Research & reports

Franklin Wagner, Lindsey Payne · Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement · United States (Lafayette)

In summer 2016, Purdue University researchers collaborated with Lafayette's GrowLocal Urban Gardens Network in Lafayette, Indiana, to conduct a baseline analysis of current community gardening initiatives. Using qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, they identified motivations and barriers to participation through stakeholder interviews and focus groups. The study indicated that urban gardens as community spaces may serve a greater purpose than providing fresh food, and its results informed a planning document for GrowLocal with strategic recommendations for governance, communication, event integration, and collaborative grants.

Karla L. Hanson, Leah C. Volpe, Jane Kolodinsky, Grace Hwang, Weiwei Wang, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Marilyn Sitaker, Alice S. Ammerman, Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler · Nutrients · United States

A cross-sectional study in August 2017 surveyed cost-offset Community Supported Agriculture (CO-CSA) applicants (purchasers n=46, non-purchasers n=18) and a comparison sample (n=105) of low-income adults with children. CO-CSA applicants reported better knowledge, self-efficacy, home habits, and diet than the comparison sample. Among applicants, purchasers and non-purchasers had equivalent knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs, but children in purchaser households consumed significantly more fruits and vegetables (4.14 vs. 1.83 cups, p = 0.001).

Candis M. Hunter, Dana Williamson, Melanie Pearson, Eri Saikawa, Matthew O. Gribble, Michelle C. Kegler · Local Environment · United States (Atlanta)

This study used five focus groups with Atlanta community garden leaders to investigate perspectives on composting, hygiene, and mulching, which are practices to reduce exposure to soil contaminants. Gardeners cited a need for more funding, volunteers, and training. A primary barrier to composting and mulching was concern about contamination of source materials, and participants did not directly link these practices to reducing soil contaminant exposure. Hygiene challenges included concerns about beneficial bacteria, inadequate water access, and limited supplies.

Yvonne Black · Management Learning · Global

This article explores a non-traditional qualitative research project that used a creative approach, specifically collaborative performance ethnography, to investigate lived experiences in an urban community garden. Working with a playwright and garden staff/volunteers, the study explored connections between people and nature and their impact on well-being. The creative method, incorporating arts-based inquiry and performance, facilitated relaxed communication with participants and provided new perspectives on data collection and analysis, stimulating discourse on community gardens' role in social and environmental change.

Victoria Holmes · Proceedings of Student Research and Creative Inquiry Day · Global

This literature review analyzed research data from 2002-2018 to investigate the effects of school garden programs on students' fruit and vegetable intake and the impact of increased intake on academic performance. Findings support the claim that school garden programs promote an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption among participating students. In one study, nutrition education and garden-based activities doubled daily fruit and vegetable servings among sixth graders. A positive relationship was shown between academic performance and fruit and vegetable consumption, but more studies are needed to understand long-term effects.

Yasinta Ratna Esti Wulandari, Anastasia Tatik Hartanti, Bernard Atviano · Jurnal Perkotaan · Indonesia

A hydroponic experiment in Indonesia tested the effect of plant growth regulators on water spinach (kangkung, Ipomoea aquatica) yield. Treatments included a control (AB-Mix), IAA (indole acetic acid) at 0.5 ppm, BAP (benzyl adenine purine) at 0.5 and 1.0 ppm, and combined IAA/BAP at 0.5/1.0 ppm, measuring leaf number, plant height, antioxidant content and water content. Morphological growth was most optimal under 0.5 ppm IAA, while 1.0 ppm BAP produced the shortest average plant height, fewest leaves and shortest root length. Chlorophyll testing showed 0.5 ppm IAA had the highest total chlorophyll content, averaging 9.55 μg/ml, and the authors conclude 0.5 ppm IAA had the most positive effect among the treatments tested.

최지원, 오충현 · 한국환경생태학회 학술발표논문집 · South Korea

A study of urban agriculture in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea, reviewing about ten years of activity from the district's 2010 enactment of Korea's first eco-friendly urban agriculture support ordinance through its 2019 comprehensive plan, assessed across economic, environmental-ecological and social dimensions using Lee Chang-woo's (2016) functional classification and a resident satisfaction survey, to derive directions for the next urban agriculture master plan. On the economic side, following the district's first urban garden plots opened in the Gangil-dong area in 2009, by January 2019 there were 39 sites totaling 145,806 square meters across 6,873 plots, and in 2018 the Gangdong Urban Agriculture Support Center ("Ssingssing Dream") recorded produce sales of 348,218,000 KRW and donated 3,204 kg of produce to low-income households. On the environmental side, urban beekeeping begun in 2013 had grown to roughly 40 hives by 2018, alongside 25,923 box gardens and 121 rooftop gardens (totaling 1,828 square meters) established by 2018; on the social side, rooftop gardens at eight welfare facilities hosted a total of 107 horticultural therapy sessions by 2018.

