Research & reports

Hannah Powell · Educating Young Children: Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood Years · Australia

Kurilpa Community Child Care in West End operates a multi-age forest school program weekly at a local community garden's wild-space native plants area. This initiative enables children from a highly urbanized area to develop meaningful relationships with the environment and benefit from ongoing exposure to local green spaces.

Kate Wright · Cultural Studies Review · Australia (New South Wales)

A postdoctoral project involving collaboratively planting and maintaining a community garden on land that was once part of the East Armidale Aboriginal Reserve in New South Wales, Australia, began in 2014. This research offers a personal narrative of involvement in an anti-colonial multispecies research project within the confines of a neoliberal university, interrogating the potential and limitations of anti-colonial projects undertaken from colonial subject positions predicated on social and environmental privilege.

Shelley Burgin · International Journal of Environmental Studies · Global

This paper reports a desktop survey investigating the drivers of sustainability that motivate leisure-time gardening in private (backyard) and public (community) gardens, against a background of limited understanding of sustainability at the individual level. The survey found little mention of the "three pillars" of sustainability, and they were seldom interlinked. The study suggests the necessity to raise awareness of sustainability in an individual’s everyday leisure activities.

Natália Peres Almeida · · Global

This research aimed to identify the contribution of community gardens to healthy food for farmers and their families, with objectives of Food and Nutrition Security, Human Right to Adequate Food, and Food Sovereignty. Interviews were conducted with the president and farmers in the community garden, randomly addressed during their activities. It was concluded that the community garden significantly contributed to the healthy eating of farmers and their families through the production of in natura food of vegetal origin, of sufficient quality and quantity.

Timothy Beatley, Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global

This chapter examines the role of urban landscapes in public health, addressing environmental health concerns arising from urbanization, such as physical inactivity. It promotes a socioecological approach, providing examples of how urban landscapes, including urban agriculture and community gardening, contribute to improved public health. The chapter introduces concepts like green urbanism and biophilic urbanism, offering suggestions for planning health-promoting urban landscapes.

Rebecca Laycock Pedersen, Zoë Robinson · Local Environment · Global

This paper systematically reviewed literature on University Community Gardens for Sustainability (UCGS) to suggest directions for future research. UCGS face challenges with transient and inexperienced student gardeners but have the potential for a lasting impact on young people's food behaviors. The literature shows that UCGS have similar benefits to urban community gardens, with a greater emphasis on educational and environmental sustainability benefits.

David Hallberg · Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology · Global

This paper introduces community gardens as multipurpose, technological systems with dynamic boundaries. It also aims to revise the notions of food security and health in relation to these systems.

Danielle Sinnett, Gemma Jerome, Nick Smith, Sarah Burgess, Roger Mortlock · International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning · Global

This paper presents an emerging benchmark for green infrastructure (GI) developed through literature review and stakeholder engagement, addressing uncertainty in GI design, delivery, and maintenance. The benchmark offers flexible standards for assessing GI policy, planning, design, delivery, and long-term management across various spatial scales. Preliminary testing on two mixed-use developments found the benchmark performed well, rewarding high-quality GI without demanding exemplary levels.

Chih Hsuan LI, Kazuo ASAHIRO · Landscape Research Japan Online · Global

A study of the community-supported agriculture (CSA) cooperative in Shan-Gou village, Yi-Lan County, Taiwan, which by 2016 accounted for 26% of Taiwan's 91 CSA farms. The study analyses the cooperative's comprehensive operations through interviews with CSA farm owners on cooperative management features and a financial report analysis of cooperative salary, funding sources, and the proportion of production expenditure. Results show the Shan-Gou CSA cooperative's annual salary was 1,057,000 NT$/ha, compared with an average of 690,000 NT$/ha for conventional modern agriculture in Yi-Lan County; Shan-Gou village has 24 CSA farmers with total farmland of 75.2 ha, and Shan-Gou CSA farmers' average farmland (3.5 ha) is larger than the average for Yi-Lan County's organic rice farmers (2.5 ha). Based on a 5 ha farmland premise, estimated annual income was 3,450,000 NT$ for a modern farmer versus 5,285,000 NT$ for a Shan-Gou CSA farmer, indicating higher income for Shan-Gou CSA farmers than for conventional modern farming. By December 2016, 35 farmers had relocated to Shan-Gou village, Yi-Lan County.

