Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research

Abstract

Globally, rapid urbanization has substantially reduced the amount of viable agricultural land a food security issue. Food security is bringing a renewed scholarly interest in community gardens. This paper reviews the extent of English academic literature on community gardens, including: who has undertaken the research, where it has been published, the geographical location of the gardens studied, and the various methods used to undertake the research. The characteristics of the community gardens are summarised, including what types of plants are grown, who is involved in the gardens, and who owns the land. The motivations, benefits and limitations of community gardening are also examined. Finally, potential directions for research into community gardens are highlighted. Academic literature on community gardens is dominated by studies investigating gardens in low income areas with diverse cultural backgrounds. Research based in cities in the USA also dominates the literature. Scholars from a wide diversity of disciplines have examined community gardens but research is mostly concentrated in the social sciences. The natural sciences are notably underrepresented, yet they have much to offer including assessing gardening practices to better understand the agro-biodiversity conservation potential of community gardens.

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

“…The members participate in the decision processes and share resources such as space, water and tools. Still, they can take up various different forms, especially regarding funding, ownership or aims (Guitart et al 2012). Even though not every study on community gardens mentions food production, and therefore production cannot be assumed to occur in community gardens generally, we nevertheless get an improved understanding of UA by examining literature in this area.…”

Allotment gardens and parks: Provision of ecosystem services with an emphasis on biodiversity

“…Spontaneous flora is not only a bio-indicator of ecological functions served by the environment but also a record of the synanthropisation process (Borysiak et al, 2014) This study thus provides a comprehensive snapshot of the ecosystem service provision capacity of an oft-overlooked, but important, urban land use type. The few quantitative studies of community gardens that exist use plant surveys, bee collection and soil testing (Guitart et al, 2012), but no studies characterise the land use on AGs in terms of the spatial bio-physical structure.…”

Urban gardening: reinstate agricultural act in the city

“…48 Aux États-Unis, où la production alimentaire à grande échelle (community food production) est très documentée (McClintock, 2010 ;Corrigan M.-P., 2011 ;Guitard et al, 2012 ;Smith et al, 2013 ;Vitiello and Wolf-Powers, 2014), des individus ou des communautés toujours plus nombreux s'engagent dans la production de nourriture dans un objectif de sécurité alimentaire. Si l'essor des jardins collectifs à Montpellier constitue bien une illustration de celui de cette production à grande échelle, l'enjeu de sécurité alimentaire n'y est cependant pas prioritaire, comme nous l'avons vu plus haut.…”