Research & reports

Sertaç Güngör · Journal of Agricultural Faculty of Gaziosmanpasa University · Turkey (Konya)

This study investigated the current state of gardens in 7 nursery schools in Selçuklu district, Konya city, Turkey, regarding landscape design and space usage. The findings revealed that the nursery school gardens were not used effectively, lacked sufficient green space in their landscape design, and were not properly designed to contribute to children's mental and physical development.

Ana Cristina Torres, Sophie Nadot, Anne‐Caroline Prévot · Ecology and Society · France

This study used participant observation and semi-structured interviews to explore motivations, practices, and processes in French community gardens, relating them to environmental stewardship. It found that environmental, social, and self-motivations drive gardener participation, fulfilling needs through processes like nature contemplation, environmental education, and renewing social-ecological relationships. French community gardens provide new experiences of nature and foster environmental stewardship by cultivating relational values, offering opportunities for creative conservation.

Ju Eun Kim · International Journal of Urban Sciences · United Kingdom (London)

This empirical research evaluated the role of London's community gardens in promoting participants' environmentally friendly food consumption patterns, thereby lowering London's foodprint. An online survey was circulated to 95 community gardens in London, with 48 gardeners responding, complemented by semi-structured interviews. The study confirmed that the timespan of community garden participation is not an absolute indicator of low-carbon food consumption choices, while identifying experiential and social learning as key aspects promoting gardeners' behavioral change.

Delgado, Cecília · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Europe

This study analyzed a set of gardens in Vienna and Lisbon, plus 29 relevant experiences in Portugal, to verify the argument that women are protagonists in urban agriculture. The results demonstrate a favorable evolution towards a greater presence of women in gardens, women's hegemony as process managers and facilitators, and their emergence in social entrepreneurship projects.

Rocío Pérez-Campaña, Luis Miguel Valenzuela Montes · Journal of Environmental Planning and Management · Spain

This paper presents a method for assessing and visualizing existing nodes in the field pattern of a peri-urban agricultural landscape. The method was applied in the Vega del Guadalfeo in southern Spain, and the results showed an innovative map of the Vega, which can be interpreted as its eco-structure, a node-based model representing the ecological value of the peri-urban agricultural landscape.

Matthew Reed, Daniel Keech · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United Kingdom (Bristol)

This study investigated how urban food activists related to the media, represented themselves, and how others represented their agenda during 2015 when Bristol was the European Green Capital. The research found that mass media primarily focused on topics other than food, and urban food was not a salient issue in their coverage. The self-representation of urban food networks revealed a narrow focus of interest, which may have contributed to a lack of connection between potential allies within the city, indicating limited connections of urban food networks to circuits of power and influence.

Norbert Becker, Stefanie Schön, Alexandra‐Maria Klein, Ina Ferstl, Ali Kizgin, Egbert Tannich, Carola Kuhn, Björn Pluskota, Artur Jöst · Parasitology Research · Germany

The first mass development of Aedes albopictus, likely introduced by trucks from Italy, was confirmed in an allotment garden area in Freiburg, Southwest Germany, in 2015. Surveillance confirmed a high infestation, with the container index exceeding 30% in August 2015. Control measures, including citizen awareness, environmental management, and Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) tablets, successfully reduced the Aedes albopictus population, with the number of gardens without containers increasing from 17% to 35% by September 2015.

Julia Dahlvik, Yvonne Franz, Myrte Hoekstra, Josef Kohlbacher · ISR-Forschungsberichte · Europe

A record of practitioner reflections from a final discussion event held in Vienna in May 2017 by the ICEC research project. It presents quotes from Nathalie Binder, co-initiator of the "Matznergarten" community garden in the 14th district, Florian Brand of the Urban Renewal Office for districts 7/8/16, and Markus Rumelhart, district mayor of the 6th district, on their neighbourhood-level practices and effects. The reflections describe the community garden as built around a "growing together" motto that fostered relationships among members and neighbours, the provision of "neutral ground" space as a key tool of the Urban Renewal Office's work, and local politicians' aim of helping resident initiatives become self-sustaining.

María Hernández Hernández · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

A book chapter on Spain examines the historical shift in city-countryside relations, analyzing the factors behind the paradigm change since the late 20th century and the strategies (agri-food policy, local development, governance, land stewardship) and tools (agrarian parks, social agriculture, urban gardens) used to sustain farming in peri-urban areas, based on a literature review of scientific publications, regulatory frameworks, and initiatives. It concludes that quality, authentic local farm production represents an opportunity for peri-urban territories and historic agricultural landscapes.

