Research & reports

Jones P., Comfort D., Hillier D., Eastwood I. · British Food Journal · United Kingdom

Analyzes CSR reporting by the UK's leading food retailers, finding support for local food producers, healthy eating, charitable donations, and local community initiatives as principal CSR themes promoted in stores.

A Swedish, Case Study, Petter Åkerblom · · Europe

Experiences from Swedish research on school gardening and greening school grounds were reflected upon. A process-orientated case study in two Swedish cities discussed future workshops as a platform for situated capacity building in interaction between in-school and external stakeholders (e.g., school ground planners, administrators). The case study indicates that using future workshops as a research method involves stakeholders as subjects in the collaborative production of new knowledge.

Leigh Holland · Local Environment · United Kingdom

This 2004 study in the United Kingdom analyzed the community garden movement through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. It found that community gardens, often in inner-city areas, serve diverse purposes including vegetation growing, permaculture, organic methods, health, education, and training. These gardens are strongly characterized by community participation and involvement, suggesting the movement could model local social, economic, and environmental policy implementation.

Anne C. Bellows · Food and Foodways · Poland

Polish allotment gardeners collectively represent the largest land managers in Poland, with a formalized urban allotment food production system dating back to 1997. This system, combining local and national government policy with NGO management and private use, provides a model for food security and urban open space. However, this arrangement also creates ongoing tension among stakeholders and a contentious debate regarding the private and public uses of urban land.

Tanja Pless‐Mulloli, Vivienne S. Air, Catherine Vizard, Ian Singleton, D. L. Rimmer, Philip Hartley · Epidemiology · United Kingdom

A study in an urban, industrial allotment site in the UK's northeast assessed the potential for public health impact related to soil contamination by taking 86 soil samples and analyzing vegetables and eggs. All 18 initial soil samples exceeded UK guidelines for lead (median 869 mg/kg) and arsenic (median 40 mg/kg), and widespread contamination with PCDD/F was also found. Despite high soil contamination, the uptake of lead and arsenic into vegetables and eggs was low, and these were not deemed major exposure pathways.

Clare Rishbeth · Journal of Urban Design · United Kingdom (London)

This paper investigates how urban greenspace can be designed and managed to reflect ethnic diversity and how this is perceived by users, using two case studies of community gardens in London. It found some differences in the response to the gardens by people from different ethnic backgrounds. The use of obvious symbolism was not necessarily a primary means of encouraging users from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, though appreciated for educational and design strengths. Concern is expressed about aspects of the physical and psychological containment of ethnic groups in fixed places and identities leading to the perpetuation of stereotypes.

Arjan van Timmeren, Wiek Röling, Marleen Kaptein · · Netherlands (Culemborg)

This paper focuses on an innovation in urban development in the Lanxmeer district of Culemborg, Netherlands. A "Sustainable Implant (SI)" based on permaculture and organic design principles will be built in conjunction with the EVA-Center and an ecological city-farm. The SI functions as an interconnector for three "essential" flows in urban planning, such as wastewater management and energy generation, facilitating both vertical and horizontal integration. It is considered a sustainable hub operating at three scales: the Culemborg region, the Lanxmeer urban district, and the nearby EVA Center.

Jean-Noël Consalès · Mélanges de l École française de Rome Italie et Méditerranée · France (Marseille), Italy (Genoa), Spain (Barcelona)

This comparative analysis traces one hundred years of urban agriculture in the Mediterranean arc, focusing on family gardens in Marseille (France), Genoa (Italy), and Barcelona (Spain). It identifies three major stages: from the 19th century to post-WWII, family gardens developed in France; during the Trente Glorieuses, they declined in France but emerged in Italy and Spain; and since the mid-1970s, the diffusion of ecological values has conferred important territorial functions upon family gardens.

Caitlin DeSilvey · Cultural Geographies · United Kingdom (Edinburgh)

A paper on Scottish allotment gardens examines how the ambiguity pervading allotment practice surfaces as a liability in strategic appeals and draws out the survival of historical forms in contemporary political negotiations, by juxtaposing narratives of involvement in a Scottish Parliament Allotments Inquiry and the history of a single Edinburgh allotment site.

Tanja Pless‐Mulloli, Karen L. Foster, J Bush · Epidemiology · United Kingdom (Newcastle upon Tyne)

Investigations in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, analyzed the extent and consequences of disposing 2000 tons of incinerator ash on over forty allotments. Soil, egg, and vegetable samples (75 soil, 21 egg, 65 vegetable) revealed contamination of footpaths with dioxin/furan (max 9000 ng/kg I-TEQ) and high levels of copper, lead, and zinc. Mean dioxin/furan levels in soil were 38 ng/kg I-TEQ and in eggs were 16.4 ng/kg I-TEQ, indicating significant contamination and potential exposure pathways for allotment gardeners and children.

Pierre Donadieu, André Fleury · Revue de géographie alpine · Europe

This paper discusses the role of agriculture in the "country town" project in Europe. Peri-urban areas, once unpleasant environments despite their essential urban functions, have recently become attractive to new inhabitants seeking countryside amenities. Urban planning supports this concept by creating green belts and integrating agriculture as an essential element of natural spaces.

Neville Flavell · Agricultural history review · United Kingdom

This paper argues that Sheffield was the first town to experience workers' gardens en masse in the late eighteenth century, with many acres of horticultural land used as allotment gardens. While other provincial town histories of the period, except Birmingham, make little mention of similar phenomena, a cautious calculation suggests 1500-1800 allotments were available for rent in Sheffield in the 1780s.