Mónica D. Ramírez‐Andreotta, Abigail Tapper, Diamond Clough, Jennifer S. Carrera, Shana Sandhaus · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · United States

Through semi-structured interviews with 17 community gardeners in the Boston area, this study characterized gardeners' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, their perceptions of soil quality and environmental responsibility, awareness of past land use, and gardening behavior. Gardeners reported knowledge of their garden's historical past and concerns about soil quality, theft, trash maintenance, animal waste, and produce loss to foraging animals. The findings are reported as directly informing environmental health exposure assessment by documenting gardening duration, activities that can lead to incidental soil ingestion, and consumption patterns of locally grown produce.

Renate M. Winkels, Rick Artrip, Maegan Tupinio, Susan Veldheer, Smita Dandekar, Daniel R. George · Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology · United States

The feasibility of a mentored gardening intervention for adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors in a hospital-based community garden was evaluated as a way to improve diet and physical activity. Over the 2018 growing season, AYA cancer survivors tended a garden plot under the mentorship of an experienced (master) gardener and were successful in planting and harvesting vegetables in partnership with their mentors, with qualitative data used to assess challenges, facilitators, and areas for future programmatic improvement and replication.

Athena K. Ramos, Natalia Trinidad, Sonja Bickford, Nate Bickford, Julia Torquati, Maria Mushi · Collaborations A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice · United States

A study conducted a bilingual online survey to gauge public support for a planned community garden in South Omaha, Nebraska, and to prioritize messaging strategies about its potential benefits. Assessing interest, perceived benefits, purposes, and desired co-located functions, the study identified the value of developing local data, the importance of an asset-based framework, the need to understand community perceptions of potential benefits, the challenge of balancing community research efforts, and the need for partnerships to expand a project's reach.

Jean-Louis Yengué · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Cameroon

Focusing on the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé and one of its valleys, the Ekozoa, this study examines the forms taken by urban residents' cultivation of food and horticultural crops and its place within the urban fabric. Despite its illegality, this agriculture proved essential to the survival strategies of the poorest households, improving their nutrition and economic base, and it also played an environmental role through waste recycling and greening the city. At the same time it raised numerous problems related to pollution and public health. The solution proposed by the authorities is to bring these areas under control as non-buildable zones, incorporating them into a green network that is more ornamental than productive.

Anne Barbillon, Christine Aubry, François Nold, Stéphane Besançon, Nastaran Manouchehri · Agricultural Sciences · France

This study assessed health risks from soil trace metals (lead, cadmium, mercury, copper, and zinc) at three urban farms near Paris (Ile-de-France region), evaluating two main exposure pathways: soil and vegetable ingestion. All three farms had soil trace-metal levels above geochemical background values and the thresholds used in France as reference values for sludge spreading. Using a Hazard Quotient (HQ)-based risk assessment (HQ being the ratio of estimated daily intake to tolerable daily intake), the riskiest scenarios were urban farmers working on-site daily year-round (HQtot = 1.02), child gardeners (HQtot = 1.29), and regular child consumers eating exclusively the farm's vegetables under a maximalist scenario (HQtot = 1.6). The adult gardener scenario followed (HQtot = 0.9), while the lowest-risk scenarios were adult consumers (HQtot = 0.62) and farm workers (HQtot = 0.45).

Baby Shaharoona, Said Al‐Ismaily, Ahmed Al‐Mayahi, Nadhira Al-Harrasi, Ruqaiya Al-Kindi, Abdullah Al-Sulaimi, Hamad Al-Busaidi, Mohammed Al‐Abri · Heliyon · Global

A study in A'Seeb city, Oman, combined a sociological questionnaire survey of residents' perceptions with sampling of pathogenic bacteria, water-soluble metals, basic cations, salinity and texture in soil and groundwater near urban gardens and municipal waste disposal sites. Most surveyed residents were not paying attention to the negative consequences of their activities on soil and the environment. Heavy metal concentrations were significant at some contaminated sites though still below international standards, while fecal contaminants were reported in some garden, waste-site and groundwater samples, identifying human pathogens in risk group 2 including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella spp. and E. coli.

富子 中下, 大子 佐藤, 真紀 小澤, 徹子 藤田, 結加里 石山, 美智子 長濱, 洋子 大山 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan

A self-administered questionnaire covering 27 items of daily lifestyle habits — sleep, diet, exercise, media-related habits, and family/community involvement — was given to a total of 885 children and students across the kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and special-support schools attached to a Japanese university, with results tabulated by school type and compared by grade for elementary and junior high students. More favorable habits around breakfast intake and leftover food were found at higher grade levels overall, but third-grade elementary students showed less favorable eating, sleeping, and exercise habits. Among media-related habits, internet and mobile-email use time was highest in junior high school. Habits related to family and community involvement were highest in kindergarten and declined through elementary and junior high grades, but rose with grade level in the special-support schools. The findings suggest that health education for lifestyle formation should be designed with developmental stage in mind, and that its relationship to mental health and self-esteem warrants further study.

