Urban Community Gardens Research Articles

The institutionalisation of urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa

AbstractUrban community gardens, once seen as a counter to neoliberal subjectivity, are now perceived as inadvertently reinforcing neoliberal dominance, challenging the progressive goals of urban gardening. This study investigates how the state shapes urban community gardens in alignment with neoliberal principles, potentially diluting their intended advantages. By analysing policies and interviewing state actors supporting urban gardening initiatives and activists, I argue that the state actively cultivates neoliberal subjectivities in these contexts. Unfortunately, state policies and projects often fail to address the root causes of food and nutrition insecurity in urban areas. This neoliberalisation of urban community gardening diminishes their potential to act as tools for advancing food justice in historically disadvantaged communities in Cape Town. Nevertheless, there is hope in the agency of gardeners who are not passive participants in this process. I conclude that relying on the state to implement projects for a more equitable food system may not be a dependable strategy. Instead, urban gardeners must carefully select their allies to effectively pursue their goals.

Urban green waste bulking agent is the major source of antimicrobial resistance genes persisted in home compost, not animal manure

Urban green waste and food waste are often used as bulking agents to prepare home compost in combination with animal manure in urban horticulture and community gardening. Although it is known that antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) persist in home compost, their origins have not been determined. In addition, the factors contributing to ARGs persistence remain unclear. In this study, we aim to (i) characterize the changes in the microbiome and antimicrobial resistome during the composting process of home compost using metagenomics shotgun sequencing, (ii) identify the source of the ARGs persisted in home compost using SourceTracker, and (iii) elucidate the collective effect of compost microbiome and environmental factors, including the physicochemical properties and antibiotics concentration of home compost, in contributing to ARG persistence using Procrustes analysis, co-occurrence network analysis, variation partitioning analysis, and structural equation modeling. SourceTracker analysis indicated that urban green waste bulking agent was the major source of the persisting ARGs in home compost instead of animal manure. Procrustes analysis and co-occurrence network analysis revealed a strong association between microbiome and antimicrobial resistome. Variation partitioning analysis and structural equation modeling suggested that physicochemical properties shaped the antimicrobial resistome directly and indirectly by influencing the microbiome. Our results indicated that the persistence of ARGs in home compost might be due to the succession of microbial species from the urban green waste bulking agent, and the physicochemical properties might have defined the compost environment to shape the microbiome in the compost, thus, in turn, the persisting antimicrobial resistome.

Urban ecosystem services and climate change: a dynamic interplay

Urban ecosystems play a crucial role in providing a wide range of services to their inhabitants, and their functioning is deeply intertwined with the effects of climate change. The present review explores the dynamic interplay between urban ecosystem services and climate change, highlighting the reciprocal relationships, impacts, and adaptation strategies associated with these phenomena. The urban environment, with its built infrastructure, green spaces, and diverse human activities, offers various ecosystem services that enhance the wellbeing and resilience of urban dwellers. Urban ecosystems offer regulatory services like temperature control, air quality upkeep, and stormwater management, plus provisioning like food and water. They also provide cultural benefits, promoting recreation and community unity. However, climate change poses significant challenges to urban ecosystem services. Rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events can disrupt the functioning of urban ecosystems, impacting the provision of services. Heatwaves and urban heat island effects can compromise human health and energy demands, while changes in rainfall patterns can strain stormwater management systems and lead to flooding. Moreover, climate change can disrupt biodiversity and ecological processes, affecting the overall resilience and sustainability of urban ecosystems. To address these challenges, cities are adopting various adaptation strategies that recognize the interdependence between urban ecosystems and climate change. Green infrastructure interventions, such as the creation of urban parks, green roofs, and community gardens, aim to mitigate the impacts of climate change by enhancing the regulation of temperature, improving air quality, and reducing stormwater runoff. Additionally, urban planning and design approaches prioritize compact and walkable neighborhoods, promoting public transportation and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Furthermore, engaging communities in the management of urban ecosystems and climate change adaptation measures is crucial for ensuring equitable distribution of ecosystem services and building social resilience. Therefore, the review article highlights a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic interrelationship between urban ecosystem services and climate change and their implications. By recognizing and integrating the contributions of urban ecosystems, cities can develop sustainable and resilient strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change, ensuring the wellbeing and habitability of urban environments for present and future generations.