Philip J. Baker, RACHEL J. ANSELL, PHILLIPPA A. A. DODDS, CLAIRE E. WEBBER, Stephen Harris · Mammal Review · United Kingdom (Bristol)

This study investigated small mammal distribution across five urban habitats in north-west Bristol, including residential and allotment gardens. It found that wood mouse abundance in residential gardens was negatively related to cat abundance and distance to natural vegetation. The results suggest urban small mammal populations may be limited by predation and habitat fragmentation.

L.M. Boukharaeva, Marcel Marloie, Mission Sociologie. Département d'Economie Et de Sociologie Ruralesivry · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Europe

A work on urban agriculture examining the case of collective gardens in Russia. The available abstract consists only of distribution information from INRA's Department of Rural Economics and Sociology (Ivry, France); it contains no description of study content or findings.

Jean-Noël Consalès · Rives méditerranéennes/Rives méditerranéennes · Europe

This study examines allotment gardens in Marseille, Genoa, and Barcelona and finds that, although urban agriculture is potentially at stake in these cities, allotments struggle to establish themselves within complex urban contexts. Their actual function appears limited: their social role is often overestimated, while their environmental and landscape significance remains largely neglected.

Mark Laird · Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes · United Kingdom

A book review of Todd Longstaffe-Gowan's The London Town Garden discusses the volume's treatment of small metropolitan gardens in London between 1700 and 1840 as physical, convivial, and symbolic spaces. The reviewer notes the author's claim that the town garden was a personal, idiosyncratic mode of expression rather than a display of fashionable taste, evolving slowly and independently well behind landscape improvements in the English countryside, while pointing out that questions of taste in relation to class and consumption are only partly addressed in the book.

Wolschke-Bulmahn J., Gröning G. · In R. A. Etlin (ed.), Art, Culture, and Media under the Third Reich, University of Chicago Press, pp. 73–97 · Germany

Book chapter interpreting the Nazi garden and landscape ideal through the concept of 'Bodenständigkeit' (rootedness in the soil), showing how small-scale, landscape-adapted gardens using native plants and materials embodied Blood and Soil ideology.

Jonathan Rutherford · The Review of Education Pedagogy & Cultural Studies · United Kingdom (London)

This record describes demonstrations in Parliament Square, London, on May Day 2000. Reclaim the Streets organized a Guerrilla Gardening spectacle, digging up the lawn in the center of the Square and planting in protest against capitalism.

· Wikipédia (français) · France

This French Wikipedia article on shared/community gardens (jardin partagé) notes that Paris's first jardin partagé appeared in 2002, after which the City of Paris institutionalized the "Main Verte" (Green Hand) program, networking and supporting charter-signing garden associations under a unified framework. It also cites that, as of 2018, the national federation (FNJFC) united over 200 associations and 20,000 gardening families.

Haney D. H. · Journal of Architectural Education, 54(3), 149-157 · Germany

Examines Migge's designs for Weimar-era Siedlungen of small flats and row houses with adjacent garden plots, arguing that landscape was central to competing visions of interwar modernity and that productive gardens were integral to modern housing.

G. F. Backhaus, H. Balder · Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (Julius Kühn-Institut) · Germany

The International Symposium on Plant Health in Urban Horticulture, held in Braunschweig, Germany, from May 22 to 25, 2000, served as a platform to discuss deficits in the care and development of urban greenery and propose integrated concepts. Urban horticulture comprises diverse elements characterizing urban life, but many stress factors damage these components, and integrated concepts for maintaining and preserving urban green areas are lacking. The symposium aimed to jointly prepare future needs for action for the health preservation of urban green at an international level.

B. Jankiewicz, B. Ptaszyński, Michael Wieczorek · Polish Journal of Environmental Studies · Poland (Lodz)

This study presents the results of lead determination in the soils of six allotment gardens located in various parts of Lodz. Lead was measured spectrophotometrically in the form of pink lead(II) dithizonate.

Candan Kuş · · Turkey (Ankara)

A study in Yenimahalle District, Ankara, evaluating multiple schools including 80 primary schools, assessed the importance of school gardens and their place within the urban open-green space system. The findings revealed that many school gardens were unsuitable for use by teachers and students, being narrow, containing only ceremonial areas and a few plants, and lacking sufficient furnishing elements. It was also observed that additional buildings further narrowed school gardens, and insufficient attention was given to recreation areas, sports areas, and green spaces.

Rie Oba, Reiji Obase · Journal of The Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture · United Kingdom

This study examines Britain's allotment gardens, which have a long history and are frequently cited in Japan as a model for citizen farms (shimin nōen). Focusing on the late 19th to early 20th century, when urban allotments began spreading in the UK, the study systematically traces the transformation of allotments in relation to the social conditions of the time, and empirically analyzes the administrative decision-making behind establishing and abolishing allotments. The findings show that the functions allotments served differed according to social conditions, and that changes in those functions strongly influenced whether allotments still exist today; local authorities deciding on abolition were also found to weigh the relationship between an allotment's area and the location of open space.

Stadt Leipzig, Amt für Stadterneuerung und Wohnungsbauförderung · Stadt Leipzig · Germany

The fifth booklet in a series published by the City of Leipzig's 'Careful Urban Renewal' pilot project, addressing vacant lots (Baulücken) created by wartime destruction and East German-era demolitions. It explains how a 'Gestattungsvereinbarung' (usage-permission agreement) between the city and private landowners enables temporary conversion of vacant lots into green space, play areas, or parking without affecting the underlying building rights.