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There continues to be much debate as to whether to preserve buildings, and this is particularly pertinent to post-war architecture, especially in the UK. This paper further explores the issue by concentrating on the acquisition of a fragment of Robin Hood Gardens by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Smithsons' key work was deemed a failed social experiment in its listing verdict, and the acquisition of the fragment during demolition sparked controversy when exhibited at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Devoid of its context in an exhibition setting, the fragment of building questions the applicability of traditional conservation values, particularly those relating to age or architectural value. This paper aims to demonstrate the value of taking a more sociological approach to this dilemma. It uses theories of collective memory, specifically Halbwachs and Bachelard's variations, to explore multiple interpretations of the fragment's physicality. Three frameworks have been chosen for analysis: the changing social housing rhetoric, its listing campaign, and finally the present, a speculative section on what the current interpretations of the past indicate for the future. Through this chronological analysis it is concluded that the Estate's physicality is reduced to a semantic contribution, representative of our current crisis of collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to describe an experiment in the design and construction of an intelligent irrigation system based on the integration of ready-made programmed components and programmable ones, which, if necessary, will provide watering of plantations. This paper presents a model of an integrated multi-component architecture for a smart garden, which is based on the combination of various components and techniques in small-scale urban garden irrigation by using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Automation is related to planning based on sensor data processing, determining when to activate water supply. Unlike manufacturers who offer "smart irrigation" solutions with all the automated components needed to build a complete intelligent system, our approach is different. We combine components from various manufacturers to create an independent irrigation system. The challenge lies in ensuring these components can seamlessly work together, processing automation instructions through external software, and storing data on a remote server. The described model represents an innovative solution that enhances the functionality and sustainability of urban gardens by combining an understanding of the gardens' needs and effective resource management, contributing to an improved quality of life for citizens and the sustainable use of natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analytical framework for evaluating the impact of the two main processes identified in Madrid timber-framed courtyard buildings reinforcing the courtyard's crucial role in architectural heritage sustainability: their development caused dwellings to darken (1737–1950), and the existing challenge is to open new patios according to the listed buildings' protection policy. Critical findings in archival research and existing building assessments led to completed data collection and analysis. When exploring construction expansion, from the house towards the collective prototype around a gradually reduced patio and dwelling darkening (1737–1786), buildings resulted in open, semiopen, underlighted and closed designs. Study area on-site assessment uncovered the transition from the older low-rise type (1–3) floors to the modern closed model of up to (4–6) storeys. Construction enlargements, consequently reducing original green areas and courtyards, call for reversing that process or formulating a new strategy. It debates the partial demolition of listed buildings in upgrades and its agreement with the needed "blue courtyard" strategy (PGOUM), resulting from joining new rear individual patios to create a communal building block courtyard. The uncovered "in-between" type (1864), which integrates two open-air collective spaces, an inner courtyard and a back garden, appears challenging to explore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recurring debate in cities and in the literature is whether gardening food to eat is essential or recreational. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, some political jurisdictions closed gardens, deeming them non-essential to life – including the province of Ontario where fieldwork for this study was conducted. This paper analyzes mixed methods data generated pre-pandemic to understand the role of urban agriculture in the lives of gardeners in Toronto, Canada. When people produce food for the home, is their activity recreational or an essential source of food? We employ a social-ecological lens and find that gardening supported health and wellbeing and provided participants with an important food source, oftentimes culturally significant. Qualitative and quantitative data describes the rich experiences of gardener participants in the diverse city. We argue that gardens are essential and seeing them as part of culinary infrastructure makes space for nonmarket food production in food systems analyses. Viewing gardens as essential should prompt policy decisions, particularly during crises, which support social-ecological, nonmarket food sources as important parts of culinary infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been well documented that northern Indigenous communities in Canada have disproportionately high rates of food insecurity which is contributing to chronic health conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Indigenous communities face complex challenges getting regular access to healthy food, whether through traditional food harvesting practices or through imported market food items. In response, many Indigenous communities are seeking ways to develop locally derived solutions that increase local food procurement capacity and rebuild local food systems. The purpose of this paper is to further understand