Experimental urban commons?: Re‐examining urban community food gardens in Cape Town, South Africa

AbstractContemporary literature on urban agriculture often analyses urban community gardens as ‘existing’ commons with the capacity to counter neoliberal urban development and resource management practices. However, the existing literature on ‘political gardening’ generally focuses on cities in North America and Europe, despite the prevalence of urban community gardens and neoliberal planning across other regions, including Southern cities. This paper examines urban community gardens in Cape Town, South Africa to assess their capacity to function as urban commons in six areas: infrastructure, inputs, land, produce, labour and immaterial components. This mixed‐methods study employed questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and observations across 34 urban community gardens in the city. The findings and analysis demonstrate how the urban community gardens counter neoliberal privatisation and individualisation processes. However, their capacity to function as urban commons is significantly curtailed by an entrenchment within the neoliberal context. Thus, the urban community gardens are framed as ‘experimental’ commons, a valuable re‐conceptualisation of alternative resource utilisation in neoliberal Southern cities.

Drivers of cultivated and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems

Pollination is a vital ecosystem service in urban agriculture. Yet the environmental drivers of both crop and wild plant pollination in urban agroecosystems are still not well understood. Pollination experiments involve the manipulation of pollen transfer between plants, for instance, to study the effects of pollinators on fruit and seed production (pollination service). In this study, we conducted a pollination exclusion experiment using four experimental plants: two cultivated plant species, strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) and chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens), and two wild plant species, buttercup (Ranunculus acris) and clover (Trifolium pratense). We placed experimental plants for over 20 days in 13 urban community gardens in Munich, Germany. We compared fruit and seed mass between “open” and “bagged” flowers and tested the effect of biotic factors (floral resources and pollinator diversity) and abiotic factors (urbanization, microclimate) on pollination service (fruit and seed mass) on the experimental plant species. For the two cultivated plants (F. ananassa and C. frutescens), we found that fruit and seed mass were both positively correlated with temperature and pollinator diversity. For the two wild plants (R. acris and T. pretense), we found that floral abundance was negatively related to R. acris seed mass but was positively related to T. pratense seed mass. In summary, we found that biotic and abiotic parameters affected the plant species studied here in different ways, suggesting that there may be synergies and trade-offs in what factors promote the overall pollination of urban plant communities. Our results suggest that gardeners can potentially increase the pollination services on certain garden plants by providing floral resources for pollinating insects.

LAND SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR URBAN GARDENING USING GIS-BASED MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING APPROACH

The application of the Geographical Information System (GIS) extends beyond mapping and includes an analysis of attribute and geographical data, identification of behavioural patterns, and visualisation of positional analysis outcomes. The system provides accurate coordinates, enabling functions such as storage and retrieval, pattern search, and model creation in GIS applications. One widely adopted approach for land-use identification involves utilising GIS operations to establish databases and conduct analyses. Thus, this study utilises ArcGIS software tools to determine the suitability of land and optimal location for the development of community gardens in Shah Alam. Decision-making was based on multiple criteria, and to ensure accurate and comprehensive data, the researchers employed a qualitative method similar to expert interviews. Related government agencies and authorities, as well as experts, provided input through three separate expert interviews. Findings from the interviews highlighted the significance of land slope, elevation, land use, proximity to settlements, road accessibility, and water access as important considerations for site selection in urban gardening or community gardens. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of GIS methods in obtaining such results and recommends that future research focus on assessing the potential for sustainable development by leveraging GIS techniques.

