Community Gardens Research Articles

Trace Metal Contamination in Community Garden Soils across the United States

Community gardens are often seen as a means for producing sustainable food resources in urban communities. However, the presence of trace metals and metalloids such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium in urban soils poses a health risk to gardeners who participate in urban community gardens. They are exposed to these contaminates through multiple exposure pathways such as inhalation and ingestion directly through soil or through crops grown in the soil. Hot spots of soil contamination are higher in areas of cities with greater minority populations and lower incomes. This paper reviews the state of heavy metal contamination in community garden soils across the United States. This paper outlines the major sources of heavy metals in urban soils, exposure pathways, the ways to reduce heavy metal levels in garden soils, the means to slow down the uptake of heavy metals, and limit the exposure of these contaminates. The application of biochar and compost, implementing raised beds, and maintaining a natural pH are all examples of ways to mitigate heavy metal contaminants.

Gathering a bountiful harvest: the impacts of cultural ecosystem service experiences on management practices and agrobiodiversity in urban community gardens

ABSTRACT In addition to their food security and ecological benefits, urban community gardens support human well-being in numerous non-material ways. In this paper, we investigate whether experience of these cultural ecosystem services (CES) shapes how gardeners choose to manage the garden ecosystem, which may influence the ability of these multifunctional green spaces to provide other local ecosystem services (ES). Using questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and plant community analysis, we assess the relationship between perception of CES by community gardeners, the management practices they utilize, and the agroecological characteristics of their garden plots, such as presence and prevalence of species that provide regulating and supporting ES. We find that while almost all survey participants report sociocultural benefits of gardening, experience of these CES varies significantly between gardeners, with garden structure influencing which group of benefits is most perceived. Experience of some CES was also correlated with local ecological knowledge and use of certain sustainable garden management practices, such as utilizing integrated pest management strategies and planting a wide variety of species, but not with observed non-provisioning plant agrobiodiversity. These results provide important insights into the complex role that CES play in encouraging environmental stewardship and shaping ecological outcomes in collectively managed urban green spaces.

In defence of urban community gardens

Abstract With the boom in urban living has come a boom in urban gardening. In particular, urban community gardening is an increasingly popular form of horticultural production, community involvement and connection to nature. Through the establishment and management of community gardens, biodiversity can flourish, with community gardens as ‘hotspots’ of flora and fauna within the urban matrix. Gardeners can deeply connect with the natural elements of gardens and thus learn about and gain appreciation for the natural world. Such interactions can combat the loss of nature experiences in cities. Despite their benefits for nature and for people, community gardens are threatened ecosystems as often temporary fixtures in city landscapes due to lack of land tenure and policy protection. In this perspective, we recognize community gardens as an important ecosystem in urban conservation and argue for the defence of urban community gardens by city policy. We formalize this activity and the value of these ecosystems with scientific evidence from ecological and social‐ecological research in 39 community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany. Although our data reveal that these gardens support large amounts of biodiversity and catalyse human‐nature connections, a lack of comprehensive documentation of social‐ecological benefits at the city level can make community gardens vulnerable to urban planning threats; we have seen losses of multiple research sites in the last 4 years of biodiversity research. Policy implications: To protect community gardens now and for future urban generations, we call for systematic and comprehensive data collection on community gardening activities and policy support for these urban ecosystems. Some cities are starting to do this and this can be scaled out. We argue for the recognition of urban community gardens as a physical land use and also of the gardeners themselves as important habitat managers and stewards of urban biodiversity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Human health and environmental risk assessment of metals in community gardens of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Fresh produce is an important component of maintaining cognitive and physical health, particularly for children. A mechanism to increase access to fresh produce is the construction of community gardens in urban centres. While reducing barriers to nutritious food, the soil of the community garden can contain contaminants (e.g. metals) depending on the location and how the garden was constructed. This study quantified, for the first time, seven metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Mn, and Ni) in soil from 83 community gardens across the City of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. Concentrations of metals in soil were used to create distributions for environmental exposure and estimated daily intake, which were then used to determine exceedances of soil quality guidelines and acceptable daily intakes, respectively. Raised garden beds and gardens further from roads had typically lower concentrations of metals in surface gardens and those nearer to roads. While some concentrations of metals exceeded CCME guidelines levels for the protection of environmental health, the vast majority represent a low risk. For human health, only As posed a quantifiable risk of exceeding the USEPA acceptable daily intake via the consumption of produce from gardens, though this was < 1.2% for the whole population and < 10.2% for children aged 1 to 2years. Overall, this study is the first to show that the concentration of the metals in soil from gardens typically poses a low risk to environmental and human health. We recommend the use of raised gardens to further mitigate risk.

