Research & reports

Christian M., Evans C., Cade J. · Public Health Research, Vol. 2, No. 4 (NIHR Journals Library) · United Kingdom

Two randomised controlled trials in London primary schools evaluating the RHS Campaign for School Gardening. They found gardening alone had very little impact on children's fruit and vegetable intake, suggesting it must be combined with nutrition education to change diet.

Christian M.S., Evans C.E.L., Nykjaer C., Hancock N., Cade J.E. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · UK

A randomized controlled trial across 23 schools comparing an RHS-led gardening intervention with a teacher-led one; 641 children completed it, finding little evidence that school gardening alone improves children's fruit and vegetable intake.

Mikey Tomkins · Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) · United Kingdom (London)

This research explored reactions to the idea of potential urban agriculture landscapes through 32 participatory walks with 150 local residents around a 25-hectare site in east London. The walks used an "edible map" that suggested food growing in vacant urban areas. The study showed initial engagement with urban agriculture and local food systems, but also produced a strong critique of urban spatial design and a desire for place-making.

Robert Mattock · · United Kingdom

This article discusses the decline in horticultural skills and work ethic in the United Kingdom over the last century, attributing it to the welfare state's de-incentivization of the workforce. The diverse plant vocabulary and cultivation skills once common among Victorian gardeners and landscape designers are now largely lost, impacting the conservation of designed landscapes. While efforts are being made to revive school gardens and promote apprenticeships and craft skills, the article concludes that more work is needed to re-establish a traditional work ethic in apprenticeships.

Helena Jedličková · · Europe

A thesis on inquiry-based learning at the Faculty of Education in Brno, Czech Republic, addresses four areas shaping the relationship between people (children) and nature: the concept of activity education in the 21st century, the principles of natural gardens, the topical phenomenon of community gardens, and garden forms associated with educational institutions. Its practical part attempts to unite these four areas into one. The core of the thesis is designing, creating and implementing a garden patch with natural elements at the Biology Department workplace of the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, funded by the "Natural DVPP" project and the "SEP" innovation project for South Moravian region schools using international field placements and internships (registration number CZ.1.07/1.41/02.0055).

Timm Bliss, IM Dickinson · Leeds Beckett Repository (Leeds Beckett University) · United Kingdom

This is a descriptive account, not an empirical study, of the Leeds Edible Schools Sustainability Network, an unconstituted, informal group of organizations and academics based in the Leeds district in the UK. It is described as sharing values around wellbeing and sustainability and supporting educational establishments in growing and consuming food on school premises, promoting resilient and healthy practices including outdoor work, and teaching sustainability.

Amparo Hurtado Soler, Ana María Botella Nicolás, José Cantó Doménech, Valentín Gavidia Catalán · · Spain

Framing the school garden as an educational resource that helps students approach the natural environment and develop basic skills through interdisciplinary experiences, the L'Hort 2.0 project in Spain built a virtual environment based on the school garden to manage ICT content linking activities outside the classroom with course guides. It proceeded through an active, collaborative methodology in three phases: preparing and designing the web environment across six thematic areas, developing educational materials, and evaluating their usefulness in the classroom and effectiveness in the learning process. The project reports high student involvement in the learning process and improved assessment results that better reflected the skills students had attained.

Elżbiata Słabińska · Res Gestae · Poland

In 1930s central Poland, national policy to mitigate the effects of unemployment was expanded into so-called "special actions" providing full or partial employment support, comprising efforts to create bases for independent livelihoods, social and educational assistance, and support for employing white-collar workers. These were coordinated by the Labour Fund (Fundusz Pracy) together with national and local authorities and numerous economic and socio-cultural organizations. Allotment gardens and vocational training drew considerable interest among the unemployed. The paper concludes that although these were innovative measures, they were introduced too late to produce visible effects before the end of the interwar period.

Henderson S. R. · Peter Lang (Studies in Modern European History, vol. 64) · Germany

A comprehensive history of Ernst May's New Frankfurt initiative within the Weimar context, covering housing settlements, construction and material innovations, the parks-and-garden-colony program, the Frankfurt Kitchen, and reforms in schools and medical facilities.

Migge L., Haney D. H. · Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (Ex Horto series); Harvard University Press · Germany

An annotated English translation (edited and introduced by David H. Haney) of Migge's foundational 1913 treatise, presenting the primary source for his social and productive garden theory, from urban parks to housing settlements with allotment gardens.

Fátima Rodríguez Marín, Jorge Fernández-Arroyo, Helena Álvarez García · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain

This experience, conducted by a group of primary education students, involved school garden activities with pre-school and primary children, with a focus on pre-schoolers. Through various activities demonstrating plant growth and garden creation, children had fun learning about nature, developing conceptual, attitudinal, and procedural knowledge, including observation and respect for plants.

Pierluigi Musarò, Roberta Bartoletti · Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) · United States (New York City), Italy, Europe

This study maps urban gardening in New York City and Italy, tracing the evolution of urban gardens from 19th-century worker gardens to the 1970s community garden movement. It notes that contemporary urban horticulture in Italy, while influenced by the US movement, primarily focuses on social, cultural, and civic-political values, with economic and productive potential not being central or sometimes excluded.