local food initiatives in Moose Cree First Nation, a remote northern community at the base of James Bay, Ontario, Canada. This paper builds on the Indigenous Health Research Group's focus on understanding and documenting the steps taken in support of building local food capacity, more specifically through a community garden project. With a deepened understanding of the challenges and opportunities the community faces in regaining greater autonomy over their food system, the findings presented here build on community-based participatory action approaches when learning and working with communities in support of local food efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nawan Kot has an ironic tale due to its monument's architecture, which belongs to the Mughal era. This paper presents the eastern side of the garden and its fragments, including a tomb, two fluted Burj, and Chauburji of an unspecified person in Nawan Kot on the Multan Road in Lahore. The tale is usually narrated by Princess Zeb-un-Nissa. Moreover, it is believed that she formed the garden in 1669 A.D. The garden was covered with a wall, and a tower was built on each corner of the garden. The Chauburji was constructed for the royal entrance, and a picturesque tomb is located in the core of the pleasing garden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal is the property of Selcuk University Social Sciences Institute Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents preliminary findings from two prison horticulture intervention projects. Our project sites are located in a women's community corrections facility in the U.S. Midwest and a women's maximum-security prison in the Southeastern United States. These garden projects illustrate the importance of sociological theory and clinical sociological practice in the development of programs that will benefit incarcerated women who remain underserved and disenfranchised in U.S. society. We apply Bourdieu's theories of capital to understand incarcerated women's lived experiences. We find that clinical sociological prison gardens foster women's rehabilitation and increase food security within incarcerated settings. They also are an important site of capital and skill-building for participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Szociológiai Szemle is the property of Hungarian Sociological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The historical Hevsel Gardens in Diyarbakır, Turkey, was registered as a UNESCO cultural heritage site in 2015. The biodiversity of the habitats was revealed by compiling the inventory obtained from the field studies in the Hevsel Gardens, and its surroundings, including the Tigris River between 2002-2021, and from the literature containing studies conducted in the region.- The results indicate that there are 607 species of flora including phytoplankton -phytobenthos and plants and 635 species of animals consisting of invertebrates (352 species), fish (27 species), amphibians (3 species), reptiles (15 species), birds (215 species) and mammals (23 species). The records revealed the following species under different threatened categories of IUCN at a global scale and The Red Book of Turkish Plants for endemic Plants: Vicia esdraelonensis (VU) and Trifolium aintabense (NT) from plants; Leguminaia wheatleyi (NT), Unio mancus (NT) from Mollusca; Oedipoda aurea (NT) from Insecta; Arabibarbus grypus (VU), Carasobarbus kosswigi (VU), Luciobarbus esocinus (VU) from Fish; Testudo graeca (VU) and Rafetus euphraticus (EN) from reptiles; Oxyura leucocephala (EN), Falco cherrug (EN), Aythya ferina (VU), Streptopelia turtur (VU), Otis tarda (VU), Falco vespertinus (VU), Pelecanus crispus (NT), Aythya nyroca (NT), Vanellus vanellus (NT), Limosa limosa (NT), and Numenius arquata (NT) from birds; Vormela peregusna (VU) and Lutra lutra (NT) from mammals. The factors threatening the area have been revealed and discussed in the paper. For the sustainable conservation of rich biodiversity, it is recommended that this region of the Tigris River and Hevsel Gardens should be protected within the scope of “Qualified Nature Protection Areas”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper describes local meaning of an Indigenous garden at Western University. • Indigenous people share and strengthen their Indigenous Knowledge in the Garden. • Indigenous people assert their self-determination in the Garden. • An institutional disconnection constrains the Garden's potential. • Universities need to create and support Indigenized spaces. Since the release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Indigenization efforts at Canadian Universities have grown markedly. There have been cluster hires, curriculum overhaul, and the creation of Indigenous spaces. Despite this important shift, the meanings and tensions associated with these efforts have not been well documented in research. Drawing from a case study of the Indigenous Food and Medicine Garden at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada), and framed within the concept of environmental repossession, this paper describes local meaning of the Garden, as shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, faculty and staff members who have been involved with the Garden since its inception in 2014. Our findings reveal that while the Garden provides a vitally important space for the Indigenous community at Western to practice, share and strengthen their Indigenous Knowledges, the broader structure of the university environment both challenges the Garden's sustainability and limits its potential usage and growth. Similar to what we are seeing in other university environments, the reconciliatory impact of Indigenization projects, such as Gardens, relies heavily on the strength of relationship between Indigenous people and the University Administration, and also on the ability of Indigenous people to be self-determining in these spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Geography rejects the nature/culture binary but it still prevails in other fields of practice. • We explore the place of industrialised naturecultures in planning and heritage discourses. • Regeneration can catalyse