Local government stakeholders' perceptions of potential policy actions to influence both climate change and healthy eating in Victoria: A qualitative study.

Climate change is a defining public health issue of the 21st century. Food systems are drivers of diet-related disease burden, and account for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Local governments play a crucial role in improving both the healthiness and environmental sustainability of food systems, but the potential for their actions to simultaneously address these two issues is unclear. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of Australian local government stakeholders regarding policy actions simultaneously addressing healthy eating and climate change, and the influences on policy adoption. We conducted 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from four local governments in Victoria, Australia. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. We applied Multiple Streams Theory (MST) 'problem', 'politics and 'policy' domains to explain policy adoption influences at the local government level. Key influences on local government action aligned with MST elements of 'problem' (e.g., local government's existing risk reports as drivers for climate change action), 'policy' (e.g., budgetary constraints) and 'politics' (e.g., local government executive agenda). We found limited evidence of coherent policy action in the areas of community gardens, food procurement and urban land use. Barriers to further action, such as resource constraints and competing priorities, could be overcome by better tailoring policy action areas to community needs, with the help of external partnerships and local government executive support. SO WHAT?: This study demonstrates that Victorian local stakeholders believe they are well-positioned to implement feasible and coherent interventions that address both healthy eating and climate.

‘I learned this in the gardening group’: the impact of a community garden on children and their families’ eating habits

ABSTRACT Increased scholarly and practitioner attention has been paid to community gardens and their potential impact on community building and sustainability, as well as a tool to combat the decline in physical and mental well-being connected to childhood obesity. Specifically, community gardens may play a role in on families’ eating habits, and there is a need to investigate parents’ perspectives of their children’s involvement in a rural community garden and to explore the impact this has on children’s and their families’ healthy eating habits. This is a small-scale pilot study of children’s involvement in a community garden. Using a qualitative design method, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore parents’ viewpoints of their children’s eating habits prior to and after the children’s involvement. The data gathered was coded and organised into emerging themes for interpretation. The study found indications that children’s involvement in a community garden has a positive impact on children’s social development, confidence and food awareness, along with a noticeable influence on the family’s general healthy food consumption. While the findings suggest that involvement in a community garden has positive impact on children’s eating habits, further research is needed with a higher number of participants for more accurate data.

Cross-sectoral collaborations between nonprofit organizations and businesses: implications for organizations providing mental health rehabilitation services

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study of a community garden in Israel, the product of a collaboration between a Social Service Nonprofit Organization (SSNO) providing mental health rehabilitation services and a real-estate business firm. The study examines the inter-organizational dynamics of this collaboration, as well as its benefits and challenges for the SSNO and its service users, based on interviews with key figures, onsite observations, and document analysis. The results indicate that collaboration with business can offer SSNOs benefits in terms of financial resources and volunteers, but at the same time involves difficulties, which are intensified in the context of mental health SSNOs.

Global Landscape of Urban Agriculture and Covid-19 Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

