Background and objective: Recent urban agriculture meets the needs of urban residents that safety and avoids using chemical pesticides. This study was conducted to identify various factors of companion planting affecting the growth of cherry tomatoes, which will promoting urban agriculture by improving socioeconomic satisfaction with gardening activities through quality. Methods: Four types of companion plants such as marigold, zinnia, spearmint and basil, that have a companion effect with growth, sugar content, and vitamin C content. We obtained the mean and standard deviation and tested the significance at a 95% confidence level (p < .05) with Duncan's multiple range test after one way ANOVA and MANOVA. Results: Compared to monoculture of cherry tomatoes, the plant growth in the treatment plots with companion planting showed a significant increase overall(p < .05), but there wasn't interaction effect among companion plants, planting ratio and type. As for the absorption of inorganic components, the companion planting showed better absorption than monoculture of cherry tomatoes, as favorable growth, and there was an interaction effect among the individual factors. The sugar content was higher than the standard sugar content of 5.8 brix in both the treatment plots at the control, and vitamin C content was higher than the control at 26.27mg/100g in all treatment plots, but there wasn't statistically significant difference. The soil pH in the cultivation plot ranges from 5.5 to 9.0 and was weakly alkaline in all treatment plots except zinnia, showing low contents of phosphoric acid, exchageable potassium, calcium and magnesium. Conclusion: This study was conducted to analyze various factors such as the growth of cherry tomatoes, contents of inorganic components, sugar content and vitamin C content of fruits, and soil analysis according to companion plants, planting type, and planting ratio. We will study sugar content by measuring the change in growth every phase of fruits.

Background and objective: The boom in urban agriculture has also resulted in the creation of many school gardens. With the increase in various hands-on education programs, people are interested in assessing the value of school gardens. This study was conducted to derive indicators for service value assessement of educational farming experience using school gardens. Methods: Through literature review, we selected assessment items and sub-factors. The indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of school gardens are classified using the Delphi method that involve a focus group experts. In order to increase the reliability and validity of the selected and classified items, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. In addition, the relative importance and priority of each factor in each field were assessed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Results: We classified the indicators into 4 criteria and come up with 13 items and 33 sub-factors in educational value, health value, economic value, and ecological and environmental value. Most of the items for the 4 value criteria derived were significant for assessing the value of agricultural experience services with content validity ratio (CVR) higher than 0.59 and reliability higher than .6. In the value criteria, the experts rated educational value as the most important, followed by health value, ecological and environmental value, and economic value. In the assessment items, the most important was improvement of social functions. In the sub-factors, the most important was strengthening of ties (friendly interactions). Conclusion: Among the derived indicators assessing the value of school gardens, 4 criteria, 12 evaluation items and 29 sub-factors showed significance. The schematic index would be useful for the assessment.

Apartment housing has become a dominant form of urban residence. High dwelling density in apartment complexes causes frequent conflicts and disputes. To counter this, it is necessary to promote a sense of community among residents with programs such as a customized horticultural program for the introduction of a community garden in an apartment complex. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a community garden program in an apartment complex in fostering residents’ sense of community and reducing stress. Experiments were performed in three groups: a group participating in the program based on the sense of community theory (SCG; n = 11), a group participating with a focus on horticultural education (HEG; n = 11), and a non-participation group (NPG; n = 10). The experimental results revealed that the sense of community was significantly higher in the SCG than in the HEG and NPG. The results suggest that the SCG positively affected the sense of community, overall energy, ratio between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and stress resistance. Considering these results, community garden programs with appropriate interventions to promote a sense of community are more effective in improving community life and reducing stress than programs based on horticultural education.

Background and objective: Education based on agricultural experience in school gardens is coming to the fore as a solution to reduce the negative effect of rapid urbanization and the development of information technology (IT) on students. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate how parents of elementary, middle, and high school students in Korea perceive the value of education service using school gardens, as well as their willingness to participate in and pay for such service, and to utilize the results in a quantitative assessment of the socioeconomic value of the education service. Methods: A contactless online survey on the perceived value of education service using school gardens was conducted on 1,010 parents of elementary, middle, and high school students in Korea's five major districts from October 22 to 26 (5 days) of 2020 by M, a Korean specialized survey agency. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS for Windows 25.0 and Excel to obtain the frequency and ratio of each measured item. Results: The respondents had an average of 1.83, of which 52.8% were male. 55.3% of the respondents were aware of the education service using school gardens, and 27.9% experienced the service. When asked if they saw the educational service using school gardens as necessary, 79% answered in the affirmative. In terms of the difference in perception of the need for the service according to experience, 91.8% of the parents who experienced the service responded that it was necessary, indicating that it is important to provide opportunities to experience this service to expand the scope of service. 54.9% of all respondents responded they were willing to pay the costs required for school gardens. When income tax was used as a payment method, the average amount parents were willing to pay was 13,193 KRW, and the tax rate was 2.02%. Based on experience, those who experienced this service had a higher need and willingness to pay for the service than those who had not experience, but the actual amount or tax rate was low as they knew how it was operated. Conclusion: As basic research on the assessment of the value of agricultural experience education using school gardens, this study determined how parents perceive this form of education service as well as their willingness to participate and pay for the service. These findings can be used to systemize the assessment indicators and promote the value of the education service using school gardens, allowing students to maintain a healthy and happy school life through agricultural experience.

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