From Comfort to Care

In recent years, many cities in Germany have reevaluated the role of urban gardening projects in the context of broader concerns with the sustainability of food systems. Using the example of three different urban gardening projects in Munich we take a look at obstacles, resistances and conflicts that urban gardening encounters when moving into open public spaces. Our inquiry seeks to address the following questions: What challenges do urban gardening projects face? Can they be integrated into open urban spaces? And, if so, what challenges do these projects pose to design ideals of urban public space? Gardening contradicts current norms and imaginaries of what constitutes a “good” public space, which is supposed to be designed for (human) comfort. We suggest that comfort in public spaces must be re-imagined as the outcome of active engagement in the production and maintenance of urban gardens and should include the production of a comfortable space for non-human urban inhabitants. We conclude that urban gardening promotes a careful and caring use of public space.Peer Reviewe

Perceptions and attitudes of participants toward urban gardening. A case study of nutrition gardens in Mucheke town, Masvingo

The main objective of the study was to determine participants’ attitude and perceptions towards urban gardening. Characterising the participants and determining the challenges and benefits obtained from urban gardening were also objectives of the study.  Data was collect through questionnaire, focus group discussion and observations from the field. The study made use of a sample of 40 participants. Statistical tools such as descriptive statistics were employed and data was analysed through SPSS.  The study revealed that urban gardening is an important programme to the community and that it is a better way of generating income. Most of the participants indicated that they can continue gardening without any form of assistance from donors.  Benefits from urban gardening include, additional income from sales of vegetables, vegetables for family consumption, and   time to socialize. Participants mentioned theft, dilapidating canals, one water point, and limited access to some of the vegetable markets as challenges that they face. The nutrition gardening programme targeted mainly the widowed, orphans, elderly and the sick. The study recommended that the city council should open more areas for urban gardening as this has proved to be a source of food and income so that those that are unemployed and the poor can engage in gardening. This will reduce urban poverty and create employment. Key Words: Urban Agriculture, Perceptions, Attitude, Nutrition gardens

Autonomy, Erasure, and Persistence in the Urban Gardening Commons

Collective gardening spaces have existed across Lisbon, Portugal for decades. This article attends to the makeshift natures made by black migrants from Portugal’s former colonies, and the racial urban geography thrown into relief by the differing fortunes of white Portuguese community gardening spaces. Conceptualising urban gardens as commons-in-the-making, we explore subaltern urbanism and the emergence of autonomous gardening commons on the one hand, and the state erasure, overwriting or construction of top-down commons on the other. While showing that urban gardening forges commons of varying persistence, we also demonstrate the ways through which the commons are always closely entwined with processes of enclosure. We further argue that urban gardening commons are divergent and cannot be judged against any abstract ideal of the commons. In conclusion, we suggest that urban gardening commons do not have a “common” in common.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Urban Gardening Realities: The Example Case Study of Portsmouth, England

This paper offers an empirical case study of the potential for urban gardening to contribute to individual food security. Food security generally encompasses both availability and accessibility. In Western Europe, availability per se has declined in importance with the development of national and international transportation networks. During the past decade, urban gardening has gained political currency as a strategy to provide greater food security at the local level. However, prevailing economic and social structures hamper the likelihood that urban gardening might offer much greater food security. Realistically, contemporary urban gardening most closely resembles a middle-class pursuit for personal enjoyment

URBAN GARDENING – AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH

This paper opens the following question: Is urban gardening a fashion trend, utopia or our future? The aim is to examine the literature and practice to find the answers to the above question respecting the integrative approach. The goal is to compare those three aspects of urban gardening searching for the dominant one. Methodology is based on The World Café Method with participants who are experts from the fields of biology, chemistry and geography. Research results show that the future aspect of urban gardening has a primary and dominant role, although the aspects of fashion and utopia deliver interesting impulses provided by interdisciplinary approach. The contribution of the paper is multidimensional. On the theoretical level, it provides an overview of urban agriculture and gardening. On the empirical level, it reflects complexity of urban gardening and its importance for the future. On both levels, this paper raises the awareness of sustainability

Exploring urban gardening experiences in Europe and Asia: Rome vs. Tokyo

Nowadays the trend of urban gardening can be observed in many parts of the world. This phenomenon responds to the demand of rurality and the requalification of abandoned urban green areas expressed by city residents. Recently, many researchers have investigated about different types of urban gardening but mostly referring to English speaking developed countries (Guitart et al. 2012). To grasp the worldwide trend of urban gardening, this paper aims to compare urban gardening experiences in Rome and Tokyo. In Italy, the analysis is conducted through a direct investigation while the Japanese experience has been analysed through secondary data. The study of these two quite different metropolitan contexts helps to understand: (i) motivations on why urban residents need to grow food by themselves; (ii) types of ecosystem services (i.e. safeguard of agricultural land, food culture, production system, leisure model, environmental education, social cohesion) provided to stakeholders (Langemeyer et al. 2018; Speak et al. 2015). By comparing the two areas in Europe and Asia, we found urban residents’ interests in self-harvesting in common. Yet, there were differences in the form of urban gardening. Urban gardening in Rome is characterized by voluntary community activities, while Tokyo has commercial services to provide opportunities to not only those who have eagerness to grow vegetables, but also those who have less time and skills of growing plants