During the Covid-19 pandemic, urban agriculture, which refers to various forms of agricultural production within or surrounding the city, gained more attention from scholars worldwide. Given the multiple benefits associated with urban agriculture, these practices were adopted to address the adverse impacts in various dimensions, such as food security, health, and well-being. Simultaneously, urban agriculture also was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, influencing the practice from both theoretical and practical perspectives, which expanded the scope of research in this field across various disciplines and perspectives. Consequently, it is difficult to track the topic and scope of the current research status as a basis for developing research about urban agriculture in the future. However, a systematic review that consolidates the current state of knowledge to support advanced research had not yet been conducted. Our paper aimed to fill this gap by employing a bibliometric analysis of articles in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) to examine the research landscape of urban agriculture and Covid-19. VOSviewer was the main platform adopted to conduct the bibliometric analysis in order to construct the research landscape based on three scopes, namely, main contributors (authors, sources, organisations, and countries), hot issues, and research themes. The analysis revealed that the WoSCC had indexed a total of 214 articles, with an increasing number of publications from 2020 to 2022. Although studies on urban agriculture and Covid-19 were conducted worldwide, authors and organisations from developed countries, especially the United States, were the primary contributors to article publications. The journal “Sustainability” was the main source of published articles about urban agriculture and Covid-19, receiving the highest number of citations. Research on urban agriculture and Covid-19 was conducted under eight crucial research themes associated with the food sector, benefits for health and well-being, climate change and air quality, marginalised communities, practising the community garden, practising home gardening, lessons learned from the policies and projects, and innovation and technology. Despite research being conducted on urban agriculture and the Covid-19 pandemic within different themes and geographical contexts, the majority of studies primarily focused on the benefits and behaviour change associated with urban agriculture practices to mitigate the negative impact of Covid-19 in terms of the food system and mental health. This finding is consistent with the keywords co-occurrence analysis, which identified “food security/insecurity” and “resilience” as the main hot issues. In addition, most of the other high-frequency keywords also were associated with the food system and well-being. Based on these findings, research on urban agriculture during Covid-19 generally concentrated on the crucial problems associated with Covid-19, especially for the food sector and health, rather than urbanization, which had been the primary focus in earlier times. Finally, we provide recommended ways forward for future studies in this field by offering insights into the current scope of the research landscape on urban agriculture and Covid-19, which had been neglected in previous studies.

Exploring the Willingness of Chinese Urban Dwellers to Support Community Gardening: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

As a new project associated with urban agriculture and community forestry in China, developing community gardens has been a concern of urban planners and managers. However, the response of urban residents to this project is still unknown, creating an awareness gap between communities and policy makers. This gap limits the successful implementation of the project. A combined method of on-site and online questionnaire was performed in eight sample residential areas in Wuhan. Results showed that the majority of the 496 respondents had favorable views, although the specific willingness varied. Lack of awareness about community gardens was considered the biggest obstacle restricting residents’ willingness, accounting for 69.15%. Other factors included confused relationships with neighbors (66.13%), imperfect policies (55.44%), and high planting costs (41.94%). The local government was highly expected to plan more land for agriculture use by 76.61% of the respondents. In addition, the respondents desired the government to conduct training on cultivating technologies (58.67%), address possible conflicts (57.46%), supply seeds and fertilizer (54.23%), and provide guidance in processing food products (34.48%). These findings will help local governments and managers draft scientific proposals closely related to the public’s perspectives in implementing community gardens in urban areas and provide informative references for other cities.

Dynamic Volunteer Engagement and Impactful Educational Outreach Taking Us into the Next 50 Years of the Extension Master Gardener Program

According to the 2021 Extension Master Gardener (EMG) National Summary, the EMG Volunteer Program had an estimated 84,700 volunteers throughout the United States. These volunteers helped communities garden and grow food, provided opportunities to engage in activities that improved physical and mental health, and worked on projects that addressed environmental issues. In total, these programs contributed 3.1 million hours of education to local communities and $88 million dollars in value to the public. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for the program, with many states implementing reduced requirements and increased flexibility for volunteers. The workshop “Dynamic Volunteer Engagement and Impactful Educational Outreach Taking Us Into the Next 50 Years of the EMG Program” at the 2022 ASHS conference discussed how to engage EMG volunteers despite the limitations of limited in-person contact. The workshop featured three Extension educators and EMG coordinators who shared their experiences and strategies for engaging volunteers during the pandemic. Topics discussed included engaging volunteers in local food systems and community gardens, engaging students in horticulture at an earlier age, and digital volunteer opportunities. Overall, the workshop provided valuable insights and facilitated discussions on how to adapt and continue the EMG program during challenging times.