the reinscription of industrial objects and ecologies as heritage. • Productive ambivalence allows for coexistence of the cultivated and wild, natural and cultural. The paper explores the diverse forms of renaturing and reinscription which arise from the materiality of industrial decline and the desire to make space for nature in new peri-urban developments. As productive use is sought for post-operational spaces, remnant industrial objects and ecologies are either removed or incorporated into new landscape narratives and forms. When they are retained, the status of such remnants often remains unstable, as their identities are (re)inscribed through diverse and sometimes competing value frameworks. Instability and ambivalence are particularly pronounced in relation to features that straddle categories of nature and society: nature-culture assemblages produced through both industrial and ecological processes. In this paper, we examine two such assemblages at West Carclaze, Cornwall, in the SW of the UK, a site shaped by the process of china clay extraction and now undergoing redevelopment as a 'garden village'. The paper considers an artificial hill formed of clay-processing waste and a rare bryophyte species which depends for its survival on ongoing industrial process. Both of these objects represent a category which we describe as 'industrial heritage naturecultures' – hybrid entities whose recognition potentially signals a new willingness to accept the blurring of nature-society distinctions in planning and heritage management contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bundelkhand is a region in central India, its identification based on its peculiar socio-cultural values. During the sixteenth to nineteenth century Bundelkhand was under the reign of Bundela kings. The architectural edifices of Bundela rulers lie in all parts of Bundelkhand including popular places like Orchha, Datia and Khajuraho. Other than the palaces, forts and temples, Bundelkhand has a number of gardens created by the Bundela rulers. These gardens are an important link to the socio-cultural history of Bundelkhand, but they lie neglected. Rajnagar is a small village, only 3 km north of the World Heritage Site of Khajuraho, in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. The village was a prominent political centre during the eighteenth to nineteenth century, under the Chhatarpur princely state. As many as sixteen Bundeli gardens exist in Rajnagar! Similar gardens were found all over Bundelkhand during research visits by the authors. There is no previous research available about the typology and characteristics of these gardens, and the current research paper is a first attempt to describe the architecture of the Bundeli gardens and its extent in the region, citing examples in the Chhatarpur district. The research paper aims to establish the typology, including the period of construction of these eighteenth-century Bundeli gardens, based on architectural analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historic gardens, regarded as a significant genre of cultural heritage, encapsulate the enduring essence of bygone eras while concurrently transcending temporal boundaries to resonate with the present and future. These gardens provide us vitality and inspiration, holding a collective repository of human memory and serving as a testament to our shared heritage. However, like landscapes, gardens constantly change through natural processes and human interventions. How can we preserve these gardens, though changes are unavoidable? Spatial and visual characteristics are the gardens' essential characteristics, and point-cloud (LiDAR) technologies are powerful tools to reveal and analyze gardens' spatial-visual relationships and characteristics. Therefore, this paper aims to present a point-cloud-based approach to identifying spatial-visual design principles and making them operational to protect and develop historic gardens. Additionally, several methods have been proposed in this research, including (a) a voxel-based method to transfer points into a solid model for GIS-based computation, (b) a novel method to analyze the field of view (FOV), and (c) a systemic framework to reveal historic gardens' spatial-visual characteristics based on the voxelized model. Jichang Garden, a historic garden in Wuxi, China, known for its visual design and spatial arrangement, has been selected as a case study to showcase how to apply the methods proposed by this paper. The findings include the design principles for the water body, the arrangement for a route, and the planting strategies of the garden. The conservational strategies have been formed based on the findings, and the appliable potentials and limitations of the methods have also been discussed. • Establishing spatial-visual characteristics analysis framework using point-cloud data for historic gardens. • Using Jichang Garden as an example, its spatial characteristics have been revealed. • Forming the preserving strategies for Jichang Garden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant amount of evidence highlighting the health, wellbeing and social benefits of gardening during previous periods of crises. These benefits were also evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents a narrative review exploring gardening during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the different forms of gardening that took place during this crisis and key elements of this activity. Research about gardening during the pandemic focused on food (in)security and disrupted food systems, the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening, and the social dimensions of gardening. We offer three vignettes of our own research to highlight key insights from local, national and international perspectives of gardening during the pandemic. The paper's conclusion outlines how researchers, policy makers and public health practitioners can harness what has been learned from gardening during the pandemic to ensure these benefits are more widely available and do not exacerbate already entrenched health inequalities in society. • Gardening during times of crisis offers significant