Research & reports

Caitlin K. Kirby, Kathrin Specht, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Jason K. Hawes, Nevin Cohen, Silvio Caputo, Rositsa T. Ilieva, Agnès Lelièvre, Lidia Poniży, Victoria Schoen, Chris Blythe · Landscape and Urban Planning · Europe; United States

This study quantitatively assessed motivations and social impacts across different urban agriculture types using survey data from 74 sites in Europe and the US. It identified four scales: general wellbeing, nutritional health, economic interests, and socialization motivations. Multivariate analysis revealed significant differences in motivations and reported impacts across urban agriculture types. Participants with stronger economic interests, socialization motivations, or who were plot owners/operators reported greater general wellbeing impacts.

Hanna Weber, David D. Loschelder, Daniel J. Lang, Arnim Wiek · Journal of Marketing Management · Germany

An intervention study with 136 consumers, recruited at a fair for sustainable products and lifestyles in Germany, compared three experiential marketing interventions—a promotional video, an in-person presentation, and a mindful tasting experience—designed to connect consumers with the producers of Teikei Coffee, an international Community Supported Agriculture coffee partnership. All three interventions, to varying degrees, created connections between consumers and producers and thereby fostered sustainable consumption behaviour.

Melanie Jans-Singh, Rebecca Ward, Ruchi Choudhary · Journal of Building Performance Simulation · United Kingdom

A study addressing the lack of quantification of combined building-integrated greenhouse performance developed a building energy simulation (BES) of an archetype school building in EnergyPlus, co-simulated with a validated greenhouse energy simulator (GES), for school buildings in London, UK. Different greenhouse-building coupling configurations were evaluated via sensitivity analysis and a parametric study to estimate potential crop growth, heat recovery, and reduction in ventilation demand. A 250 m2 greenhouse on the top floor of the school could produce 6 t of lettuce with half the energy demand of an equivalent standalone greenhouse. Trade-offs among increased humidity, yields, and energy efficiency show that modeling is needed to ensure optimal designs.

Tatiane de Jesus Marques Souza, Mamen Cuéllar Padilla · RACO (Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert) (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) · Spain

Food crises directly influence children's development across different social contexts, and school gardens are proposed as one response to this issue. This study presents an analysis tool for the innovative contributions a school garden can make by combining educational processes with social inclusion in impoverished contexts. Developed through a thorough review of the scientific literature, the tool was applied to a case study to demonstrate its usefulness. The main conclusion is that while school gardens per se have high innovative potential as an educational tool, whether that potential is realized depends on the garden's origin, its design, and the development process that accompanies it.

András Halbritter · Évkönyv · Europe

Following its boom period in the 19th and 20th centuries, Hungary's school garden movement is described as undergoing a new phase tied to sustainability education, with the number of school and kindergarten gardens growing rapidly. Knowledge sharing takes place through the Hungarian School Garden Network across the Carpathian Basin, and in 2019 the Ministry of Agriculture launched a School Garden Development Programme; school-garden pedagogy has been added to teacher and vocational-teacher training curricula, with further support from international projects.

Hüseyin Berk TÜRKER · Opus uluslararası toplum araştırmaları dergisi · Turkey

This study surveyed the opinions and attitudes toward urban agriculture of 40 third-year undergraduate students from various departments at Uşak University, Turkey—which had recently launched the country's first undergraduate-level urban agriculture course—using an online questionnaire with 19 multiple-choice, yes/no, and fill-in-the-blank questions, analyzed with descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. The results showed students' opinions of the course were positive, its content and materials were considered sufficient, the course was judged suitable for e-learning, and awareness of urban agriculture increased by the end of the course.

Esther Cascarosa Salillas, Beatriz Mazas Gil, Ester Mateo González · Journal of Biological Education · Spain

Research with first-year preschoolers in Spain analyzed their ability to observe, compare, classify, and identify small animals using magnifying glasses and dichotomous keys. Students learned to observe intentionally with magnifying glasses and compare small animals based on the number of wings, legs, and color. However, students struggled to use dichotomous keys, indicating that teacher assistance was necessary to develop scientific skills such as observation, comparison, classification, and identification.

Margot Dudkiewicz, Patryk Krupiński, Magdalena Stefanek, Marcin Iwanek · Teka Komisji Architektury Urbanistyki i Studiów Krajobrazowych · Poland (Stasin)

A case study of a project transforming the grounds of a primary school in Stasin, Poland, into a sensory garden is presented. The project aims to meet diverse children's needs, support their development, and enable creative classes for teachers by creating zones for sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, along with representative, educational, sport, and recreation zones.