Abstract A075: The Association between Food Deserts, Food Swamps, and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Mortality in the United States

Abstract Purpose: Breast cancer (BRCA) is the 4th leading cause of cancer death in the United States (U.S.) and is one of 13 obesity-related cancers. Healthy food consumption is a protective factor shown to decrease obesity risk and postmenopausal BRCA mortality, respectively. However, residing in geographical areas with no access to healthy food options (food deserts) or unhealthy food options (food swamps) reduces access to healthy foods and has been severely understudied. Recently we found a 77% increased odds of overall obesity-related cancer mortality among U.S. counties with the worst food swamp scored counties/county equivalents. This current study examined the association between residing in food swamps and deserts with postmenopausal BRCA mortality. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional/ecological analysis utilizing 2010 – 2020 Center for Disease Control and Prevention postmenopausal BRCA mortality data (restricted to 45+ years old) and aggregated 2012 – 2020 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Environment Atlas data. Food swamp score (FS) was calculated as the ratio of fast-food and convenience stores to grocery stores and farmer’s markets. Food desert score (FD) was calculated as the proportion of residents living more than one mile (urban) or 10 miles (rural) from a grocery store and household income ≤ 200% of the federal poverty threshold. We categorized FD and FS to low, moderate, or high; higher scores indicated counties with poorer healthy food resources. Multilevel generalized mixed effects models were used to estimate the mentioned association. Results: 2,280 counties/county equivalents with high postmenopausal BRCA mortality rates had higher percentage of non-Hispanic (NH)-Black population (5.80 vs. 2.08), poverty rates (17.2 vs. 14.2), and high food swamp scored areas (39.0 vs. 24.5) versus counties/county equivalents with low postmenopausal BRCA mortality rates (p-value &amp;lt; 0.0001). After adjusting for age, percentage of NH-Blacks per county, and poverty rate, we found 42% increased odds of having high postmenopausal BRCA mortality rates among U.S. counties/county equivalents with high food swamp scores (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.14 – 1.78). Conclusions: Sampled U.S. counties with the poorest food swamp environment had significantly increased odds of postmenopausal BRCA mortality. We suggest that local policymakers and community stakeholders should employ sustainable approaches at combating obesity and BRCA by increasing healthier accessible food sources (e.g. creating more walkable neighborhoods and community gardens). Citation Format: Malcolm Bevel, Meng-Han Tsai, April Parham, Sydney Andrzejak, Samantha Jones, Justin X Moore. The Association between Food Deserts, Food Swamps, and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Mortality in the United States [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Advances in Breast Cancer Research; 2023 Oct 19-22; San Diego, California. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(3 Suppl_1):Abstract nr A075.

Overlooked and misunderstood: how urban community gardeners perceive social wasps and their ecosystem functions

Despite their importance for agricultural food production, many insects receive little to no positive attention. While bees have become the focus of insect conservation in agricultural landscapes, social wasps still rank among the most disliked animals and their ecological role and the ecosystem services they provide through e.g. pollination and pest control is subsequently understudied. We conducted a survey on the perceptions of social wasps and their ecosystem functions in urban community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany. We found that gardeners rated wasps as least beneficial for urban gardens among other insect taxa, and that predation was perceived as a negative function in insects and spiders. Respondent´s emotions were predominantly positive towards bees and negative towards wasps. Trivia questions about wasps revealed that knowledge of wasp ecology was positively associated with respondents´ willingness to share gardens with wasps. Implications for insect conservation: Our results show that urban gardeners´ negative perceptions of social wasps are likely driven by both a lack of knowledge about their ecological functions and a profusion of negative emotions towards wasps. Public outreach and education on the ecological importance of social wasps and other uncharismatic taxa as well as positive encounters with these specieshave the potential to improve their public image and thereby support the conservation of wasps and other insects.

Mind, body and blood: advancing green care through innovative methodologies within the field of health geography

ABSTRACT In the post-COVID city, interest in creative green interventions to tackle health inequalities are at an all-time high. Key actors, from policymakers to funding bodies and beyond, are increasingly investing in concepts such as Social Prescribing and Green Care. In particular, the latter has received a large amount of attention and support, with mainstream media and an array of studies raising awareness around the benefits of juxtaposing nature with the city. In this paper, we reflect on the growth in this interest, particularly with a focus on the United Kingdom and the immense potential for the approaches within the wider urban global expansion. Through a focused systematic approach, we highlight the impact of several interventions on the ground, with an explicit case study focus on community gardening and care farming: highlighting both micro and macro practices within the built environment. Our paper raises awareness around the value of these interventions and novel methods for further exploration by academics and practitioners, particularly within a UK context, while presenting an opportunity learn from a pilot case study. In doing so, we advocate for more radical approaches to exploring these spaces and showcase the power of interdisciplinary work between geographers and health researchers in this burgeoning field.

