Urban Gardens Research Articles

«Green» practices of Kharkiv residents during the war: results of Kharkiv Green Urban Tour 2023

The article is devoted to revealing the «green» practices of Kharkiv residents during the war, namely the continuation of growing home-grown vegetables and fruits and their distribution in the context of urban farming. After all, on February 24, 2022, when Russia`s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine began, urbanized Kharkiv was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe: logistics routes for the delivery of food and goods were damaged, infrastructure and residential areas were constantly shelled, and a huge number of people were forced to leave the city and move to safer regions of Ukraine. These factors demonstrated new challenges, new threats, and new trends that the city's remaining residents had to face and adapt to. In this article, we will focus on the results of the Kharkiv Green Urban Tour 2023, which was held in April-May 2023 and aimed to communicate with residents of different districts of Kharkiv about urban farming, gardening, and green practices. This initiative was carried out as part of the international research project FUSILLI (Fostering the Urban Food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation) at the School of Sociology of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, funded by the European Union`s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the grant agreement No.101000717. The results of this study will provide us with a clearer understanding of how and in what ways residents of an urbanized city engage in improvised farming, gardening, growing vegetables, adapting to the military situation, and reproducing “green” practices while helping others.

Growing utopia – undoing risk through self-sufficiency and urban gardening?

This paper analyses how the utopia of self-sufficiency functions as a response to risk and uncertainty. Recent decades have witnessed the proliferation of risk. Risk has become a way to understand and govern individual lives and society that reproduces existing inequalities whilst producing inequality due to its co-articulation with race, class and gender. Risk also distributes responsibility since every individual is made responsible for the management of the ever-increasing risks we face in modern society. In Sweden, the interest in gardening and cultivating vegetables has become more common, often motivated by ideals about self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency becomes a way of dealing with ecological risk and uncertainty. However, the narrative of self-sufficiency also upholds an imaginary of a different society and a different future, and thus has distinct utopian features. By looking at the growing trend of self-sufficiency through the lens of intersectional risk theory, this article analyses the doing and undoing of risk through narratives of self-sufficiency, and the ways that narratives of utopia can be a way of undoing risk.

Community Engagement in Urban Experiments: Joint Effort for Sustainable Urban Transformation

The increasing complexity of urban regeneration issues has recently made multi-stakeholder collaboration an important part to solve policy problems. While residents form an important part in a variety of collaborative governance processes, approaches used are often criticized as too formal, and lacking more inclusive participation. Therefore, new informal mechanisms of collaboration are sought, to ensure a more effective engagement and representation of population groups. Although community-led participation is the approach that leads to a more effective collaborative process, issues of power and inequality are a challenge in many places in planning practice [13]. Ways of civic empowerment, communication, and negotiation provide participants with transformative learning opportunities so that not only their arguments change but also the participants of the participation process themselves [6]. In order to test urban development ideas, the notion of "urban experiment" has been developed in recent years as a recognized and effective approach. The urban environment is viewed as a creative laboratory for testing the implementation of diverse initiatives and innovations [8]. The inner-city neighbourhoods in many cities are struggling to ensure vitality and liveability, thus these areas often represent a widespread location of urban experiments. In addition to these questions, the problem of community representation manifests itself in many inner cities. The potential to transform city centre streets and vacant areas into user-friendly urban spaces and the impact of those transformations on the city’s livability were recently tested by Riga municipality. Urban experiments varied in scale and form, resulting in street pedestrianization, urban gardens, and other temporary initiatives, which allowed more space for walking and cycling, street sales, social events and other activities. Thus, the aim of this article is to explore processes of testbed planning with regard to the role of community participation in the designing, implementing, and analysing phases of the experiment. After presenting the findings, the article concludes with a discussion on factors that influence public participation in collaborative governance including communication, the balance of interests, and the degree of resident involvement in decision-making.

To feed a town —the operation of the Maribor food market, 1910–2020

ABSTRACT The Maribor food market which has been operating in the city center since the 13th century, is one of the city’s most important food providers. On market days, local people, farmers, urban and suburban gardeners, as well as food importers bringing in food from far away, have gathered at the market over many centuries. Here, the residents of the city discovered new, previously unknown foods. The paper will deal wtih the operation of the Maribor food market from 1910 to 2020, a period of time during which major changes in the supply of food to the urban Maribor population occurred. This approach enables us to gain a better understanding of the everyday menu of Maribor’s inhabitants at that time, as well as the changes that were occurring in food shopping tendencies and selling practices. The recent failed architectural renovation of the food market in Maribor has not only affected the contemporary vendors, but also the buyers, the visitors to the city, and the local chefs.