The garden is the new café: Vegetal metaphysics and community philosophy

In this paper I introduce my new project in philosophical practice and community philosophy called garden philosophy or philosophy in the garden. In many senses, this is very similar to the usual philosophical café, but organized in a community garden, in this case at downtown Budapest. The garden, and especially an urban community garden, as a complex multispecies community, provides not only a good environment for philosophical conversations, but a strong philosophical foundation, a metaphysics of community philosophy practices, a model and a metaphor, based on the interconnectedness of minds. The garden philosophy, a modern version of Epicurus’ philosophical practice, thus connects new insights on the world of plants, the entanglements of various life forms, community philosophy and the long tradition of philosophy as a way of life.

Resilience in the face of crisis: investigating COVID-19 impacts on urban community gardens in Greater Toronto Area, Canada

PurposeUrban community gardens (UCGs) are important sources of community, food and greenspaces in urban environments. Though UCGs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) of Ontario, Canada, were considered essential during the COVID-19 lockdowns and therefore open to gardeners, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and UCG use among garden members and managers is not fully understood.Design/methodology/approachThis was an exploratory qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven managers and eight members of nine gardens in the GTA. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsThe results suggest that UCGs helped participants be resilient to COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors through the provision of cultural ecosystem services. Therefore, this study supports the current literature that UCGs can help foster resilience during crises. While participants in this study did not end up being food insecure, participants did express concern about community food security.Practical implicationsResults contribute to the current body of literature, and can be used to further update and develop UCG policies, as well as help develop UCG infrastructure and management strategies for future crises.Originality/valueThe impacts of the pandemic on Canadian UCGs are not well understood. This research paper investigated the impact of the pandemic on UCG use and food security, as well as the link between UCG use and increased resilience to COVID-19-related stressors.

Land tenure security and luxury support plant species and trait diversity in urban community gardens

Urban ecological communities are shaped by an array of environmental and physical factors that include climate, biogeography, species interactions, dispersal, and ecological filters at the habitat and landscape scales. In addition, many social dynamics, decision-making processes, and other social characteristics, such as development, policy, government actions, as well as socioeconomic status of residents – the so-called ‘luxury’ effect – may also play strong roles in shaping which species occur within the urban context. This interaction between ecological and social drivers may impact species richness and may also influence functional traits and functional diversity, with important implications for ecosystem services provided within urban spaces. Urban agroecosystems provide food and other well-being benefits to urban residents, and are valuable green spaces in the city that provide refuges for biodiversity. Despite this fact, one of the biggest risks to gardens is insecure land tenure. While plant communities within gardens may be shaped by gardener demographics, food cultures, and ecological processes, little is known about how factors such as luxury and land tenure security may impact plant diversity, plant functional traits, and functional diversity, as well as species and trait composition. In this study, we ask how garden physical features, luxury, and land tenure security influence plant species richness, functional diversity, and species and trait composition within gardens in the California central coast. We surveyed vegetation, assessed plant traits related to growth form, plant defense, and floral characteristics, and collected information on multiple factors associated with land tenure and luxury. We found that land tenure secure gardens had higher plant and crop richness. Variables associated with garden luxury boosted ornamental plant richness, flower abundance and height, lowered crop richness, and strongly impacted plant species composition. Garden plot size negatively correlated with plant species and functional richness and relative abundance of trees. Weed species richness was not impacted by any social or physical feature examined. Thus overall, in community gardens, cultivated plants, and their traits, are strongly shaped by the socioeconomic factors of land tenure security and luxury as well as the spatial distribution and size of garden plots, with important implications for both conservation and ecosystem services provided by garden habitats within cities.