Ellen van Holstein · Social & Cultural Geography · Australia

Drawing on participant observation and 25 walking interviews at three community gardens in Sydney, Australia, this study examined how water use is shaped through relationships between community members and water technologies such as tanks, taps and buckets. It found that water practices emerge in relation to shifting water availability, time, technology and gardeners' proximity to home, and that gardeners express community-mindedness by sharing water, guided by feelings of guilt over wastefulness and by their individual gardening goals.

Nguyen Phuong Le, Nguyen Mau Dung · International journal of Rural Development Environment and Health Research · Global

A 2018 case study on the multifunctionality of peri-urban agriculture in Trau Quy Commune, Hanoi City, Vietnam.

Imas Agustina, Ruth Beilin · Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies · Australia

A 2018 study investigates how cultural practices in gardening affect migrants' ability to adapt to their host country, based on community gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Community gardens are described as places where immigrants begin interacting with others, potentially fostering social inclusion while also providing space to preserve cultural identity. The findings confirm a complex relationship between historical garden practices and culture on one hand and the actual practices carried out in the community gardens on the other.

Corrina Moucheraud, Ram K. Chandyo, Sigrun Henjum, Tor A. Strand, Manjeswori Ulak, Wafaie Fawzi, Lindsey M. Locks, Patrick Webb, Andrew Thorne‐Lyman · Current Developments in Nutrition · Nepal

This cross-sectional study examined whether agricultural activity among a peri-urban population in Bhaktapur district, Nepal, was associated with household food security, household and maternal dietary diversity, and nutritional outcomes for children and women. A survey of 344 mother-child pairs collected data on household agricultural practices, livestock ownership, food security, dietary diversity and expenditures, anthropometric measurements of children aged 5-6, maternal BMI, and maternal anemia, with adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios (AOR) calculated via logistic regression. Cultivation of land was associated with lower odds of child stunting (AOR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.33-0.93) and household food insecurity (AOR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.18-0.63), but not with maternal BMI or anemia. Livestock ownership (mostly chickens) was associated with lower food insecurity (AOR: 0.34; 95% CI: 0.16-0.73) but not with nutrition outcomes. Women in farming households ate green leafy vegetables significantly more often than women in nonfarming households, and children in households that grew vegetables had lower odds of stunting than children in households that cultivated land but did not grow vegetables (AOR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.25-0.98). Given Nepal's rapid urbanization, the study states more attention is needed on the potential role of peri-urban agriculture in shaping diets and nutrition.

Daniel Andrés Vega Castro · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Colombia

An explorative, descriptive study evaluated "papa criolla" (Solanum phureja) production in an urban context using double-bottom HDPE containers and agroecological techniques, with descriptive statistics and dispersion analysis applied to the resulting data. Average production reached 528 g per plant, which the authors compare favorably to average production figures for Colombia as a whole.

V.V. Erokhova, Viacheslav Vasenev · RUDN Journal of Agronomy and Animal Industries · Global

Literature on ecosystem services in the context of land-use change driven by urbanization is reviewed, and a methodology for assessing soil characteristics from an ecosystem-services perspective is proposed, illustrated with the example of the village of Ryzhovo in TiNAO, Moscow. Principles are set out for choosing sites for urban agriculture facilities based on preserving and improving soil characteristics, applying general ecosystem-service assessment methods both citywide and to land proposed for urban farming development.

林志鈞, 葉怡貞 · · Global

This survey study of citizen-farm (allotment garden) participants analyzed how novelty-seeking, experience value and perceived health relate to continued involvement, and how these vary by demographic attributes. Some demographic variables showed significant differences in novelty-seeking, experience value, perceived health and continued involvement; novelty-seeking was positively correlated with experience value, perceived health and continued involvement; experience value was positively correlated with perceived health and continued involvement; and perceived health was positively correlated with continued involvement. Experience value was also found to partially mediate the effects of both novelty-seeking and perceived health on continued involvement, with novelty-seeking, experience value and perceived health together predicting continued involvement.

Sonam Wangyel Wang, Woo‐Kyun Lee, Jeong‐Gyu Kim · Urban Studies and Public Administration · Global

Focused on Thimphu, a high-altitude city in Bhutan, this study assesses baseline social and environmental conditions, challenges and barriers to climate adaptation and identifies opportunities for ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA). It finds that the city's poorly planned infrastructure causes congestion — with associated increases in carbon emissions and driver conflict — and that flooding of sewage systems exposes residents to infection risk. Much of the urban poor living in informal settlements lack adequate access to basic facilities and so turn to surrounding natural resources, depleting the environment and eroding ecosystem services, including protection against natural hazards such as flash floods, landslides and forest fires, with disproportionate effects on vulnerable groups. The study recommends integrating EbA interventions — urban agriculture, agroforestry, greening projects, resettlement of informal settlements, education on coping strategies, and institutional, technical and individual capacity building — into climate adaptation strategies and development plans, and calls for the city authority to secure adequate funding and build capacity to plan and implement EbA.