Umijeće zelenog održavanja

Urban gardening plays a major role in how sustainable futures are imagined and envisaged, but the focus on its innovative potential tends to obscure the diverging logics at play. We draw upon ethnographic fieldwork at the community garden Onkraj gradbišča in Ljubljana, which was conceptualized primarily as a social and cultural innovation. Yet, it continuously called for maintenance and care practices in which the organizers and the gardeners had to engage to make it last. We argue that maintenance labor is crucial for sustainable urban future-making practices.

Occurrence of myxomycetes in selected elevated urban residential gardens in Metro Manila, Philippines

Roof-top gardens in low- and high-rise urban residential buildings are common in many urban cities for their aesthetic value and perceived health benefits for the building occupants. Leaf litter from plant communities in these gardens offer suitable microclimate conditions and substrates that can support growth and development of myxomycetes. Myxomycetes, also called slime molds, play a role in maintaining the soil microbiome, and can influence the microbial communities in these residential gardens. In this study, 204 ground leaf litter samples of ornamental woody shrubs and herbaceous flowering plants were collected from elevated gardens in eight low-to-high rise buildings for the preparation of moist chambers (MC). A total of 14 species of myxomycetes belonging to nine genera were recorded and identified in this study: Arcyria cinerea, Collaria arcyrionema, Diachea leucopodia, Diderma effusum, Diderma hemisphaericum, Didymium nigripes, Didymium sp., Didymium squamulosum, Ophiotheca chrysosperma, Perichaena cf. corticalis, Perichaena depressa, Physarum album, Physarum cinereum, and Stemonitis cf. pallida. Overall MC productivity ranged from 43 to 45%. In terms of species abundance, Arcyria cinerea and Perichaena depressa were among the most recorded myxomycetes. The study provided evidence of rooftop gardens as suitable habitats for myxomycetes.

Landscape features, garden management, and microhabitats influence prey removal and predator composition in urban agroecosystems

Agroecosystem management at microhabitat, habitat, and landscape scales shapes natural enemy communities, with critical implications for ecosystem services. Yet few studies examine the impacts of small to large scale habitat management features on predator communities, abundance of predator species, or removal of prey items from urban agroecosystems. In this study, we used observations and a sentinel prey removal experiment to examine the impact of substrate (prey placed on the ground vs. on kale plants), microhabitat (prey placed under vegetation, on bare soil in open areas, or on mulch in open areas), local garden management features, and landscape features on predator species composition and removal of two prey species in urban gardens in the California central coast. We found that both microhabitat characteristics and substrate type shaped prey removal rates within urban gardens, and microhabitat, but not substrate, impacted predator species composition. In addition, both garden management (floral abundance, herbaceous plant richness, and tree and shrub abundance) and landscape features (urban land cover within 2 km) influenced prey removal and predator composition. Nearly all prey removal of eggs was accomplished by ants; larvae predators were more diverse and included ants, birds, lizards, wasps, and spiders. Although predator composition was mediated by many habitat features, prey removal was greater under vegetation, from the ground, when floral abundance in gardens was high, and in gardens with fewer trees and shrubs. Considering how these different management features affect predator foraging behavior and interactions will be a promising next step in this field.

Rooftop gardening complexities in the Global South: Motivations, practices, and politics

AbstractAn increasing number of urban residents in the Global South are turning to rooftop gardening, whether through soil or hydroponics, to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs. In Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, rooftop gardening serves as an important alternative to traditional wet markets and more recently established supermarkets. In this paper, we examine the motivations, practices, and constraints of Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners, along with the level of government support or disapproval for rooftop gardening. Our study is grounded in critical urban geography and urban political ecology and specific debates regarding informal life politics. Our findings reveal that Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners feel confronted by a critical food safety crisis, emphasising their need to access safe, fresh, and affordable produce through rooftop gardening. Simultaneously, they express scepticism about the capacity and willingness of formal political institutions at both the municipal and national levels to address and resolve these concerns. We explore whether Hanoi’s urban rooftop gardeners can be considered to be engaging in a form of everyday life politics and examine the dynamics emerging in this regard. We conclude by offering potential policy recommendations for Global South cities to support urban gardening communities.

A Double-Edged Sword: Examining the Structures That Afford and Limit Practices of Environmental Learning and Community Building in an Urban Community Garden in South Korea

Abstract Community gardens offer valuable educational and social benefits, contributing to enhanced environmental learning and community building. To expand these opportunities and support community gardens’ objectives, we emphasize the necessity of establishing specific structures that facilitate gardeners’ practices. Investigating a Korean community as a case study, we identify the ways in which certain structures afford and limit learning opportunities and community building, shedding light on the role structures can play in the field of the community garden. Our analysis illustrates the importance of understanding the dynamic relationship between gardening practices and supporting structures. By doing so, garden participants and policymakers can more intentionally activate opportunities to learn about the environment and to build community. Our research aims to examine structures that afford and limit practices as a means of providing a valuable lens to guide community gardening program designers and policymakers in achieving the goals of promoting environmental learning and community building.