public health benefits. • Social and health benefits associated with gardening were evident during COVID-19. • This paper explores literature on what gardening during COVID-19 looked like. • There is a need to strengthen the role of gardening in policy to be prepared for future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Margaret Atwood's novel The Year of the Flood (2009), the second volume in her Maddaddam trilogy, in spite of its extreme originality, is reminiscent of a novel by Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974). Such a connection comes as no surprise, for Doris Lessing, similarly to Margaret Atwood, is one of the first women writers of science fiction in the second half of the twentieth century. Memoirs of a Survivor is not exactly a Sci-Fi novel, but rather a dystopia, yet it is a threshold for Doris Lessing that allows her to move on to the extra-terrestrial series of Canopus in Argo. It is exactly this labeling of genres that renders it difficult to attribute environmental concerns to novels that have attracted popular and critical attention merely as post-catastrophe, or better, apocalyptic works of fiction as Amitav Ghosh argues in The Great Derangement (Ghosh 2016). One aspect the two writers and their respective novels have in common is the exploration of the garden as democratic space, or, more precisely, a space where democracy is put to the test (Harrison 2008). This also allows for a comparison with Richard Powers' The Overstory (2018), where the entire planet with its forests might be considered as a garden to be taken care of. Moreover, the environmental activist movements are described as democratic organizations. In this respect all the novels explore social justice, communitarian ideals, - in fact utopias - giving voice to environmental projections of engagement and cura. With Arundhati Roy (1999), it is possible to claim that whenever environmental issues are at stake, it is after all a matter of democracy and of the questioning of democratic principles. The aim of this paper is to disentangle the key concepts of gardening and democracy as possible environmental utopias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the question of how much private gardens contributed to the supply of vegetables and fruit available for purchase in late medieval and early modern England. After an introduction describing the sale of crops from many monastic gardens in the later Middle Ages, the paper covers the surplus traded from gardens of both rich and poor in England to the early nineteenth century. Sources used include household accounts, estate records, gardeners' contracts, market records, tithe disputes and contemporary writings on gardening. Overall quantification of the sales of surplus produce is not possible from the data so far discovered but the diverse sources of information give an impression of a significant level of trade in surplus produce of all types: cheap vegetables and fruit sold in the open markets for general consumption and luxury items, pineapples, grapes and the like emanating from stoves and hothouses of the rich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current global pandemic, actions are taken to prevent Covid-19 spread, residents are embracing small-scale gardening activities in their homes; especially in low to middle income communities, 3rd world countries as in Africa, depending on individual activities. Despite that, there is a lack provided by literature review about home gardening, the paper then shifts to the exploration of the gender influence on home gardening, poses questions; how do gender roles influence home gardening habits, and how would such activities potentially benefit the gardeners, and are the benefits equally distributed or are they potentially skewed to one gender over the other? Using an imperical quantitative approach through a survey, the results imply hypotheses and test them using WarpPLS, to verify their validity. This paper highlight effects on the connection between gender, gardening activities, and their potential benefits. The findings can help urban authorities to create a fair and inclusive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the folk cultural methodologies developed by narrative practitioners, such as the Tree of Life and Team of Life, this paper describes the use of gardening metaphors in work with adults and young people in Rwanda. Many Rwandans have experiences of farming and gardening and readily took up gardening metaphors to reflect on their experiences, developing ideas like the need to 'weed' unhelpful influences, protect themselves from 'pests' and keep their preferred values and skills well 'watered'. Using this culturally resonant language allowed us to move away from Western ways of understanding to elicit and value local knowledges and cultural practices, including exploration of the ways in which expert knowledge about tending crops could be applied to the care of children. In this way, the use of gardening metaphors contributed to decolonising therapeutic practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A diverse repertoire of mobility-related green areas can no longer be neglected. • Roundabout intersections are valuable tesserae to construct resilient cities. • Roundabout green spaces must be integrated within the urban landscape mosaic. • A holist approach fosters economic, social, environmental sustainability. • The work provides cross-scale design tools for projects on mobility-related gardens. Abstract The paper presents a multi-criteria method for unitary projects related to open spaces along urban road networks, with a focus on green spaces at roundabout intersections, considering them as integral part of broader landscape systems, and therefore as an opportunity for the construction of green infrastructures. The sprawl of road networks and the evolution of their types have gradually created a remarkable repertoire of new categories of open spaces, which, despite their often small size and residual nature, collectively can no longer be neglected. Innovative urban planning can transform these residual spaces into a distinctive feature of the city. Within