Barış Kara, KAHRAMAN, Delal, AYDOGAN, Gungor Yasin · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Turkey

A 2017 paper documents the design process of a school garden in Yenipazar district, Aydın province, Turkey, created through collaboration between teachers and students. It argues that a school garden should be simply designed and meet users' needs, guiding children's play, fun, and learning while building creativity and teamwork, and that design should be a collective product of designers and users rather than the designer alone. It presents the full design process, including detailed design, perspective drawings, and an animated film.

Salvatore Pinna · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Spain

This study examines a municipal rural park in the Madrid region, Spain, established to promote local and seasonal produce, and analyzes its role in agricultural landscape enhancement using in-depth interviews and website analysis. Drawing on the European Landscape Convention's definition of landscape, it shows how spatial, ecological, and social outputs of farmer-led multifunctional and peri-urban agriculture interact with the park's management framework. The results are discussed in relation to Spanish environmental and landscape law, particularly regarding the connection between food, territory, and traditional landscape.

E. Kaufmane, M. Skrīvele, L. Ikase · Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Section B Natural Exact and Applied Sciences · Europe

This article traces the historical development of fruit-growing in Latvia, from fruit trees gaining market value after 19th-century land ownership reform, through rapid expansion during the first independent republic (1919-1940), imported planting material from Western Europe, massive orchard losses from unsuitable cultivar and rootstock choices during severe winters, Soviet-era support for large 200-300 ha orchards unsuited to Latvian climate and terrain after World War II, the rapid increase of allotment gardens whose produce was also sold on the market, and the renewed interest in fresh fruit and berry production for market and processing after independence was regained. It states that development of the fruit industry is currently hindered by a shortage of qualified specialists preventing an adequate consulting system, slow development of grower cooperation for marketing, insufficient economic and market research to balance demand with planting area, and a lack of continuous long-term support for horticultural science. Outcomes credited to the Institute of Horticulture include new locally bred fruit cultivars recommended for commercial orchards, regional variety and growing-technology trials, monitoring of harmful and beneficial organisms with a prognosis and control system, and dissemination of research results.

Maria Frangos, Thomas D. Garvey, Irena Knežević · The Design Journal · Europe

This case study used participatory mapping, group interviews and document analysis to examine two urban gardening projects in Europe, exploring how participants engage in place-making as part of a broader shift toward peer-to-peer, digitally mediated participatory spatial practices and the commons. It found that citizens play an important role in creating, designing and maintaining the commons, and shows how individuals and community groups working outside a professional urban-design context expand placemaking into a vehicle for social change.

David Arredondo Garrido · ZARCH · Spain

This study analyses initiatives developed over the past decade in the centres of four Spanish cities with significant historical heritage -- Seville, Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza -- as responses to the growing homogenisation of the urban landscape that leaves little room for uniqueness, unregulated activity or public participation. These projects use urban agriculture and gardening to escape prevailing banality and create spaces for culture, social relations and imagination, but the study notes that their management faces difficulties and their impact remains minor.

Esther Gramsbergen · Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) · Europe (Netherlands)

A historical study of the Plantage, created in the northeastern corner of Amsterdam in 1682, examining it as a public project rather than simply an early allotment garden complex. It focuses on the public function of the botanical garden that formed part of the site, the unusual location within the city walls, and the detailed design by municipal engineer Jacob Bosch. The study traces how the "Hortus Medicus," an educational garden for apprentice apothecaries, was transferred to the Plantage and transformed into the "Hortus Botanicus," a botanical garden open to the general public, showing that the city council invested not only in a knowledge institute for public health but also in a cultural institution for the "education and delight" of Amsterdam's citizens.

Brian J. Shaw · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Europe

An entry on ØsterGRO, a rooftop farm located in the center of Copenhagen that operates as a form of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Andrea Colantoni, Silvia Pili, Enrico Maria Mosconi, Stefano Poponi, Massimo Cecchini, Doria Paola, Luca Salvati · IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) · Europe

A study describing relevant experiences of peri-urban farming in six Southern European metropolitan regions — Lisbon, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Athens and Istanbul — representative of different socioeconomic contexts. It frames the recent development of peri-urban agriculture as reflecting a crisis-driven process of "coming back to land," in which new land has been extensively cultivated and new relations formed between farmers, communities and territories, and outlines strengths and weaknesses in using fringe land for cropping along with implications for urban sustainability.