Moderate use of pesticides in allotment gardens as indicated by their residues in larval food provisions of Osmia solitary bees

Exposure to pesticides may jeopardize pollinators, but it has rarely been examined in urban landscapes. We used larval food provisions (mix of pollen and nectar) of mason bees (Osmia spp.) nested in artificial shelters as matrices to investigate the rate of pesticide pollution in twelve allotment sites in Prague and Brno cities. Seven commercial croplands (fruit orchards, oilseed rape fields) were selected for comparison. In total, 79 samples of larval provisions were analysed using a validated UPLC–MS/MS method for the presence of 262 pesticides and/or important metabolites. Fifty-six pesticide residues were detected in the allotments and 74 in cropland sites. Fifty pesticide compounds were common to both landscapes. Fewer residues were found in the allotments (14.3 ± 0.9, mean ± SE) than in croplands (21.5 ± 1.1, mean ± SE; df = 17.4; t = −2.9; p < 0.01), and they were present at low levels up to 16 ppb. In cropland sites, ten residues occurred at high individual concentrations (mean per site > 10 ppb). The highest levels were observed for the fungicide pyrimethanil (mean = 1,989 ppb, maximum = 3,983 ppb) and among insecticides for thiacloprid (mean = 136 ppb, maximum = 170 ppb). The results supported the presumption of a lower risk of pesticide exposure in urban gardens than in croplands. Given the limited knowledge on the sublethal effects of pesticides and especially pesticide mixtures on solitary bee development, the regulation or control of pesticide use in allotment gardens is recommended.

Exploring the Spatial Relationship between Street Crime Events and the Distribution of Urban Greenspace: The Case of Porto, Portugal

In post-pandemic, climate-changing societies, the presence of urban greenspace assumes paramount functions, at the same time that socio-economic crises and shocks augment vulnerabilities and insecurities. The recent literature on environmental criminology argues that the geography of crime is not random, and that the presence of greenery, due to its impact on well-being and the environment, can have positive associations with feeling safe; although the opposite effect can occur if spaces are not properly designed or maintained. In this paper, the case study of Porto, Portugal, is presented; one of the municipalities with higher crime rates, that also pledged to double the available greenspace in the near future. As a way to support decision-making, the aim of this study was to present an overall exploratory diagnosis of how street crime patterns, of different typologies, spatially co-exist with greenspaces. Using a 10-year street crime dataset at the segment level, descriptive quantitative methods with the support of GIS have been applied to plot crime’s spatial distribution over time, as well as the walking accessibility to greenspaces. The results confirm crime’s geographical non-randomness, with distinct categories occupying specific locations, even though there was a consistently proportional distribution in the different distance bands. On the contrary, the cumulative effect of the proximity to greenspaces was variable. Almost half of the city’s street crimes (46%) were within a 5 min walking distance of greenspaces, but they were much closer to smaller inner-city urban gardens, with higher densities of street crimes (hot spots), than to larger municipal parks, where lower densities (cold spots) were seen.

Urban gardening as a risk-reduction strategy – an intersectional analysis of top-down gardening initiatives

In cities around the world, urban gardening is increasingly used as a municipal strategy to tackle both environmental and social risks. In this study we draw on critical and intersectional studies of risk to analyse municipalities’ framing of urban gardening as a way to illuminate how it is entangled with contemporary structures of power. The material consists of strategy documents and information on the municipalities’ websites, and the texts were analysed using critical discourse analysis, which enabled us to integrate a sociocultural, an intersectional and an ecopolitical theoretical approach to risk. We identified two discourses: an eco(no)logical risk discourse where ecological risks were addressed within a capitalist market logic, and a social risk discourse, where focus was on gardening as work training and integration. We found that within these discourses, several gardening subjects appeared, and these could be positioned as either capable of solving and/or mitigating risks, or as at risk and in need of intervention. The results show how the top-down initiating of urban gardens display contemporary inequalities in urban spaces, which are crucial to identify in order to create city spaces that are safe, inclusive and enjoyable for all citizens.