this framework, we present a case-study on green spaces inside and adjacent to urban roundabouts in the City of Imola (Bologna), in the Emilia Romagna Region (Italy). They have been conceived as gardens, in order to enhance cultural values and foster a responsible use of environmental resources. The novelty of work lies in the holistic and cross-scale approach. Our proposal is based on a combination of multiple design issues (scenic values, landscape ecology, socio-economic sustainability) and specific characters of the context, with the aim of fulfilling aesthetic and functional requirements at the landscape level. The study defines spatial composition criteria, vegetation abacus and maintenance plans, articulated according to the various systems we identified and the following greening categories: Wild Flowers areas, Urban Groves, Rain Gardens, and Dry Gardens. We provide planning and design tools as guidance for further exploration. Concepts and guidelines we define enrich the discussion on mobility-related green spaces and integrate the few indications and instances on landscaping at roundabouts reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed-methods paper examines the experience and effects of the loss of an allotment garden among gardeners in Zurich, Switzerland. The paper explores the subjective experience of garden loss using qualitative material gathered in field conversations with gardeners from an allotment area which was soon to be cleared for construction. In parallel, gardeners from the same area were surveyed before (2018) and after (2019) the clearance, thus constructing a natural experiment to measure effects on gardeners' social networks, social support and general and mental health. The analysis of the qualitative material shows the (imminent) loss of the garden was a distressing experience for most participants, a result which is strongly supported by the descriptive analysis of several survey questions. Analysis of the quantitative data with ANCOVA models gives support to a negative effect of garden loss on the number of social contacts and on emotional well-being, but not on other factors. The experience of garden loss shows strong parallels to that of loss of a home, but also differs from it in relevant ways. Improved designs of similar natural experiments could lead to more reliable results. These would, however, require researchers to observe planning processes from a very early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The relationship between grassroots urban gardening initiatives and policy-making is inherently ambivalent. • Community gardening is an example of collaborative governance and, at the same time, a form of sociopolitical antagonism. • Attempts to regulate community gardens often result in a problematic balance between promotion and control. • Attempts from policy-makers to co-opt and regulate community gardening can produce ambivalent and contradictory effects. • The complicated relation between communities' self-organization and public policies poses challenges to grassroots transitions. Abstract The aim of the paper is to show the inherent ambivalence of the relationship between policy-making and grassroots urban gardening initiatives. The voluntarism, variety and multiple meanings of community gardening, it is argued, is hardly compatible with the regulatory anxiety and isomorphic pressures that most policy schemes imply. The regulation of community gardening, in this frame, is very often caught in a delicate balance of promotion and control, co-optation and "policing" and risks to exacerbate already existing distinctions between collaborative and confrontational initiatives. We believe that addressing this ambivalence is crucial to a proper understanding of the socio-political meaning of community gardening, and of the problematic relationship between communities' self-organization, sustainable transitions, and urban governance in an age of austerity and neoliberalism. The topic is addressed with reference to the city of Rome, Italy, in light of a recently approved regulation for community gardening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea cultivation has a long history in China, and it is one of the pillar industries of the Chinese agricultural economy. It is therefore necessary to map tea gardens for their ongoing management. However, the previous studies have relied on fieldwork to achieve this task, which is time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a framework to map tea gardens using high-resolution remotely sensed imagery, including three scene-based methods: the bag-of-visual-words (BOVW) model, supervised latent Dirichlet allocation (sLDA), and the unsupervised convolutional neural network (UCNN). These methods can develop direct and holistic semantic representations for tea garden scenes composed of multiple sub-objects, thus they are more suitable than the traditional pixel-based or object-based methods, which focus on the local characteristics of pixels or objects. In the experiments undertaken in this study, the three different methods were tested on four datasets from Longyan (Oolong tea), Hangzhou (Longjing tea), and Puer (Puer tea). All the methods achieved a good performance, both quantitatively and visually, and the UCNN outperformed the other methods. Moreover, it was found that the addition of textural features improved the accuracy of the BOVW and sLDA models, but had no effect on the UCNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Lombard municipalities promoting urban gardening initiatives are located around and near the capital cities. • Of them, less than one in five municipalities has at least one foreign gardener. • The respondent foreign gardeners declare the relevance of this cultivation for increasing opportunities for socialization. • Thanks to this cultivation, the respondent foreign gardeners are more inclined to participate to the local community life and save money for food purchasing. • Social and food-related motivations are the most quoted among foreign gardeners. This paper examines the motivations that drive foreign gardeners to cultivate a garden in Lombard municipalities. Motivations