Peer Mentorship: Career Support in Full Bloom.

Peer mentorship, referring to interactions among colleagues at similar career stages for the purpose of bidirectional career development, is a powerful tool to promote personal and professional growth. While dyadic mentoring has traditionally been the norm in academia, the needs of junior faculty may span multiple domains that a single senior mentor may not be able to address. 1,2 A vibrant community garden of peer mentors can help to harvest ideas, encourage mutual collaboration, increase personal satisfaction, and promote career advancement.

Unexpected effects of urban food activism on community and human wellbeing

ABSTRACT Participation in urban agriculture conducted through community gardens and allotments is known for its benefits to physical and mental health. Due to the recognition of these benefits, which include reduction of stress, depression and anxiety, such participation is increasingly being prescribed as a non-medical health intervention. Community gardens have the added advantage of immersion into a community, without the often-long waiting lists and level of commitment involved in allotment tenancies. What has not been explored is the demanding nature of the commitment required by volunteer coordinators, and ironically, the negative effects it can have on their wellbeing. In a study of food activism in Aberdeen, UK, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with participants from a range of bodies involved in the city’s food growing projects. From the spectrum of food growers, we found that volunteer coordinators of community gardens experienced the greatest burdens on their time and wellbeing, with their demanding multi-functional roles leading to fatigue and feelings of over-commitment. Other problems encountered by community gardeners were over-reliance on grant funding and the disproportionate impacts of COVID closures on vulnerable groups. Policy interventions are required to reduce dependency on competitive grant funding and to support both coordinators and the long-term sustainability of community gardens. Key policy highlights Long-term budgets are required to support the longevity of existing community projects that align with public health goals. Funded, centralised bodies are required to help coordinate volunteers and to provide training and empowerment activities to encourage the sharing of workloads. Governing bodies need to acknowledge the diverse activities involved in urban food growing and the economic benefits they bring in relation to human, environmental and public health.

Community building through collaborative food production and consumption: A case study of Grow Free in South Australia

ABSTRACT Grow Free, a grassroots social initiative, emerged in South Australia in 2013. Grow Free advocates for the sharing and exchange of free seeds, seedlings, fruits, and vegetables among neighbors. The number of Grow Free participants grew to about 230 throughout South Australia as of 2022. This article explores the agri-social characteristics of Grow Free participants, drawing on 50 postal survey respondents and 17 semi-structured phone interviews. This study finds that diverse non-governmental organizations in addition to residential households are actively participating in the Grow Free network, including community gardens and community centers. Moreover, many household-type Grow Free participants are linked to an array of other grassroots social initiatives including Permaculture South Australia and Trees for Life. The study notes that Grow Free along with other alternative food networks has facilitated collaborative food production and consumption at a local scale. Through grassroots organizational mechanisms, Grow Free participants have been committed to fostering community building and resilience through food sharing.

Community gardens and psychological well-being among older people in elderly housing with care services: The role of the social environment

With population aging, increasing numbers of elderly people in Japan are expected to enter aged care facilities (ACFs). Although research has shown that access to community gardens (CGs) is generally beneficial to older people's psychological well-being, the mechanisms by which the usage and quality of CGs influence the well-being of older adults in ACFs remain insufficiently studied. Therefore, this study aims to explore the associations between garden factors (i.e., garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality) and older adults' psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., positive well-being and self-rated health) and to investigate the mediating role of neighborhood social environment factors (i.e., outing frequency, social participation, perceived neighborhood social cohesion, and perceived neighborhood attachment) in these associations. We conducted a questionnaire survey with 322 older adults from twelve elderly housing with care services (EHCSs) in the Tokyo metropolitan area (TMA) of Japan. The multiple regression models showed that both garden factors were positively associated with positive well-being and self-rated health. The parallel mediation models showed that higher garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality were associated with higher outing frequency and perceived neighborhood social cohesion and, in turn, with higher positive well-being. Moreover, higher garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality were associated with greater social participation and thereby with better self-rated health; higher perceived garden quality was also associated with higher perceived neighborhood attachment and thus with better self-rated health. Our findings elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying the beneficial associations between CGs and the psychological well-being of older adults in ACFs, emphasizing the important role of cultivating friendly social environments in CGs in enhancing healthy aging.