Primeiro mapeamento de hortas urbanas em Bariloche: Ferramenta de investigação e gestão

The city of Bariloche is paradigmatic for its scarce territorial planning and the marked socioeconomic and environmental inequalities within its boundaries. In this city, the preponderant tourist activity has directed since 1960 the development of the city and is in tension with other activities such as the local production of fresh food. These products are generally brought from other regions, impacting their quality and accessibility for the general population. Meanwhile, there are experiences of vegetable gardens that partly supply the city with food, and generate a relevant social dynamic when it comes to reducing the inequalities presented, but there is no systematization of information on this productive activity in the city. In this context, our general objective was to map the horticultural productions of Bariloche, with a socioeconomic, environmental, and productive approach, building the first horticultural geographic information system of the city that allows to establish and make visible the contribution of urban vegetable gardens as providers of a healthy environment with the exercise of food sovereignty.

Cultivating thirdspace: Community, conflict and place in small-city urban gardens

Over the past 15 years, there has been an increased interest in urban gardening. Queues for getting a gardening spot have grown, as many urban citizens seek a spot to cultivate vegetables, and studies have stressed how urban gardens can be one ingredient in creating more sustainable cities. Following the work of urban theorists Henry Lefebvre and Edward Soja, this study explores urban gardens as thirdspaces. Interviewing allotment gardeners and community gardeners in small Swedish cities, we explore allotments as ‘lived places’, where experiences, meanings and a sense of place are developed. Thirdspace suggests us to think beyond binary constructions of space and analysing narratives of urban gardening through that lens shows that allotment spots can be understood as places where certain dualisms have, if not a transgressed, at least a more flexible and expansive logic. The result illuminates how allotment gardens are a kind of nature-human crossing point and a practice connecting city residents with countryside life and non-landowners with the land.

The vitality of native grassland plants in current urban climatic conditions in Gauteng, South Africa

Plants are essential components of urban microclimates, as they can help mitigate some of the adverse effects of urbanisation, enhance environmental quality, and thus contribute to overall species well-being and the sustainability of cities. Urban planners and policymakers often incorporate green infrastructure and urban greening into their strategies to create healthier and more livable urban environments. Plants are primary producers, serving as a baseline for the attraction and habitat of other species; they also provide vital ecosystem services, such as climate amelioration. Landscape designers and horticulturalists can influence plant selection through built environment interventions, increasing urban ecosystem services and benefits. Based on the evidence of native plant preferences by insects and people and their natural adaptation to regional climatic extremes, we tested, through an experimental study, the potential of native grassland plants to survive in assemblages in current urban environments. The study specifically monitored the tolerance of nine native grassland plant species to urban environments over six months in Gauteng, South Africa. A stratified random sampling was done by monitoring permanent quadrats in two purposefully engineered urban native gardens. Plant vitality was evaluated using chlorophyll a fluorescence. General climate data were obtained from a local weather station. Microclimatic temperature and humidity data were collected at each site and quadrat using Hygrochron High-Resolution Temperature and Humidity data loggers. The results indicated that all nine native plant species functioned with good photosynthetic health and can be recommended as resilient species that tolerate current urban conditions. Correlation studies indicated that two forb species, Haplocarpha lyrata and Scabiosa columbaria, showed great tolerance to current urban conditions. This vitality is likely contributed to their winter dormancy morphologically based on below-ground biomass, and their physiological adaptation to tolerate both wet and dry habitat conditions. This points to the potential of grassland forb species for urban use and the potential for climate adaptation in grassland areas.

Exploring educational traditions and experiences of block residents engaging in urban food self-production: a case study of Urban Living Lab

Food self-production offers a promising solution to many urbanization problems in cities. However, despite the advanced technology, the acceptance and involvement of local residents (its users) are required for implementation. The study presented here aims to gain a deeper understanding of the educational characteristics of future or current users of urban gardens, especially those oriented towards their own food production. The research will explore urban dwellers' traditional understanding and knowledge of the food growing process acquired over the course of their lives. We conducted in-depth interviews with residents of a selected block of flats in Łódź, who expressed their willingness to participate in an Urban Living Lab. As part of it, they would grow food for a year using hydroponic installation located in the corridors of their block. As a result of our analyses, we have identified the dominant traditions and social culture associated with growing food among the future participants of the Urban Living Lab, focusing primarily on the educational aspects. This is because we assume that effective educational interventions are an essential tool in the process of shaping the pro-environmental behaviour of city dwellers. The results obtained will be relevant for those involved in the urban education process, including city authorities, urban educators, pro-environmental associations, and grassroots activists.

