Research & reports

Eva C. Worden · EDIS · United States

Landscaping in urban settings is described as offering a significant opportunity to contribute to sustainability, with edible landscaping — landscapes that incorporate plant species for human consumption — cited as one such opportunity. This document, ENH971, is part of a series from the Environmental Horticulture Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, originally published in May 2004.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・343AC0000000100） · Japan

The 1968 City Planning Act, creating the urbanisation-promotion / urbanisation-control divide and the system of zoning districts. Productive green land districts are one such district; the tension of farmland sitting inside areas 'to be urbanised within roughly ten years' begins here.

Rayna Sharova · Soviet Education · Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, labor education was introduced into general schools shortly after World War I, with manual training for boys and handwork and domestic science for girls. After 1921, "Subotniks" (Sundays) were organized for pupils to perform mass work, including harvesting on school property, planting trees in drought-ridden lands, and cultivating school gardens and flower beds.

Aleksandr Filatov · Soviet Education · Russia (Moscow)

This text suggests that school garden areas in large industrial centers like Moscow should be integrated into the city's green spaces, functioning as well-planned squares within their district subdivisions. It asserts that this integration does not conflict with the garden's designated role as a living laboratory for the school.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・331AC0000000079） · Japan

The 1956 act setting standards for establishing and managing urban parks, including permitted park facilities, occupancy permissions, and (since the 2017 amendment) the Park-PFI private-operator scheme. The institutional baseline for any farming or community-garden activity inside a public park.

Margaret H. Oliver · The American Biology Teacher · United States

An article by Margaret H. Oliver discussing the school garden as an outdoor laboratory for science teaching, published in The American Biology Teacher in 1953.

· 法令（e-Gov法令検索・327AC0000000229） · Japan

The 1952 Farmland Act, establishing permission systems for transfers of farmland rights (Art. 3) and conversion to non-farm use (Arts. 4-5). The base statute whose special-measures acts (the 1989 and 2018 leasing laws) make citizen farms possible.

Rodale Institute · Rodale Institute · United States

The Rodale Institute's history page. J.I. Rodale and his wife Anna bought a 63-acre farm in Emmaus, Pennsylvania in 1940 to begin experimenting with organic agriculture, and founded the Soil and Health Foundation (later renamed Rodale Institute) in 1947. In 1948 the book 'Pay Dirt' argued that chemical agriculture was linked to declining public health.

Lydia Elzey · The American Biology Teacher · United States

This record is a research article titled "An Elementary School Garden Project" by Lydia Elzey, published in The American Biology Teacher in 1944. The abstract provides only publication details and states that the content is only available via PDF, with no further information about the project itself.

Earl R. Gabler · The Clearing House A Journal of Educational Strategies Issues and Ideas · United States

A 1942 article in The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas (Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 469-472) titled "School Gardens for Victory"; the available record provides only this bibliographic citation, with no further abstract content.

Congreso Nacional de Chile · Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (Ley Chile) · Chile

This Chilean law, signed by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda on February 5, 1941 and published in Official Gazette No. 18903 (Ministerio del Trabajo) on March 4, 1941, directs the Caja de la Habitación Popular to allocate 30% of its annual funds to establishing worker and family orchards/gardens (huertos/jardines obreros y familiares) and 5% to developing home industries (Article 1). It requires gardens to be established in groups of no fewer than 20, with an area no smaller than 5,000 square meters (Article 8), and prohibits transferring, mortgaging, or subdividing a garden without the Caja's authorization until its price is fully paid (Article 17).

Congreso Nacional de Chile · Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (Ley Chile) · Chile

This Chilean law, signed on October 8, 1936 and published in Official Gazette No. 17589 (Ministerio del Trabajo) on October 10, 1936, creates the Caja de la Habitación Popular under the Ministry of Labor to promote the construction of low-cost, sanitary housing and worker/family gardens (huertos obreros y familiares), among other purposes (Article 1). Its capital includes 25 million pesos allocated annually by the State (Article 3). The law requires the Caja to devote at least 15% of its annual income to replacing conventillos (slum tenements) and at least 5% annually to promoting family gardens and home industry (Article 20).

Parliament of the United Kingdom · legislation.gov.uk (UK Public General Acts) · United Kingdom

The UK's Allotments Act 1925 enabled local authorities to acquire land for allotments and established tenant protections for allotment holders. An 'allotment' is defined as land not exceeding five acres cultivated as a garden or farm. Landowners reclaiming allotment land must give three months' notice for non-agricultural uses and six months' for sport or recreation, and tenants retain compensation rights under set conditions regardless of contract terms. Local authorities cannot sell or repurpose allotment land without approval from the agriculture minister and adequate provision for displaced holders. The Act applies to England and Wales only.