Urban Gardens vs. Community Gardens: Tensions and Trajectories for Urban Agriculture in Istanbul

Through a discussion of ongoing urban gardening practices in Yedikule Bostanlari and Kuzguncuk Bostani, this paper analyzes the food movement’s convoluted relationship with urban agriculture in Istanbul. The paper argues that as urban agriculture initiatives both are significant for generating community and proposing alternative uses for urban space by fostering food production in the city. Yet, the kind of community they generate and the type of urban agriculture they espouse to conserve are different. More importantly, as urban food production spaces, they do relatively little to mitigate the effects of structural problems that the food movement has underlined. As such, even though they are examples of urban agriculture in practicum, their aspirations do not readily associate with those of the food movement.

Necessity over luxury: The Role of Green Infrastructure in Building Resilience in the Pandemic World

Urban communities around the world are facing sudden acute stress associated with the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, making them more vulnerable to dealing with trauma and shock. Cities need to be able to remain stable function in the event of stress. This can be achieved if the local resources are best-networked and utilized. To this end, urban planning must integrate appropriate GI such as urban agriculture and community gardens that can increase the adaptability of the city. As a result, the role of GI and its implementation need to be revisited to encourage a culture of resilient communities. In this framework, this paper promotes healthy human and natural systems in urban environments, while providing the most valuable and necessary ecosystem services delivered by GI to build community resilience, such as community gardens. Examine the role of community-based GI for an era where lush cities and the luxury of public spaces do not provide enough positive value to people currently affected by the pandemic. To that end, this study is a descriptive comparison of stories to understand the relationship between community resilience and resilient cities through GI. The study will highlight cases of communities that failed or raised during pandemic, concluding in a set of lessons and recommendations for the development of community resiliency within urban environments.

Promoting Beneficial Arthropods in Urban Agroecosystems: Focus on Flowers, Maybe Not Native Plants.

(1) Urbanization threatens biodiversity, yet urban native plants support native biodiversity, contributing to conservation and ecosystem services. Within urban agroecosystems, where non-native plants are abundant, native plants may boost the abundance and richness of beneficial arthropods. Nevertheless, current information focuses on pollinators, with little attention being paid to other beneficials, like natural enemies. (2) We examined how the species richness of native plants, garden management, and landscape composition influence the abundance and species richness of all, native, and non-native bees, ladybeetles, ants, and ground-foraging spiders in urban agroecosystems (i.e., urban community gardens) in California. (3) We found that native plants (~10% of species, but only ~2.5% of plant cover) had little influence on arthropods, with negative effects only on non-native spider richness, likely due to the low plant cover provided by native plants. Garden size boosted native and non-native bee abundance and richness and non-native spider richness; floral abundance boosted non-native spider abundance and native and non-native spider richness; and mulch cover and tree and shrub abundance boosted non-native spider richness. Natural habitat cover promoted non-native bee and native ant abundance, but fewer native ladybeetle species were observed. (4) While native plant richness may not strongly influence the abundance and richness of beneficial arthropods, other garden management features could be manipulated to promote the conservation of native organisms or ecosystem services provided by native and non-native organisms within urban agroecosystems.

“It’s Not Only Our Task”

An ongoing academic debate shows that urban community gardening (CG) has diverse governance models with differing roles of city administration and citizens. This article uses an empirical case study conducted in the city of Tampere, Finland, to explore what I call the “operational space” of urban CG seen from the viewpoint of city officials. Two rounds of interviews were conducted with eight city officials, and a discourse analysis was applied for the data. As an analytic term developed in this article, the operational space emerges by administrative policies and practices that enable or constrain urban gardening under two general trends of urban governance: institutional ambiguity and neoliberal urban development. In this case, the operational space was rather rigid and narrow. The five main discourses on benefit, control of space, scarcity, unclarity, and newness referred to a clear aim to enable urban gardening. However, the discourses were restricted to strategic, limited, and instrumental levels, as the political-strategic aims of enabling urban gardening contradicted the administrative practices. The results show that cautiousness and unclarity in the administrative-political culture tend to lead to institutional ambiguity. In conclusion, operational space analysis is helpful to uncover the problems and possibilities between CG and city administration.