Exploring urban gardening experiences in Europe and Asia: Rome vs Tokyo

Nowadays the trend of urban gardening can be observed in many parts of the world. This phenomenon responds to the demand of rurality and the requalification of abandoned urban green areas expressed by city residents. Recently, many researchers have investigated about different types of urban gardening but mostly referring to English speaking developed countries (Guitart et al. 2012). To grasp the worldwide trend of urban gardening, this paper aims to compare urban gardening experiences in Rome and Tokyo. In Italy, the analysis is conducted through a direct investigation while the Japanese experience has been analysed through secondary data. The study of these two quite different metropolitan contexts helps to understand: (i) motivations on why urban residents need to grow food by themselves; (ii) types of ecosystem services (i.e. safeguard of agricultural land, food culture, production system, leisure model, environmental education, social cohesion) provided to stakeholders (Langemeyer et al. 2018; Speak et al. 2015). By comparing the two areas in Europe and Asia, we found urban residents’ interests in self-harvesting in common. Yet, there were differences in the form of urban gardening. Urban gardening in Rome is characterized by voluntary community activities, while Tokyo has commercial services to provide opportunities to not only those who have eagerness to grow vegetables, but also those who have less time and skills of growing plants

The economic performance of urban gardening in three European cities – examples from Ljubljana, Milan and London

Urban gardening is not a new phenomenon but it has received considerably more practical and academic interest in recent years. Studies on economic aspects such as crop yields, inputs and outputs of production, productivity, gross margins and the contribution to home economics are rare, especially in Europe. While urban gardening plays an important role in the Global South, its role in Western Europe for food productivity and home eco- nomics is currently under-researched. The aim of this study is to analyse European urban gardeners\u2019 economic performance and self-sufficiency on a household level, as well as to reach a better understanding of their con- tribution to food self-provision and food security in the metropolitan areas. In a study carried out in 2014 with on-site personal and with online questionnaires participated 180 urban gardeners from three case study cities (Ljubljana, Milan, and London). Results from the economic analysis showed that although for most urban gar- deners, profit is not their main motivation, the economic calculation shows that productivity in small urban plots can be comparable to market garden production. Urban gardeners are saving money, especially when, compared to retail prices for regular produce or organic produce, their input is included in the gross margin calculation. We conclude that, in the case-study cities, the self-provisional potential of urban gardeners\u2019 households to ade- quately cover the annual vegetable need of five-a-day servings can be met under three conditions: (1) sufficient garden size; (2) increased area productivity, and (3) sufficient labour-hour inputs

Zoned Out: The Potential of Urban Agriculture Planning to Turn Against its Roots

The community gardening movement in urban areas across the United States has been rapidly expanding and changing since its beginnings over 30 years ago. Municipal and not-for-profit community gardening support programs like New York City’s GreenThumb, started in the late 1970s at a time when American urban areas were largely financially bankrupt. In reaction, residents created community gardens on derelict land that had been abandoned by the government and private owners responsible for its maintenance. GreenThumb and other community gardening programs were created and funded by local [nfr1] governments to support and to regulate the growing community garden movement. Today these programs continue to provide funding, material, and technical support to gardeners nationwide. They have continued in spite of threats to the community garden movement occasioned by the real estate boom in the 1990s in New York and other cities, and in contrast to the perception in some gentrifying cities and neighborhoods that community gardening is an outdated solution that is no longer relevant. Numerous recent studies have demonstrated the benefits of community gardening and the gardeners themselves have continued to display conviction in their largely voluntary efforts. Favorable municipal attitudes towards community gardening programs in recent years are reflected in zoning and other government ordinances intended to support community gardening, now often defined as “urban agriculture”. In this paper we will discuss why the land use form “community garden” performs a specific function in the urban space and is thus to be treated differently from other urban agriculture projects. The analysis is based on a practitioners’ analysis and conducted via the example of the development of community gardens and urban agriculture in New York City with a focus on publicly owned urban open space use

Psychosocial outcomes as motivations for urban gardening: A cross-cultural comparison of Swiss and Chilean gardeners

The range of benefits provided by urban greenspaces is reasonably well understood and a broad consensus has been reached that they provide habitats along with social ecosystem services, such as restoration, health and food. Domestic gardens, which are a primary node of contact between city residents and nature, typically represent a significant portion of the urban greenspaces, so the gardeners who manage them play an important role in maintaining the greenspaces within a city. In this way, gardeners voluntarily provide a public service so should be encouraged, but the motivations of individual gardeners have not been sufficiently studied. In this study, we address this research gap by using a 14 item ‘motivations for gardening’ scale to evaluate the motivations for gardening held by gardeners in different cultural contexts. We used questionnaires to collect data in three Swiss cities (Lausanne, Bern and Zürich; N = 409) and one Chilean city (Temuco; N = 167) and analysed the responses at both item and scale levels. Although significant differences between Swiss and Chilean responses were found for all individual scale items, a principal component analysis revealed nearly identical component structures for both the Swiss and Chilean samples. Three clear components were identified; restoration as the motivational component receiving the strongest agreement, followed by socialization, and then food production. Nearly identical component structures were found, with the same scale items loading against the same components, when the sample was divided according to age, gender, education and income. These results suggest that motivations for gardening are not context dependant but rather represent an inherent human condition that frames how gardeners manage and interact with their gardens. Acknowledgement of these human needs: especially regarding the restoration benefits that people gain from these spaces, in public policies related to management and regulation of green urban areas has the potential to contribute to the survival of urban gardens