Ayfer Tan, Neşe Adanacıoğlu, Saadet Tuğrul Ay, Malek Batal, Hala Ghattas, Salma N. Talhouk · · Turkey

In Turkey, wild edible plants have been an integral part of human diets since prehistoric times and are common in local cuisine. These plants are known to be high in nutrients and can improve the quality and diversity of diets. The collection of wild edible species offers a cheap solution to boosting school meals with a variety of nutrients.

Selda Cansu TEMEL · GRID - Architecture Planning and Design Journal · Turkey

This study analyzed the planning and design criteria of public primary school gardens in Üsküdar district, Istanbul, Turkey, to determine their proficiency levels against national, international, and academic standards. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, including on-site observation, the research identified architectural disadvantages and inadequacies in the school gardens. The findings indicate deficiencies in the current state of these outdoor recreation areas.

Paulien C. H. van de Vlasakker, E.J. Veen · Sustainability · Netherlands (Velp)

This study investigated high-tech indoor gardening practices in four nursing homes in Velp, Netherlands, using qualitative and quantitative methods including site visits, employee surveys, and interviews with residents and decision-makers. It found that indoor gardens integrated gardening and harvest into cooking, transforming residents' eating practices and increasing their appreciation for fresh vegetables. Successful integration was linked to employees' gardening/cooking competences, enjoyment, and easy garden accessibility.

Ornela María Muñoz Millet, Antonio Yepes Jiménez · · Spain

A school in Spain implemented composting of organic waste from its canteen for use in an ecological school garden, with support from the AGROA school composting program and the Aguilas City Council. The entire educational community participates, from canteen staff separating waste, to the janitor transporting it, and teachers and students organizing it for compost and using it as fertilizer. This practice serves as a didactic resource for developing environmental attitudes and sustainable habits.

Lexi Earl, Pat Thomson · · United Kingdom (midlands in England)

This chapter examines a school garden with farm elements at a primary school in a deprived market town in the midlands of England, established as part of an 'eco-school' initiative driven by the former head teacher. The garden included various spaces like a farm, raised beds, a pond, and a herb garden, used for science learning and natural exploration. However, the study notes that the impetus for outdoor learning diminished after the initiating head teacher departed, as school priorities shifted due to other pressures.

Benjamin Hennchen, Michael Pregernig · Sustainability · Europe

This study systematically analyzed how joint practices of gardening, cooking, and eating together are organized in five urban food initiatives — such as community-supported agriculture, urban gardening, food sharing, and community kitchens — in two smaller cities in southern Germany. Data were gathered through qualitative methods including interviewing, participatory observation, and document analysis, covering five dimensions: institutional integration, recruiting mechanisms, goal-setting, time management, and types of knowledge. Based on these dimensions, the results portray two distinctive organizational profiles among the urban food initiatives, and the article concludes with a reflection on how local governments could support food initiatives and contribute to sustainable urban food systems.

· PLOS ONE · Netherlands

An effect and process evaluation of a nine-week school garden program (culminating in a harvest-and-cooking event) on primary schoolchildren's vegetable consumption; well received by teachers and pupils.

Patrizia Papetti, Sara Spognardi, Enrica Iannucci, Ilenia Bravo, Claudio Beni · International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making · Italy (Tor Mancina)

The demonstration garden of Tor Mancina, Italy, engages schools and local communities to test sustainable agricultural practices. It conducts experiments on the phytostimulant and pest repellent effects of plant extracts for crop protection. These activities aim to instill positive values regarding food, agriculture, and the environment in youth, while also seeking to improve crop performance and safeguard biodiversity.

Sonia Delgado Berrocal · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Madrid)

This research focuses on the experience of new green systems co-created through urban horticulture and ecological agriculture in Madrid, Spain, as factors for urban resilience. It examines projects on abandoned urban plots, such as Esta es una plaza de Lavapies (2008) and Huerto de la Tabacalera (2010), and educational community gardens like Huerto del Retiro (2011). The study also considers initiatives that educate urban horticulturists and local organic matter cycle actions within Madrid's urban garden network.

Joanna Dudek-Klimiuk · Technical Transactions · Poland

This study examined the "central school gardens" established in interwar Poland for students of all schools in a given city. These gardens were primarily demonstration gardens, modeled after university botanic gardens, and were characterized by their relatively large scale, public access, and park-like nature. Their layout, architectural details, and plant selection reflected not only their didactic function but also contemporary fashion and design standards for gardens and parks.