Floral richness and seasonality influences bee and non-bee flower interactions in urban community gardens

Pollinating insects are essential for food production. Both bee and non-bee pollinators are undergoing dramatic declines due to land use intensification and its consequences on native ecosystems. While interactions between crops and bee pollinators are well studied, our understanding of the pollination service provided by non-bee flower visitors including flies, ants, beetles and others is still limited. Moreover, the effects of landscape urbanization and changes in floral and nesting resource availability on the network structure of pollinators with both cultivated and wild plants have been poorly studied. We assessed which common bee and non-bee flower visitor groups dominate the interactions with both wild (e.g. Trifolium pratense, Taraxacum officinales) and cultivated plants (e.g. Fragaria ananassa, Cucurbita pepo) in urban community gardens in Berlin and Munich and explored how these interactions between flower visitor groups and plants change over the growing season. We further investigated the effect of changes in urbanization surrounding community gardens, and the availability of floral and nesting resources within gardens on the complexity (i.e. nestedness, linkage density, connectance) of interaction networks. We observed 20 focal plant species and 13 common bee and non-bee flower visitor groups in 30 urban community gardens. We found that dominant plant visitors changed over the growing season, with non-bee flower visitors including ants and flies as dominant early season visitors, and bee pollinators as important visitors later in the season. Nestedness of the flower visitor network increased with increases in floral richness in community gardens, while neither floral abundance nor the impervious surface surrounding the community gardens, garden size or the availability of nesting resources in gardens strongly influenced the flower visitor networks. Our findings suggest that high floral richness in community gardens may ensure the complexity and, thus, the stability of flower visitor networks. Findings further suggest that the role of non-bee flower visitors should be considered for pollination service provision especially in the shoulder seasons. Finally, our results emphasize that urban gardeners play a key role in mediating flower visitor interactions through their gardening practices.

Community gardens and urban agriculture: Healthy environment/healthy citizens.

Studies are showing that urban community gardening can improve people's psychological and physiological health in myriad ways. Community gardens increase social capital, provide opportunities for altruism, and create accessible and sustainable food sources in urban environments. The purpose of this study was to explore the mental, social, and physical health benefits of participation in an urban community garden in Edmonton, Canada. A focused ethnography was conducted with surveys and semi-structured interviews. Surveys were sent to volunteers and customers of the Green and Gold Garden (GGG). This was followed by focus group interviews with eight volunteers and four customers. The interview format comprised open-ended questions that encouraged participants to share their perceptions of the health and well-being benefits from being at the GGG. Data were coded via inductive coding, and subsequently categorized into themes via an iterative, reflective process. Four health-related themes were generated from thematic analysis: physical health, social health, mental/emotional health, and connection to the global community. Spending time at the GGG improved the respondents' mental health, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they reported feelings of altruism, serenity, and connection with nature. Their social health was improved through gathering with other garden members in a sheltered urban green space within the city limits. This study supports the idea that participation in an urban community garden confers health benefits and engenders a greater awareness of, and appreciation for, the local environment and expands one's scope of care to incorporate planetary health.

Life cycle assessment of eight urban farms and community gardens in France and California

Urban agriculture (UA) is often positioned as an environmentally sustainable food supply for cities. However, life cycle assessments (LCA) measuring environmental impacts of UA show mixed results, because of inconsistent application of LCA and reliance on hypothetical case studies. To address these shortcomings, we performed an LCA of eight urban farms and community gardens in Paris, France and San Francisco, California, USA. We collected primary data from sites representing diverse growing systems (low-intensity open-field to open-air hydroponics) and motivations (education, civic engagement, and commercial production). We found that medium-tech farms, with minimum social engagement had the lowest impacts using a kilogram-based functional unit, but socially-oriented farms had the lowest impacts with an area-based functional unit. Most impacts came from infrastructure (irrigation pipes, hydroponics structures), irrigation, compost, and peat for seedlings. Our findings can help LCA practitioners perform UA LCAs more completely/consistently, and help urban farmers/gardeners target high-environmental-impact practices to optimize.

