Understanding how we can encourage front gardening: Analysing capability and opportunity factors from a nationally representative survey

Abstract

Front gardens provide environmental and public health benefits to urban spaces, but are increasingly being covered with impermeable surfacing rather than plants and greenery. To complement and extend the exploration of motivations in the literature on front gardening, we used data collected in a national survey of 1000 adults aged 20–64 in England to explore what capability and opportunity factors affect whether people gardened in their front gardens and the time they spent on this. We found that feeling experienced affected whether someone gardened, but not time spent gardening, whilst greater general and specific knowledge and self-efficacy was associated with all gardening behaviour. In terms of opportunity factors, only time, convenience and rental status were significant factors. Future interventions should build knowledge, experience and self-efficacy, whilst ensuring they are not too time-intensive or inconvenient.