Stephanie Stephanie Kartika Lestari · · Europe

A case study of two urban farming organizations in the Netherlands developed a set of indicators to assess factors hampering the diffusion of radical innovation. Urban farming is characterized here as a radical innovation aiming for fresh and sustainable food supply in urban areas that has yet to achieve large-scale diffusion, and the study proposes a non-static conceptual model that lets commercial firms rationally assess barriers to diffusion and revisit their niche strategies as internal and external conditions change.

Katharina Witterhold · · Germany

A book chapter drawing on the empirical study "Consumer Netizens," carried out at the University of Siegen, Germany, between October 2011 and August 2015. It examined the shift toward lifestyle-related forms of political participation, showing that everyday food consumption practices in the private sphere are directly interwoven with (semi-)public social media practices addressing political concerns and self-identity. It argues that "food activism" becomes a strong symbol for other political issues, serving as a starting point for social movements as varied as the Slow Food Movement, Fair Trade, and Community Supported Agriculture.

Cecília Delgado · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Europe

A study framing urban agriculture as a practice in which women play a leading role, testing this argument through a set of gardens in Vienna and Lisbon plus 29 relevant cases in Portugal. Results showed a favorable evolution toward greater presence of women in the gardens, a dominance of women across the analyzed practices as managers or activity organizers, and the emergence of women in social entrepreneurship projects. It concludes that women's leading role should be formally recognized and channeled through public policy to stimulate the national economy.

G. Y. Afanasyev · Nauchnyi Dialog · Europe

This historical study examines the emergence of environmental problems in major cities of the Russian Empire during the industrial revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on water pollution in Saint Petersburg. Using statistical archival data, it traces the growing share of industrial pollution in total emissions and argues Saint Petersburg was among the most polluted cities in Europe, noting that addressing water pollution and urban redevelopment became relevant to urban agriculture and drew attention from municipal to national levels by the turn of the century.

Antoni F. Tulla i Pujol, Ana Vera, Natàlia Valldeperas, Carles Guirado González · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

This study examines Social Farming (SF), using local agricultural and natural resources to promote health, employment and empowerment among groups at risk of exclusion, including people with disabilities, those in poverty, with dependencies, in the penitentiary system, survivors of gender violence, older people, at-risk youth, immigrants and homeless people, as a sustainable alternative to urban agriculture around Barcelona. Amid conflict over land demand for housing, infrastructure and facilities in Barcelona's peri-urban areas, protected agricultural land (agricultural parks) and natural parks have facilitated SF projects linked to social movements and the Third Sector; the study built a database of 161 SF projects in Catalonia and used quantitative and qualitative methods, including the CANVAS method for structural and economic viability and the SROI method for social return on investment.

Tanja Mölders, Pia Kühnemann · Urban studies · Germany

A study reinterprets Henri Lefebvre's concept of the "right to the city" as a demand for a "right to the garden." It first sets out how social ecology theoretical approaches define the relationship between "nature" and "society," linking this with Lefebvre's reflections on three dimensions of "space" as the basis for an empirical case study. Using the NordStadtGarten urban gardening project in Hannover as its case, the study examines to what extent this project can be interpreted as a deliberate critique of prevailing spatial relations. Drawing on the authors' own observations and statements from the initiating group, it shows that the act of appropriating space and the idiosyncratic use and shaping of the garden serve as instruments of critique while also functioning as occasions for experimenting with alternative forms of communal spatial and social life.

Marta Bożym · Ochrona Środowiska i Zasobów Naturalnych · Poland

A study measuring heavy-metal content (cadmium, lead, copper, zinc, nickel, chromium) in compost and resident earthworms sampled from home composters and allotment gardens in the Opole region of Poland. The compost samples themselves were not contaminated with heavy metals and stayed within Polish legal limits for solid organic fertilizers. However, metal accumulation in earthworms varied by metal: the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was high for cadmium, lead and zinc, while no accumulation was found for nickel, chromium or copper. The authors conclude that earthworm species native to Poland, such as Eisenia fetida, can serve as potential bioindicators of metals in the environment.

Jens A. Geißler, Tim Schumann · Bibliotheksdienst · Germany

The public library in Bad Oldesloe, Germany, launched the "Ernte deine Stadt" ("Harvest Your City") project series in 2015, linking sharing and urban gardening trends with makerspace concepts to position the library as a modern, innovative learning venue. The library space was offered as a meeting and creativity venue on the theme of sustainability and was able to spark new initiatives in the city.