Wojciech Mrozik, Soydoa Vinitnantharat, Thunchanok Thongsamer, Nipapun Pansuk, Pavinee Pattanachan, Parinda Thayanukul, Kishor Acharya, Marcos Quintela‐Baluja, Charles R. E. Hazlerigg, Aidan Robson, Russell J. Davenport, David Werner · The Science of The Total Environment · Asia

A study of three family-owned peri-urban aquaculture operations downstream of Bangkok, Thailand — spanning extensive, semi-intensive and intensive practices — used micropollutant analysis, genetic markers and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to assess water quality against aquaculture standards. Canals draining Bangkok did not meet quality standards and were sources of faecal coliforms, Bacteroides, Prevotella, human E. coli, tetracycline-resistance genes and nitrogen entering the ponds, causing algae blooms. The aquacultures in turn discharged salinity and the herbicide diuron into the canals; diuron was detected in shrimp, though not at a level of concern to human health. The extensive aquaculture attenuated an estimated 20 population equivalents of nitrogen pollution and trillions of faecal coliform inputs per year.

Defira Suci Gusfarina, Irham Irham · Jurnal Kawistara · Indonesia

A descriptive, qualitative study in Yogyakarta City, Indonesia, surveyed 113 households using a Likert-scale questionnaire to measure motivation for using home yards to grow vegetables and fruit. Motivation for yard-based farming ranked, from highest to lowest, health motivation, environmental motivation, social/community motivation and economic motivation.

Marjanca Kos, Janez Jerman · Problems of Education in the 21st Century · Global

A quasi-experiment with one control and one experimental group, each comprising 15 children aged 6-7, examined the effect of school gardening activities on children's knowledge of and attitude toward eating garden vegetables. Individual interviews established prior knowledge and attitudes; the experimental group then carried out activities in a school garden built in cooperation with a nearby organic farm, after which interviews were repeated in both groups. Results showed that both groups had poor general knowledge of garden vegetables at the outset, but after the garden activities the experimental group's knowledge improved to a statistically significant degree and their attitude toward eating vegetables became more positive.

Micajah Daniels, Courtney Coughenour · Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) · United States

This project uses Black Feminist Health Studies as an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the holistic impacts of community gardens on nutrition behaviors. It demonstrates, through a Socio-Ecological Wellness Wheel, that the implementation of green spaces such as community gardens correlates with both benefits and unintended negative consequences, including green gentrification, and proposes this audit tool as a way to empirically measure garden quality and the nutrition environment affecting fruit and vegetable consumption among food-insecure populations.

Beatrice Atieno Otieno, Davis Bwire Namiripo · Australian Herbal Insight · Global

Urban gardening, an ancient practice, is described as having gained renewed significance amid rapid urbanization and associated challenges including environmental degradation and declining mental health. This study explored the multifaceted role of urban gardening in environmental, social, and health dimensions of sustainable urban development across five cities: New York, Berlin, Mumbai, São Paulo, and Nairobi. It combined structured surveys of 300 participants (covering air quality, access to fresh food, social interactions, and mental health), semi-structured interviews with 30 stakeholders including city planners and community garden managers, field observations of gardens' ecological and physical characteristics, and a review of secondary data. Results showed 67% of respondents reported improved mental health, with São Paulo and New York showing the most positive outcomes. Urban gardening contributed to reducing the urban heat island effect, with temperature reductions of up to 4°C, enhanced biodiversity by hosting various plant species that created habitats for pollinators, and served as social hubs fostering community engagement and inclusivity; 60% of respondents in São Paulo reported improved access to fresh food. The study concludes that urban gardening significantly enhances environmental sustainability, social cohesion, and mental health, particularly in marginalized communities, but states that challenges such as land access and insufficient policy support hinder its potential.