Local Habitat Complexity and Its Effects on Herbivores and Predators in Urban Agroecosystems.

In urban community gardens, cultivated vegetation provides variable levels of habitat complexity, which can suppress pests by promoting predator diversity and improving pest control. In this study, we examine three components of the structural complexity of garden vegetation (cover, diversity, and connectivity) to investigate whether higher garden vegetation complexity leads to fewer herbivores, more predators, and higher predation. We worked in eight community gardens where we quantified vegetation complexity, sampled the arthropod community, and measured predation on corn earworm eggs. We found that plots with high vegetation cover supported higher species richness and greater abundance of predatory insects. High vegetation cover also supported a greater abundance and species richness of spiders. In contrast, high vegetation diversity was negatively associated with predator abundance. While high predator abundance was positively associated with egg predation, greater predator species richness had a negative impact on egg predation, suggesting that antagonism between predators may limit biological control. Community gardeners may thus manipulate vegetation cover and diversity to promote higher predator abundance and diversity in their plots. However, the species composition of predators and the prevalence of interspecific antagonism may ultimately determine subsequent impacts on biological pest control.

Increasing demand for urban community gardening before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Community gardens are growing in popularity worldwide, especially in densely populated urban areas. They provide semi-public spaces for joint gardening activities and serve as social and ecological retreats. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions in movement and leisure activities led to a changed demand for urban green spaces, but it remains unclear how it affected the overall trend in demand for community gardens. We measured interest to participate in community gardening between 2018 and 2022 based on a combination of counted application numbers and qualitative responses from garden coordinators. Out of 373 contacted community gardens, 70 replied, distributed across 43 cities in Switzerland, Germany, UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand. We find an increase in demand for participation in community gardens from 2018 to 2022, both based on counted application numbers and memory-based interest in participation. A generalized linear mixed model shows significant increases in applications from 2018 to 2019 (19 %), 2020 to 2021 (25 %) and 2021 to 2022 (16 %), but not from 2019 to 2020 (−0.32 %). These results confirm an ongoing trend of increasing demand for community gardens, with momentary reduced activity during 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, followed by a subsequent surge in demand. The peak increase in application numbers in 2021, along with the overall rise from 2018 to 2022, underscores the crucial role of community gardens in an urbanizing world, especially during challenging times. It is essential for urban planners to prioritize meeting this increasing demand as part of their efforts to make cities more sustainable.

Green resilience: Securing life through vegetal being

This paper critically examines the concept of “green resilience” – the mobilization of gardens and urban green spaces for enhancing the resilience of communities and cities in the face of increasing uncertainty and risk. Drawing inspiration from seminal work in human-plant geographies, it explores the governmental functions and political implications of green resilience, arguing that these spaces serve as key forms of state rule and biopolitical power.The study employs the notion of green resilience as a “composition,” emphasizing the assembling of diverse human and nonhuman actors in resilience projects. The developed compositional ontology highlights the importance of aesthetic and visual practices in green resilience projects and reveals how these are continuously decomposed and recomposed by the involved actors.The paper develops its arguments through a “paradigmatic case study” of various green resilience projects in New York City – including survivor trees, memorial groves, and community gardens. The study illuminates the multiplicity of green resilience initiatives and the underlying governmental logic by comparing these projects. Through its analysis, the paper contributes to the literature on resilience as an emerging governance paradigm. It reveals how green resilience projects embody a multiplicity of practices, uncovers the first comprehensive comparative analysis of various forms of green resilience, and offers a critique of resilience from within. The study concludes by identifying three tensions or contradictions of (green) resilience as a form of biopolitical government: visibility and invisibility, knowledge and ignorance, and control and emergence.