Research & reports

Blakstad M. M., Mosha D., Bellows A. L., Canavan C. R., Chen J. T., Mlalama K., Kinabo J., Noor R. A., Madzorera I., Sando M. M., Spiegelman D., Masanja H., Fawzi W. W. · Maternal & Child Nutrition 17(2):e13096 · Tanzania

Cluster RCT among 1,006 reproductive-age women in Tanzania. A home gardening intervention improved women's dietary diversity and household food security after one year compared with controls.

Apostolopoulou E., Kotsila P. · Urban Geography, 43(2), 293–319 · Greece (Athens)

Examining the Hellinikon self-organized guerrilla garden that emerged as resistance to real estate redevelopment of the former Athens international airport, the paper argues that community gardening can embed grassroots opposition to neoliberal urban transformation and assert the right to urban space.

· Horticulture International Journal · Nepal (Kavrepalanchok)

Evaluates how home garden interventions contributed to household access to vegetables and nutrition security in Nepal's Kavrepalanchok district during the COVID-19 period.

Petra Matijevic · Agriculture and Human Values · Slovenia (Ljubljana)

An ethnographic study in Ljubljana, Slovenia, carried out between summer 2014 and autumn 2015: informal conversations with 57 growers across 13 sites, 25 semi-structured life-history interviews, and participant observation on the researcher's own rented plot. Plot-taking surged during the post-2009 debt crisis (an 8% economic contraction; unemployment rising from 7% to 13% by 2013), and one gardening association had roughly 350 member households by 2015, over 40% of whom joined after 2010. The author argues, however, that this surge did not work as household food or income provisioning. Newcomers who took up plots for economic reasons frequently abandoned them within a year; those who did grow food continued to rely on market produce; and people at the very bottom of the economic scale had neither the skills, tools nor time to feed themselves from a plot. Growers were strongly opposed to selling surpluses and gave them away instead. The paper concludes that urban gardening functioned as a narrative practice repairing biographical rupture after unemployment or retirement, not as an informal economy.

Jennifer Marcela López Ríos Admon, Cristina María Mejía Merino, Carmen Estefanía Frías Epinayú · Revista Espanola De Nutricion Comunitaria-spanish Journal of Community Nutrition · Colombia

This Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) aimed to publicize and evaluate food security microprojects created with three Wayuu indigenous communities in La Guajira, Colombia, involving 46 families (204 people). Strategies included creating community gardens as a sustainable alternative for autonomy and ancestral practice rescue, intercultural nutritional education, and community strengthening based on life plans.

Rosa Maria Pereira da Silva · · Global

This qualitative research explored the use of an Inclusive School Garden as a pedagogical intervention for 15 students, including two with multiple disabilities, focusing on science education through tactile perception. The research involved preparing the garden with recyclable materials and creating inclusive pedagogical tools like Braille cells and a tactile map. In the garden environment, students with visual impairments were able to recognize, touch, identify, and compare vegetables and medicinal plants, and write their names in Braille.

Ralitsa Hiteva · · Bulgaria (Sofia)

This chapter examines fuel poverty in Sofia, Bulgaria, as part of the urban nexus of food, water, energy, and environment. It uses urban gardening, making zimnina (preserved food), and domestic heating/energy use as case studies to illustrate how these practices are interdependent and impact energy provisioning. The study focuses on low-technological ways of managing the urban nexus from the perspective of vulnerable users, aiming to address fuel poverty and air pollution.

In-Kyoung Hong, Hyung-Kwon Yun, Young-Bin Jung, Kang‐Sook Lee, Choon-soo Lee · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

This study reset evaluation indicators for school garden education services by surveying 20 experts using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and direct question (DQ) methods from October 12 to 19, 2020. AHP results showed education values were most important (0.544), while environmental (0.062) and economic (0.049) values were relatively low. The lowest sub-indicators were mitigating climate change (0.009) and increasing income (0.036).

Marcelo Salgado, Sabrina Cáceres, Marta Basuino, Nora Gancedo, Claudio Vizia, Sebastián Rodríguez, Laura Gurría · · Argentina (Rosario)

This paper focuses on social housing projects linked with productive undertakings for low-income groups in Rosario, Argentina. It examines experiences such as the Urban Agriculture Program, Rosario Habitat Program, and Housing Cooperatives, which integrate habitat with productive initiatives. The research aims to formulate recommendations for the participatory management of social housing and its articulation with these undertakings, including the promotion of multidisciplinary teams through training workshops.

Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Leah C. Volpe, Marilyn Sitaker, Emily H. Belarmino, Amari Sealey, Weiwei Wang, Florence Becot, Jared T. McGuirt, Alice S. Ammerman, Karla L. Hanson, Jane Kolodinsky, Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Global

This study interviewed 24 CSA farmers and 20 full-pay CSA members about their perceptions and experiences with cost-offset Community-Supported Agriculture (CO-CSA) models and specific cost-offset mechanisms, to understand the potential of CO-CSA for low-income households. Both farmers and members prioritized ensuring access to healthy food regardless of income level and generally favored member donations for funding CO-CSA. However, a commonly mentioned barrier was the potential time burden on CSA farmers for administering cost-offset programs, raising questions about economic viability.

Sekolah Menengah Islam As-Syddiq, Simpang Renggam, Milah Zainal, M. Z. Rosmiza, Program Geografi, Pusat Kajian Pembangunan, Sosial dan Persekitaran, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia · Malaysian Journal of Society and Space · Malaysia

This qualitative study explored human assets among 8 participants in community garden projects in Malaysia. While the government introduced community garden projects to improve urban residents' well-being, their success rate is reportedly low, with many projects expected to be unsuccessful. The study found that participants possessed human assets such as good health, physical strength, ability to seek agricultural inputs and information, strong religious practices, and resilience.

Jorinda Steenkamp, Elizelle Juaneé Cilliers, Sarel S. Cilliers, Louis Lategan · Sustainability · Global

This paper proposes urban agriculture as an intervention for planners to support sustainable food production and supply chains, addressing the neglect of food security in planning. A multiple-case study analyzed four urban agriculture examples in the Global South. The findings indicate urban agriculture's potential to improve food security for at-risk populations and mitigate urban risks like unemployment, community decline, and food deserts through its multifunctionality.

Chong Ling Chan, Pui Yee Tan, Yun Yun Gong · Proceedings of The Nutrition Society · Global

This record is a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness of school garden-based programs on nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices among school children aged 3 to 18; no abstract text is available for this content beyond that description, so no further findings can be reported here.

Anne Cleary, Julie Dean, Danielle Pollock, Lisa McDaid, Frances M. Boyle · JBI Evidence Synthesis · Global

A protocol for a scoping review aiming to understand the types of nature-based interventions currently used in bereavement care and to map the theories of change explaining how such interventions may support bereavement care. It notes bereavement can be associated with adverse psychosocial health outcomes, describes this as an emerging research field, and states there is a need to explore the literature on different types of nature-based interventions used in bereavement care, including animal-assisted therapy, care farming, therapeutic horticulture, and community gardens, and to identify the underpinning theories of change. Inclusion criteria cover studies or reviews of participants who experienced bereavement following the death of a loved one and took part in a nature-based intervention, across all nature contexts and geographic locations. The planned method searches eight databases—Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Social Science Database (ProQuest), PTSDpubs (ProQuest), and Research Library: Health and Medicine (ProQuest)—plus manual reference-list and keyword searches, extracting data on intervention type, target sample, health outcomes, measures and methods, and theory of change, to be presented in tabular format with a narrative summary.

Kit Prendergast, Amelie M. Vanderstock, Heather Neilly, Catherine E. Ross, Vanessa Pirotta, Patrick Tegart · Austral Ecology · Australia

A reflection on a citizen science project in which five early-career and PhD female researchers guided school-age children across five schools to build artificial flowers, install them on school ovals, and record over repeated 10-minute observations how flower colour (yellow vs. blue) and configuration (isolated, clumped adjacent, clumped mixed-colour, clumped single-colour) affected the number and taxa of visiting insects. The project achieved a low-cost, engaging format and exposure to female STEM role models, but the authors report constraints including having to run it in a season made suboptimal by fixed school curricula, confounding of results caused by the children's own observations, and an inability to verify the collected data.