J. Ochoa, Esther Sanyé‐Mengual, Kathrin Specht, J.A. Fernández, S. Bañón, Francesco Orsini, F. Magrefi, Giovanni Giorgio Bazzocchi, Severin Halder, Doerte Martens, Noémi Kappel, Giorgio Gianquinto · Sustainability · Europe

A user needs analysis conducted in Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, and Cartagena, Europe, evaluated training requirements for participants in community gardens. The results revealed a need to reinforce training during the formation and community building phases of community gardens, particularly for top-down activities. Users expressed a need for training in crop management skills, such as maintenance and organic practices, and communication skills to disseminate their activities.

Joan Morales Moras · Kepes · Spain (Barcelona)

This study examined an academic project in Barcelona, Spain, where design students collaborated with the self-managed Espai Quiró urban agriculture and organic community project in the La Salut neighborhood. The involvement of the community managers and students in this pedagogical experience responded to a design model committed to citizens and citizen-led neighborhood associations. This participated in the idea of transition towards a new alternative way of living in cities, advocating for the reappropriation of public space.

Inés Melón Izco · · Spain

"Madrid To Go" is an architectural design proposal for an intermodal transit station in Madrid, Spain, positioned above existing rail platforms to connect two neighborhoods historically divided by the rail yard, combining a covered, climate-controlled station with a food market and a strip of urban gardens intended primarily for cultural, educational, leisure and awareness purposes, with the roof shape referencing the profile of the Sierra de Madrid visible from Chamartín.

Marco Picone, Filippo Schilleci · Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) · Italy

A critical essay examining an urban-garden participatory process underway as part of Palermo, Italy's "Laboratorio Palermo città educativa," launched by the municipality in 2015 to convert abandoned or degraded public green areas into urban gardens for educational activities across all ages, in the name of neighborhood community reappropriation. The paper argues that in a context of austerity urbanism, it is easy for the municipality to exploit the absence of public investment to mobilize active citizens as protagonists of urban change, and that the idea of creating urban community gardens—like other recent slogans such as smart cities and creative cities—tends to become a universally praised, virtuous development model without scrutiny. It further notes that the lack of an effective regulation governing the use of public green spaces in the city continues to create obstacles to the solutions proposed by the thematic working table. The author concludes that field-based qualitative research is still needed to determine whether these reappropriation processes conceal neoliberal dynamics that delegate a false decision-making power to citizens while using them to fill current political vacuums.

M. Mar Santiago Arca · Revista galega de educación · Spain

A report on a garden created by pupils of the 4th B class of Infant Education at CEIP Emilia Pardo Bazán school in A Coruña, Spain, during the 2016-17 school year, in their plot of the school garden. Although aesthetic aspects were part of the project, Philosophy for Children and the development of thinking skills served as the basis underpinning the entire process.

Géraldine Brown, Nathan Kerrigan, Jana Fried · Pure (Coventry University) · United Kingdom

This report presents an evaluation, conducted by a team of Coventry University researchers, of Garden Organic's London Food Poverty Project (LFPP) in Southwark, London, UK, which adapts the organization's Master Gardener Programme. Prior independent evaluations of the Master Gardener Programme had identified positive outcomes for volunteers, communities, households, and substance-misusing prisoners across health and wellbeing, skills and employability, community life, food eating and buying, food recycling and composting, relationship building, and recovery support. Funded by the Hirschmann Foundation, the LFPP aimed to build resilience and knowledge in an urban locality identified as an area of deprivation, targeting individuals and families across Southwark communities at risk of or experiencing food poverty, using an approach that encourages participation in food growing and cooking on a low income. The report is organized into four sections: background context, the collaborative community research approach, key findings on community growing, cooking, and networks, and reflections and learning points.

Donald Gray, Laura Colucci‐Gray, R.A. Donald, Aristea Kyriacou, Daniel Wodah · Scottish Educational Review · United Kingdom

A study of a school garden project in three regeneration areas of a Scottish city, run in partnership among a teacher education institution, an NGO, a city council planning and infrastructure department, and three primary schools, used a semi-ethnographic approach to collect observation data, visual data, and teacher and pupil interviews. Analyzed through a socio-material lens, the findings articulate significant changes in the discourses and practices of learning associated with school gardening: beyond delivering curricular outcomes or practical skills, tending the gardens and growing food contributed to a learning aesthetics that foregrounds the centrality of the body in learning, acknowledges the living state of materials, and positions children's actions as ways of being and becoming in the world.