Marjetica, Potr · 公共艺术 · Netherlands (Amsterdam)

The on-site project "The Cook, the Farmer, His Wife and Their Neighbour" involved the creation of a community garden and community kitchen in the Nieuw West district of Amsterdam. This collaborative project was organized with the Dutch collective Wilde Westen.

马杰提卡·波特尔克, 怀尔德·维特森 · 公共艺术 · Netherlands (Amsterdam)

This project was implemented in 2009 in Nieuw-West, Amsterdam, Netherlands, by artists Majetika Poterke and Wilder Vitsen. It utilized a community garden and community kitchen as its medium, incorporating building materials, energy infrastructure, and a plant garden.

María Antonia Fernández Nieto, Jorge Gallego Sánchez-Torija · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain (Madrid)

An academic research group and a neighborhood association initiated a citizen participation process to recover a degraded urban space in the peripheral neighborhood of Puerta Bonita in Carabanchel, Madrid. This initiative aimed to convert the space into an urban community garden. The project seeks to reincorporate agriculture into the city with environmental sustainability criteria, influence local economies, regenerate neighborhood relations, and develop environmental education.

Angie Dazé · VIUSpace (Vancouver Island University Library) · United Kingdom

This research project, conducted as part of a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, aimed to understand what people value about community gardens. It involved a series of interviews with volunteers at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses in South London, using an Appreciative Inquiry approach to explore their experiences. The study focuses on the garden as an educational and social resource, run primarily by volunteers.

Beste Karakaya, Tuğba Kiper · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Turkey (Edirne)

This study conducted physical, cultural, and current situation analyses of 10 elementary school playgrounds in the city center of Edirne. The current situation of these elementary school gardens was determined according to landscape design principles, and proposals were made to solve existing problems.

Isabel de Felipe Boente, Teresa Briz · · Spain

This paper describes the impact of urban agriculture (UA) in political, socioeconomic, and environmental scenarios, and analyzes its situation in Spain, where it is mainly located on roofs, walls, indoors, and ground places. It discusses local regulations, barriers, and opportunities for UA, as well as the role of stakeholders and neighbor communities. The paper suggests actions to improve UA, including urban planning and education.

Susan B. Johnson · International Journal of Inclusive Education · United Kingdom

This paper argues that a reconceptualized approach to school gardening in the UK could promote inclusive education for sustainable development. It examines the potential for children aged 5-14 to develop ecological knowledge, action competence, and environmental engagement skills through gardening. The paper suggests a curriculum framework and provides a bean crop exemplar, but it does not present empirical findings or results from an implemented program.

Eva Foos, Thomas Aenis, Julia Jahnke · GERICS Climate Service Center Germany (University of Oldenburg) · Germany

This paper discusses initial experiences from a German R&D network (INKA BB) developing capacity building programs for climate change adaptation in agriculture and horticulture. It uses two urban agriculture/gardening examples as case studies to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of development processes. The authors advocate for "learning chains" that enable lifelong learning and an action-oriented, participatory approach to foster mutual learning among partners from research and education.

Kate Metcalf, Julia Minnear, Tabitha Kleinert, Victoria Tedder · Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit · United Kingdom (East London)

This practitioner's perspective discusses how the Women’s Environmental Network organizes support and training for community gardens in East London. It considers how these efforts contribute to local resilience against economic and cultural pressures and create greater access to green spaces.

J. McLean · · United Kingdom

This research focused on the re-imagining of identity through volunteer work at Spitalfields Community Farm in Tower Hamlets, London. It specifically investigated how Bangladeshi-Londoni diaspora volunteers contributed to creating this urban rural space and how, through their imagining of this space, they consciously sought to remember their homeland while establishing a new sense of identity in London.

Lorena Rocca, Giovanni Donadelli, Sonia Ziliotto · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Italy (Padua)

The "Small steps of Agenda 21" project in the "J. Mirò" nursery school in Padua, Italy, engaged children in participatory planning for their school garden. Children actively improved the garden, fostering awareness of community discussion and participation. The project demonstrated that children improved their sense of inclusiveness and responsibility.

Salih Çepni, Miraç Aydın, Mehmet Akif Haşıloğlu, Mustafa Ürey · Bursa Uludag University - AVESIS · Turkey (Trabzon)

This study, conducted in Trabzon, Turkey, from February to June 2007-2008, aimed to reveal changes in agricultural knowledge among twenty-four 6th-grade students participating in a "School Garden Project." Using the RAST Model, students were divided into 6 groups, and data was collected through pre- and post-application interviews and researcher observations. The project generally achieved desired alterations across all five agricultural course targets.

Nerea Morán Alonso, Agustín Hernández Aja · · Europe

This historical review traces the functions and characteristics of urban agriculture (UA) in Western cities. It notes that UA flourished during economic and energy crises for self-sufficiency, serving subsistence, hygiene, and social control in the 19th century and patriotic functions during 20th-century world wars. Since the 1970s, UA projects have focused on local development, social integration, and environmental education, led by community and ecological organizations.