Howard Weabster Nudd · The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · United States

A 1923 essay on the role of citizen organizations in the history of American public education. It argues that developments in public education — from the establishment of the first public school through compulsory attendance, high schools, normal schools, kindergartens, evening and trade schools, playgrounds, school gardens, music, drawing, manual and household arts training, physical training, medical inspection, school lunches, school nurses, visiting teachers, and classes for children with disabilities or exceptional ability — were made possible, especially in their initial stages, by outside financial and other assistance from citizen organizations.

John Ihlder · National Municipal Review · United States (New York City)

This abstract, from "Lectures on housing" (1914), describes various activities initiated by public schools, including normal schools, kindergartens, evening schools, trade schools, vacation schools, playgrounds, and school gardens. It also mentions music, drawing, manual training, household arts, physical training, medical inspection, school nurses, special classes for children with disabilities, visiting teachers, and school lunches. Part 2 of the primer summarizes the aims and activities of the New York association.

John Ihlder · National Municipal Review · United States (New York City)

This 1914 item is a short notice of Robert Ellis Thompson's book 'The History of the Delling-House and Its Future,' priced at $1.00, appended to a summary of New York public-school activities including normal schools, kindergartens, evening and trade schools, vacation schools, playgrounds, school gardens, music, drawing, manual training, household arts, physical training, medical inspection, school nurses, classes for disabled children, visiting teachers and school lunches.

BASF · BASF (corporate history chronology) · Germany

According to BASF's corporate history page, building on Fritz Haber's laboratory method, a BASF team led by Carl Bosch worked from 1908 to industrialize ammonia synthesis, and in 1913 the first ammonia synthesis plant went into operation at a newly built site in Oppau, north of Ludwigshafen. This made industrial fertilizer production possible, and the Haber-Bosch process is said to still secure food for billions of people today.

Diana Paola Betancurth Loaiza, Natalia Sánchez Palacio, Jorge Lino Moreno Aricapa · Repositorio Universidad de Caldas · Colombia

This report details the experience of implementing the Urban Community Garden in the Villa Juanita neighborhood. The project focused on fostering urban agriculture as a strategy to improve food security and promote sustainability within the community. The garden became a space for community participation where diverse sustainable agricultural practices were integrated. Through this project, social cohesion was strengthened, environmental education was promoted, and spaces for interaction and collective learning were generated.

Nina Leubrie · The Elementary School Teacher · United States

In October, upon the school's opening, many flowers were still blooming in "Grandmother's Garden" at Lincoln Park. The children desired to plant hollyhocks, hardy chrysanthemums, and bright autumn flowers in front of their building, but it was determined to be too late for fall flowers. Consequently, it was decided that spring flowers would be planted using bulbs, for which catalogues were obtained, and pictures and descriptions were studied.

Charles E. Bessey, Lawrence Bruner, Goodwin D. Swezey · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · United States

An 1903 essay on elementary agricultural education in Nebraska, United States, argues for teaching agriculture and nature study — including through school gardens — in connection with subjects such as geography, arithmetic, science, and literature, noting that Nebraska's school law required teachers to pass an examination on the elements of agriculture. The piece is an advocacy essay and contains no empirical data.

Wilbur S. Jackman · The Elementary School Teacher and Course of Study · Global

The school garden is a useful accessory for nature study from aesthetic, economic, or botanical viewpoints. While aesthetics offer strong attractions, the most important aspect is understanding plant habits and their adaptations to soil, light, heat, air, and other plants, as a garden cannot grow beautifully without this knowledge.

Flora J. Cooke, Elsie A. Wygant, Lorley Ada Ashléman · The Elementary School Teacher and Course of Study · United States

A 1902 account of a pedagogical activity in which children in the School of Education planted part of a garden for children attending the summer model school, who would then pickle, can or otherwise preserve the crops and maintain a window box of blooming plants left for the returning students. The article describes how the activity integrated manual training (building boxes and trellises), science (germination experiments, soil observation), number work (estimating costs, measuring), reading, and expression (recording growth through painting, writing and modeling) into an instructional plan.

· Wikipédia (français) · France

This French Wikipedia article traces the history of French family/allotment gardens (jardins familiaux). The movement began in 1896 when abbé Lemire founded the "Ligue française du Coin de Terre et du Foyer," reorganized in 1921 into the "Fédération nationale des jardins familiaux," with the term "jardins familiaux" legally defined by a law of 26 July 1952. Gardens in the Paris region grew from 48 in 1904 to 1,515 in 1913, and by around 1945, at the end of World War II, France had roughly 250,000 such gardens.