A Study on the Operation of the Sustainability of Community Garden

Abstract

This study aims to develop a program to manage a sustainable community garden. For this, 8 community gardens in Korea and Japan were investigated. We tried to investigate 6 community gardens in Korea and 2 community gardens in Japan. Case studies were conducted based on field survey and in-depth interviews with garden managers, along with literature review of guidelines on community garden management in the north America. The research findings are as follows. First, garden participants are a core resource of a community garden, and thus, a sustainable community garden requires active participation. Second, considerations should be made on a spatial layout and management of a community garden as it serves as an arena to foster a community. Third, each stage of managing a community garden involves different important elements. These elements of each stage need to be considered in managing a community garden to make it sustainable. Fourth, given connectivity between a planning and maintenance of a community garden, elements of maintenance need to be considered from the early stage of planning a community garden. Additionally, governance needs to be organized based on participation since a community garden is maintained by community activities. Fifth, measures need to be sought to find new participants and motivate their participation as the number of community participants is expected to fall due to aging population.