AgroCableBot: Reconfigurable Cable-Driven Parallel Robot for Greenhouse or Urban Farming Automation

In this paper, a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot developed to automate repetitive and essential tasks in crop production in greenhouse and urban garden environments is introduced. The robot has a suspended configuration with five degrees-of-freedom, composed of a fixed platform (frame) and a moving platform known as the end-effector. To generate its movements and operations, eight cables are used, which move through eight pulley systems and are controlled by four winches. In addition, the robot is equipped with a seedbed that houses potted plants. Unlike conventional suspended cable robots, this robot incorporates four moving pulley systems in the frame, which significantly increases its workspace. The development of this type of robot requires precise control of the end-effector pose, which includes both the position and orientation of the robot extremity. To achieve this control, analysis is performed in two fundamental aspects: kinematic analysis and dynamic analysis. In addition, an analysis of the effective workspace of the robot is carried out, taking into account the distribution of tensions in the cables. The aim of this analysis is to verify the increase of the working area, which is useful to cover a larger crop area. The robot has been validated through simulations, where possible trajectories that the robot could follow depending on the tasks to be performed in the crop are presented. This work supports the feasibility of using this type of robotic systems to automate specific agricultural processes, such as sowing, irrigation, and crop inspection. This contribution aims to improve crop quality, reduce the consumption of critical resources such as water and fertilizers, and establish them as technological tools in the field of modern agriculture.

Urban Gardening Pada Kawasan Hunian Barak Sebagai Upaya Penerapan Edukasi dan Ketahanan Pangan di Kelurahan Bukit Tunggal

Bukit Tunggal is one of the densely populated residential areas where there are many barracks, inhabited by many housewives of productive age between 30-46 years old with an average junior high school education who have a lot of free time. Housewives generally take care of the household with a junior high school education without adequate skills. After the pandemic, people tend to be more creative and can be creative to outsmart the existing situation, including in maintaining access to food. People are expected to have the awareness to do independent planting, at least to fulfil their own food needs. There are many ways to do independent planting, such as urban gardening, which is the concept of gardening on limited urban land, which is the right solution for community members, especially housewives, in helping to improve family food security. Therefore, it is necessary to provide knowledge and understanding training to partners so that they are able to master this urban gardening pattern including: (1) preparation, namely preparing training modules, basic knowledge of urban gardening and trials; (2) training implementation: potential vegetables, urban gardening planting methods and media, and direct practice to partners; (3) Partner assistance, and (4) evaluation. The results of vegetable crops that are usually grown include mustard greens, spinach, lettuce, kale, tomatoes and others.

Plant Configuration and Landscape Construction in Blind Gardens

In daily life, landscape design often takes able-bodied people as considerations, while ignoring the blind people who lack vision. According to the blind people's psychological needs and the need for space and landscape, based on taking into account the safety of the blind people and the integrity of the landscape structure, The blind garden plant configuration and landscape construction are carried out based on the principles of sex and accessibility. The content of landscape design includes the design of olfactory landscape, tactile landscape, visual landscape, and auditory landscape; barrier-free design mainly relies on barrier-free design of terrain, road design and public facilities; In order to arouse society's attention to the blind and improve urban gardens. The design theory enables the blind to have a space suitable for their own leisure and entertainment activities, enriching their daily lives, and discusses the design principles and plant configurations of the blind garden construction, hoping to provide some reference for the construction of blind landscapes.

Fences, seeds and bees: The more-than-human politics of community gardening in Rotterdam

This paper explores the more-than-human politics of a community garden in Rotterdam, as an expression of sustainable and resilient city making. Challenging the anthropocentrism underlying most research on the politics of urban sustainability/resilience and urban gardening, the paper proposes a more-than-human assemblage approach to urban gardening politics. I argue that urban gardens can be understood as more-than-human configurations and conceptualised as urban garden assemblages. Such assemblages are processes with different temporalities and types of agencies (insects, plants, soil and fences) and can be analytically understood as more-than-human: (1) relations and performances; (2) power hierarchies/resistances; and (3) ethical co-becomings. Building on participatory ethnography, interviews and (online) documents, the paper then presents an empirical account of the Gandhi-garden, a community garden in Rotterdam, embedded in the global Transition Towns movement. The empirical case shows how mundane acts of pulling weeds and using permacultural planting methods are more-than-human place-making practices. It also highlights how, for example, human–soil, human–seed and human–bee entanglements challenge urban neoliberalism while gardeners experiment with sustainable food and a non-violent economy. The paper illustrates the ethico-political expressions of more-than-human community gardening through solidarity bonds with Palestine via olive trees and non-violence thinking, as well as some human/non-human ambivalences when dealing with dog waste and potentially harvest-stealing birds. Finally, the paper presents some reflections and contributions regarding scholarship in the fields of urban gardening, and sustainable/resilient city making.