and landscape, citizens seeking healthy food and closer contact with nature are turning toward extensive, often organic, forms of urban agriculture such as community gardening based on permaculture design, and it discusses the role of such gardening in smart-city development and its establishment potential in Belgrade.

Marc Christiansen, Natalie Marie Marquardt, Katie Picchione, Thomas Sullivan · Digital WPI · United States

In Worcester, Massachusetts, an urban farmers' group called "The Shop" built a greenhouse for year-round produce, but it became too cold to sustain plant growth during winter. Drawing on the group's composting experience, a project examined using biogas -- methane from anaerobic digestion of organic waste -- to heat the greenhouse, calculating the energy needed to heat the space and the expected energy yield from different available substrates using data from case studies and other sources. The results verified biogas as a viable way to heat the greenhouse at The Shop.

Annie Crane, Leela Viswanathan, Graham Whitelaw · Local Environment · Canada (Kingston, Ontario)

This paper examines guerrilla gardening as an example of sustainability in action, using participatory action research methods. Two case studies were developed in Kingston, Ontario: Dig Kingston, a guerrilla gardening project, and the Oak Street Community Garden. The research found that interventions like guerrilla gardening open up unexpected possibilities for conceptualizing sustainability and contribute to producing engaging and sustainable communities.

Shane J. Ralston · The Pluralist · Global

This research article, published in The Pluralist in 2012, presents a Deweyan defense of guerrilla gardening. The full text of the article is available only as a PDF.

Eden K Olsen · School for International Training Digital Collections (School for International Training) · Australia

This paper details an internship at the Mullumbimby Community Garden (MCG) in Byron Shire, Australia, focusing on the development of its Children's Garden. The intern spent 152.5 hours over four weeks in late 2012 on tasks including planting, project planning, and designing new structures. The study also examines the broader importance of community gardens and children's spaces, drawing conclusions on environmental education and communication practices based on participant observations and three interviews.

Jenny Calabio, Ma. Luisa Albacete · WVSU Research Journal · Philippines (Iloilo City)

This study, conducted from July 2007 to July 2008 at the Urban Agriculture Demonstration Site in La Paz, Iloilo City, evaluated soil media and ameliorants for container-grown green onion, pechay, and tomato. Pure compost was found to be the best medium for increasing yields. However, the use of IMO and rice hull as soil ameliorants did not increase yields for the three tested vegetables, and rice hull generally reduced pechay yields.

Adam Roigart · · Sweden (Uppsala)

A new patio concept was designed for Hotel and Restaurant Villa Anna in Odinslund, Uppsala, Sweden, exploring how urban farming can thrive in a restaurant context. The design, informed by a literature study on urban farming and storytelling and discussions with the restaurateur, aimed to convey the cuisine's core values and strengthen the sense of place through storytelling. The author found storytelling useful in landscape architecture and highlighted urban farming's potential to offer a new perspective on food procurement and eating trends within restaurants.

Mary Margaret Fischer · OpenSIUC (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) · United States

This study evaluated commercial and vermicompost-blended green roof media for annual herb production in shallow modular trays on a university roof in Southern Illinois, Carbondale, during two experiments in 2011. The commercially available media generally produced more significant results for shoot growth parameters in sweet basil, Thai basil, and parsley. Partial shade also showed significant effects on shoot-to-root ratio in the first experiment, while most basil variables were insignificant in the second.

Wyatt · Civil War Book Review · United States

This finance bill (S12RS SGFB No. 5) aims to allocate $1,256.50 from the Student Senate General Contingency Account to fund the materials for the installation of sustainable edible landscaping on campus.

Barbara Uhlig · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · Germany

This study analyzes guerrilla gardening as a protest movement where activists plant flowers, trees, and vegetables on derelict urban spaces without owner permission. The motivations for guerrilla gardening are pragmatic, ecological, political, and aesthetic, though its artistic status is often denied. The study demonstrates that guerrilla gardening aligns with George Dickie's institutional theory of art and can be classified as art.

Gillean M. Denny · · United Kingdom

This study investigated the ability of urban agriculture (UA) to decrease food-related greenhouse gas emissions, using a life cycle analysis of tomatoes, produce surveys in East Anglia, and household surveys of 183 UA-practicing households. It found that UA participation can reduce an individual's tomato consumption emissions from 52.4 kg CO2e/yr to 11.2 kg CO2e/yr. This reduction amounts to 44% from a non-UA, low-emission diet and 78% from a supermarket diet.

Seunghwan Kim, Sung-Yung Yoon, Min-Jun Cha, Hae-Jin Yoo, Ji‐Young Cho, Yoon‐Sun Kim · Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture · South Korea

This study investigated the planning, construction, partnership, and cost-sharing processes of an experimental rooftop community garden at a disabled welfare house in South Korea. The project, led by Busan Green Trust and a citizens' council, involved funding from Standard Chartered SC First Bank, volunteers, and administrative support. The established garden provided food production, urban agriculture experience, horticultural therapy, and cultural space for users, demonstrating the potential for low-cost rooftop community gardens to improve urban environments and foster community.

Won Jei Park, Kyung Hwan Han, Soon Hyo Kwon, Mi Ok Park, Bon Hak Koo · Journal of the Korea Society of Environmental Restoration Technology · South Korea

This study investigated optimal soil-plant combinations for urban agriculture by analyzing herbaceous plant growth in different soil types. Four commercial soils (A, B, C, D) and granite soil (E, control) were tested with fruit, leafy, and medicinal vegetables. Fruit and leafy vegetables generally grew best in D-type soil mixture and A-type soil, and poorest in control E-type soil. 'Chrysanthemum zawadskii var. latilobum' grew best in D, B, C mixed soils and A-type soil, while 'Liriope platyphylla F. T. Wang & T. Tang' showed insignificant growth differences across soils.