Abdallah Zacharia, Wajihu Ahmada, Anne H. Outwater, Billy Ngasala, Rob Van Deun · The Scientific World JOURNAL · Tanzania

This cross-sectional study, conducted from February to August 2018, evaluated three waste stabilization ponds (WSPs) in the Morogoro, Mwanza and Iringa regions of Tanzania, where treated effluent is used for urban agricultural activities despite the disease-transmission risks posed by untreated or partially treated wastewater. Using APHA physicochemical methods, the modified Bailenger method and Ziehl-Neelsen staining for parasites, and membrane filtration for fecal coliforms (FC), analyzed with SPSS version 20, the study found helminth egg removal ranging from 80.8% to 100% and protozoan (oo)cyst removal from 98.8% to 99.9%, with the Mwanza WSP showing the highest FC reduction (3.8 log units per 100 mL). Both parasites and FCs in the effluents of the assessed WSPs were found at concentrations exceeding World Health Organization and Tanzania Bureau of Standards limits, except for helminths in the Morogoro WSP and FCs in the Mwanza WSP. FC counts correlated significantly with protozoa (p<0.01) and predicted protozoa occurrence well (p=0.011), with correlations also found among physicochemical parameters, parasites and FC bacteria. The study attributes the systems' inadequate performance to a lack of regular maintenance and/or operation beyond capacity, and concludes that FC indicators are a reasonable proxy for monitoring protozoa but not for helminths, which should be surveyed independently.

Dan Li, Chun Hong Wong, Mei Fang Seet, Nicole Kuan · Frontiers in Microbiology · Singapore

This study conducted, for the first time to the authors' knowledge, an investigation of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia -- an emerging opportunistic pathogen capable of causing high-mortality nosocomial infections in immunocompromised patients while also being ubiquitous in the environment -- on leafy green vegetables and in a hydroponic farming facility in Singapore. Eleven isolates were recovered from three vegetable types (sweet basil, kale, parsley) and the nutrient solution, with high population levels reached in vegetables under abused storage temperatures (over 8-log CFU/ml in basil juice after six days at 20°C) and on hydroponic facilities through biofilm formation (8 to 9-log CFU/well), and UV treatment (over 4-log reduction at 250 mJ/cm²) was identified as an effective measure to reduce contamination in nutrient solutions and facilities.

Rana Muhammad Asif Kanwar, Zahid Mahmood Khan, Hafiz Umar Farid · Water Science & Technology · Global

A study in Multan, Pakistan, assessed the feasibility of biological treatment for a typical wastewater stream using daily trends in wastewater characteristics and designed a wastewater treatment (WWT) system for it. Parameters including pH (5.8-6.2), temperature (24-30°C), and BOD5 (128-265 mg/L) supported biological treatment; including nitrogenous BOD indicated a need for nitrification-denitrification, and linear regression of volatile suspended solids against total suspended solids showed high organic solids content suited to biological treatment. A BOD/COD ratio below 0.8 indicated a need for biomass acclimation. The designed system's major units were a primary clarifier, cascade aeration, trickling filter, adsorption filter, and chlorination contact tank. Over a 15-week validation period of the secondary WWT system, removal reached 91% for TSS, 46% for TDS, 88% for BOD5, and 87% for COD. The developed system was concluded to be an appropriate sustainable WWT system, with lower energy consumption and operating costs.

Adriana Rodrigues Moreira, Rodrigues, Ana Beatriz Nizer, Poiani, Jaqueline Oliveira, Santos, Luciana Beatriz dos, França, Maria Gabriela de Lima · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

This case study documents the introduction of a school garden at a municipal early childhood education center (CMEI) in São José dos Pinhais, Brazil, tracing the process from soil preparation and fertilizing, through measuring planting beds and selecting crops, to harvest by students and teachers. Data came from field research, literature review, interviews, photographic records, and site visits. The main result was construction of the garden, from site maintenance to seedling planting, carried out by staff with student help. The study concludes the garden raised environmental awareness and supplemented meals at the institution, but this is a descriptive case report without a comparison group or quantitative outcome measures.

Blakely Brown, Laura Dybdal, Curtis W. Noonan, Maja Pedersen, Martin Parker, Mary Corcoran · Health Promotion Practice · United States

On an American Indian reservation, a community-based participatory research approach applying a social-ecological model identified the factors that promote or hinder community gardens and the use of locally grown food, and tested the feasibility of a group gardening program for Native American adults. Interviews with nine key stakeholders identified knowledge/experience, self-efficacy, Elders, traditional ways, community values, generational gaps and local tribal policy as influencing factors. In a feasibility study with 20 Native American adults with prediabetes or diabetes, Profile of Mood States scores showed consistently more positive change among group gardening participants than among a comparison group.

Anne Barbillon, Christine Aubry, Nastaran Manouchehri · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France

This French guide, "R.E.F.U.G.E.," developed by AgroParisTech, sets out a four-step methodology to help urban-planning actors in the Île-de-France region assess and manage soil contamination risk before establishing urban agriculture on available land: a historical and environmental site study, a sampling strategy, interpretation of soil analyses, and, where warranted, a formal health risk assessment. Based on France's national methodology for managing polluted sites and soils, it is intended as a first harmonized technical tool for the field and was slated for a testing phase applying it to future urban agriculture projects. The abstract itself does not report contamination measurements or findings from any specific site; it describes the assessment procedure rather than presenting soil contamination data.