Things that endure: Community gardens and the post-work imaginary

Using Gorz’s writing on cities and time as a starting point, this sensory ethnographic study uses pinhole photography to explore how time feels for ‘unemployed’ volunteers at a community garden in the north-east of England. It upholds that the garden’s ability to fill time meaningfully is grounded in the food-growing and composting cycle but is also anchored to the mature trees, structures and artworks – made, grown or maintained by the volunteers themselves, that persist in the space for many years. We argue that urban community gardens offer their denizens an ‘elongated present’ that is fulfilling to the individual while also sustaining community and nature. Emphasising the need for enduring, rather than temporary or pop-up, growing spaces in helping us transition to a sustainable, post-work society, the study thus adds temporal insight to existing scholarship on the importance of community gardens.

Uprooting urban garden contamination

Contamination in urban community gardens is widespread. Yet few studies have used transdisciplinary methods to investigate the physical sources of contamination in gardens as well as the sociopolitical factors that result in persistent contamination. Furthermore, contaminant concentrations in community gardens are not regulated, and gardeners are often unaware of the harms that soils and vegetables in their gardens might pose to human health and the broader ecosystem. In this study we aimed to document widespread contamination issues in soil, compost mixtures, and vegetables in a major metropolitan area, and situate the issue of contamination in the broader context of the lack of testing and regulation within community gardens in the U.S. We used a mixed methods approach (e.g., soil and vegetable sampling, interviews and surveys, laboratory analysis, and community science) to determine the extent of, and sociopolitical causes of, contamination in urban community gardens in the Seattle metropolitan region, but also in the U.S. We found that soils and vegetables in all of the community gardens of this study exceeded health standards for a variety of contaminants. We also documented how physical practices and perceptions influenced contaminant concentrations in community gardens. The analysis pointed to larger systemic issues related to environmental injustices, and a need for intervention on local and regulatory levels that centers community feedback. Finally, legacies of environmental racism have resulted in limited choices for underserved gardeners who seek access to healthy food, and better strategies for mitigating contamination that empower communities is needed.

Expanding institutionalized learning spaces in/for science teacher education: the case of a community garden in Ottawa

The purpose of this experience report is to share and reflect on the authors’ views and experiences of adopting a place-based pedagogy in a community garden to create a science learning space within an institutionalized teacher education program in Ottawa, Canada. The situations described here are based on loose (autobiographical) recollections of events that occurred over the last five years in science methods courses taught by the first author while taking student teachers on a field trip to a local urban community garden. In addition, we present a sample of selected informal feedback collected from participants in support of our argument that noninstitutionalized outdoor urban spaces can provide valuable opportunities to enrich science student teachers’ experience in teacher education programs.

Occurrence and diversity of poisonous plants in urban community gardens

Abstract Urban community gardens promote human health, offer recreational space and support urban biodiversity. Urban gardens are situated in diverse landscape contexts and have diverse social contexts with gardeners of various horticultural experiences and backgrounds, both of which results in the wide plant species variety of urban garden habitats. These plants represent a range of traits, one of which may be the production of substances that are poisonous to humans. These plants may also be of ecosystem functioning and biodiversity conservation value, creating an ecosystem service trade-off of human health promotion. In this paper, we report on the occurrence of poisonous plant species in 30 urban community gardens in two German cities (Berlin, Munich) and discuss potential concerns around poisonous and highly poisonous plants in urban gardens. We conclude that, depending on the garden participants as well as the goals of the garden organization, poisonous plants should be carefully monitored and managed to dually mitigate health risks while supporting biodiversity conservation. We propose possible strategies to manage potential threats posed by these plants while simultaneously allowing them to reside alongside people in urban gardens.