Alessio Russo, Giuseppe T. Cirella · Agriculture, 10(8), 358 · Global

An empirical study analyzing ten edible green infrastructure (EGI) urban-regeneration case studies in Italy's Campania region through the lens of community development, involvement and education. It documents how citizen-engaged urban gardens contribute to public health (stress reduction, physical activity) and the regeneration of derelict land, with sustainability strengthened by far-sighted urban planning across all five provinces.

Feola G., Suzunaga J., Soler J., Wilson A. · Journal of Rural Studies · Colombia (Sogamoso)

Drawing on a survey of 160 peri-urban farming households in Sogamoso, this study applies the concept of 'quiet sustainability' to challenge dominant urban development discourses that frame peri-urban agriculture as backward, demonstrating its role in strengthening social cohesion and environmental sustainability.

Dissanayake L., Dilini S. · Open Journal of Social Sciences · Sri Lanka (Kandy)

A questionnaire-based study in the Kandy municipal area found that urban home gardens significantly contributed to household food security and quality of life during COVID-19 lockdowns, with social well-being and mental health benefits highlighted across all satisfaction levels.

Scott T.L., Masser B.M., Pachana N.A. · SAGE Open Medicine, 8:2050312120901732 · Australia

A study of older Australians examining links between home and community gardening and psychosocial and physical well-being. Older gardeners reported greater self-esteem, sense of productive endeavour, social engagement and exercise, associated with more positive attitudes to ageing. It shows allotments and gardening groups can protect older adults from isolation and support positive ageing.

Alison Carver, Alanna Lorenzon, Jenny Veitch, Ashley Macleod, Takemi Sugiyama · Aging & Mental Health · Global

A narrative review that searched six databases through 2017 and identified nine studies on exposure to greenery — gardens and green space — and mental health among residents of aged care facilities. Seven of the nine reported favourable associations between garden use and outcomes such as quality of life, but most relied on observations by staff and family rather than validated mental health instruments. One study found a reduction in depression linked to garden participation, while another found no change in physiological stress. The authors conclude that more robust evidence based on valid and reliable mental health measures is needed.

Paule Olivia Akotto, Dorothée Boccanfuso, Marie-Ève Yergeau · Cahiers de recherche · Global

This exploratory review synthesizes 35 reports and articles published between 1980 and 2019 to assess the potential of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) to build resilience against poverty, food insecurity, and environmental challenges in developing countries. The review found that UPA creates one job for every 50 to 100 individuals, but these jobs are generally seasonal, and market access remains a significant constraint for farmers.

Colleen Hammelman, Alexis Saenz-Montoya · Journal of Latin American geography · Colombia (Medellín)

In Medellín, Colombia, large infrastructure projects by the local government, intended to transform the city, have contributed to a neoliberal sustainability agenda. Data from community meetings (2015-2017) with displaced people engaged in subsistence urban agriculture revealed that these projects exclude marginalized residents from newly valued "natural" commons. This territorialization strategy controls peripheral spaces by including approved actors while dispossessing less powerful residents of their right to the city.

Milah Zainal, Siti Raba’ah Hamzah, M. Z. Rosmiza · Journal of Asian Scientific Research · Malaysia

This article reviewed the role of social assets in community well-being within urban farming projects, noting a gap in previous Malaysian studies on this topic. Social assets were identified as motivational forces that foster cooperation and benefit agricultural development. Analysis of past research indicated that social assets contribute to knowledge sharing, access to resources, community garden development, motivation, technology transfer, and good agricultural practices. The study recommends incorporating social assets into policies aimed at improving urban farmer well-being.

Linda Lapiņa · · Denmark (Copenhagen)

This article explores how migrants create space within integration gardens in Copenhagen, an urban gardening association aiming to dismantle social and cultural boundaries. The gardens function as both an "integration grid" centered on a foreigner–Dane binary and a "web of gardening" focused on plants and practices. The analysis juxtaposes these spatiotemporal logics to understand the possibilities for action and relating they offer.

Charoni Eugenia · · Haiti

A case study was conducted on the two-year efforts of the nonprofit Foundation Pierre Smith Mondelus to address illiteracy in the Milot commune, northern Haiti. The foundation offers eight programs, including literacy, education, and a community garden. Based on observations, testimonies, and test scores, the literacy and education programs were shown to have practical and sociopsychological impacts.