Son Truong, Tonia Gray, Danielle Tracey, Kumara Ward · Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) · Australia

This study revisits the "Community Greening" partnership established in 1999 between the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and Housing New South Wales, extending from a 2004 program evaluation report to reconsider community gardening within the changing urban and peri-urban landscape of metropolitan NSW. The program has reached almost 100,000 participants since 2000 and established 627 community and youth-led community gardens across NSW; using a pre- and post-test design, this study tracked six new garden sites established in 2017, aiming to examine whether community gardening is associated with an elevated sense of community, health and wellbeing in low-income communities, and how new gardeners' experiences relate to self-reported wellbeing and engagement.

Renan Borro Celestrino, Silvia Cristina Vieira · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Global

A descriptive and experimental study (qualitative-quantitative approach triangulated with a literature review) surveyed the cost of small-scale aquaponics implementation for family and peri-urban agriculture and documented the setup steps. In the practical experiment, 27 kilograms of fish were fed at 2% of their live weight, and the resulting waste nourished 144 seedlings of Crespa lettuce. The system was found to have low implementation costs and practical management, with organic nutrition of plants and no chemical use offering a sustainable alternative for healthier production.

Jiménez Forero, John Alejandro · · Colombia

In the Loma Linda neighborhood of comuna 4, Altos de Cazucá, in the municipality of Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia, this project ran from February 2016 to March 2017, involving a vulnerable local community in seedling production to establish urban agriculture. Using organic inputs, knowledge exchange among participants, and native plants valued for their nutritional content, the project produced vegetable crops according to available costs, physical and human resources, and available space. Participants are reported to have reduced their spending on purchased vegetables by producing and consuming fresh produce themselves, while also generating additional income for the community. About 50 families took part, organized into 26 productive units, contributing to the community's food security.

Francisco Javier Vélez Zabala, Viviana Yulieth Hidalgo Zapata, Mónica Andrea Martínez Martina, Ana María Soto González, Maria Velez, Juan Diego López Vargas · WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT · Global

This conceptual paper presents urban agriculture as a strategy to improve quality of life in vulnerable urban communities formed by rural-to-urban migration, particularly in developing countries. It covers urban agriculture's concepts, origins and evolution, draws on experiences from countries that have implemented it, and discusses the social, economic and environmental factors that influence its development, without reporting original empirical data.

Jamie Matthews, Akhtar-Khavari Afshin · Journal of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University · Global

This paper argues that as land values rise with increasing population density, legally established practice has pushed agriculture out of the urban environment, leaving cities dependent on regional and industrial agriculture, with urban agriculture practiced mainly in developing countries as a defense against hunger and malnutrition or as poverty alleviation. It contends that urban agriculture can contribute to environmental recovery in the Anthropocene, on the premise that existing conservation and protection strategies should not be assumed to be sufficient on their own, without presenting empirical measurements.

Harriet Gross · · Global

This chapter reflects on the psychology of gardening, examining the relevance of gender, age and the 'gardening career,' and discusses gardens as sites of resistance and empowerment, as seen in community gardening projects. It describes guerrilla gardening — cultivating someone else's land, more surreptitiously than community gardening, by planting or sprinkling seeds at night without the landowner's permission — and horticultural therapy as a form of occupational therapy that occupies people through work, crafts and gardening, concluding that the range of psychological concepts explored in relation to gardening shows there is no single psychology of gardening.

Licia María Lilli · Revista de la Escuela de Antropología · Argentina

A paper examines the participation of a group of urban gardeners (huerteros/huerteras) in the process of building the civil association "Red de Huerteros y Huerteras de Rosario" in Rosario, Argentina, an associative form linked to social policies formulated under the Municipality of Rosario's Urban Agriculture Program. Using a relational anthropological approach, it focuses on the demands and resignifications of the social actors involved in the web of political relations, asking how these experiences enable a place for collective practices within a field of forces.

Brenda B. Lin, Monika Egerer, Alessandro Ossola · Frontiers in Built Environment · Global

This review examines how urban gardens might counter the ratcheting-down of everyday nature experience caused by urban green-space loss, by fostering biophilia. It outlines three pathways: exposure to diverse plants, animals and soils; understanding of natural processes tied to food production such as climate, pest control and pollination; and provision of a safe space for physical interaction with nature, and presents examples of urban gardens to illustrate biophilic design.