underlying urban gardening are inspired by social, health, environmental and food-related benefits. Several studies document these benefits with reference to the entire population of gardeners, while ignoring the specific perspective of each social subgroup, mainly because of a lack of data. This scarce knowledge is particularly evident for the subset of foreign gardeners, i.e., migrants moving to Italy for work and/or family reasons who decide to cultivate an urban garden in the municipality of their residence. In turn, this prevents municipalities from adopting urban gardening projects that are consistent with the specific requirements of this group. As the regional government has legally recognized the importance of urban gardens and financed their realization, the Lombard municipalities have promoted many of these practices in their territories over recent years. However, neither the region nor the municipalities have created a database of these practices or collected information on the motivations that lead people in general – and foreign citizens in particular – to cultivate locally. This paper aims to fill that gap by presenting some results gained from the elaboration of two questionnaires sent to both the municipalities and the gardeners themselves. Findings indicate that about 21 % of the responding municipalities promote urban gardening initiatives. Of these municipalities, less than one in five have at least one foreign gardener. Foreign gardeners come mainly from North Africa and Eastern Europe, most of them are over 40 years old, and have usually lived with their families in Lombard municipalities for more than five years. Their motivations consist of a growing interest in participation in local communities, breaching multiple relationships and enforcing participation. Conversely, they attribute little importance to sharing values and strengthening personal and social identities, or to preserving the social ecological memory of ancient practices. Finally, they frequently highlight the contribution of garden cultivation in reducing pollution and in reconnection with food practices, making access to good food a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private domestic gardens have been the site of diverse inquiry in both the social and natural sciences. Intersected by these inquiries this paper focuses on how ‘weeds’ are (re)constituted through gardening practices in domestic gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand. The paper arises out of an interdisciplinary ecological and social scientific study of the factors influencing the distribution and regeneration of 12 bird-dispersed native woody species from Riccarton Bush, an urban forest remnant of significant ecological rarity, into surrounding residential properties. As part of this study we were especially interested in how people’s everyday experiences and encounters in their gardens guide their gardening practices and what possibilities, if any, these create for self-introduced native seedlings to establish, and mature into adults. Drawing inspiration from literatures on human–plant relations we use the concepts of performance, non-human and ‘planty’ agencies to argue that weeds are performed by people and plants rather than having a pre-determined or pre-figured meaning. Empirically the paper seeks to highlight the diverse, unique and disruptive agencies of plants. Methodologically it reflects on ways of engaging with and researching human–plant relations. In concluding, the paper examines how concepts of performance, non-human and planty agencies can provide insights for weed management and urban plant conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of garden culture conservation. In current garden conservation frameworks, garden owners’ values of their heritage gardens are rarely considered. What do garden owners value the most? What does it mean to heritage conservation? What are the objectives of garden conservation when taking garden owners’ views into consideration? Using data collected through qualitative interviews in Norway, we discover that garden owners most value the interaction with their garden and the feelings gained from the interaction. Also, we find the term ‘cultural heritage’ is confusing to the interviewees, since over half of them do not perceive their gardens as a cultural heritage. We compare the values of the interviewed Norwegian garden owners with those extracted from historic garden conservation charters and the values of gardens in a broader literature. The comparison shows that the values realised through the interaction between people and gardens are largely missing from current conservation approaches. Next, using theories from David E. Cooper, David Phillips and the Living Heritage Approach, we argue that the values embedded in the interaction between people and gardens are crucial in terms of fulfilling the goal of heritage conservation, and that garden owners’ values should be considered in conservation guidelines. In the end, we present a new approach to conserving garden heritage: garden culture conservation. By replacing the term ‘heritage’ with ‘culture’, we avoid the confusion of the meaning of ‘heritage’ to the public and extend the area of conservation to include both historic and ordinary gardens, as well as both tangible and intangible dimensions. Garden culture conservation aims to reinforce the connection between people and gardens, thus keeping alive garden culture in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of this study of landscape architecture results from the fact that it classifies the landscaped ecosystems on the territory of Craiova, describes the main parks and gardens within the city perimeter (both in terms of spatial characteristics and evolution over time) and emphasizes their complex importance (under ecological, sanitary, aesthetic, educational and spatial planning report). Emphasizing the need to protect and extend the areas belonging to landscaped ecosystems, this paper identifies and proposes several directions of action in this regard: proper maintenance of parks and gardens, both in terms of diversity and the richness of the current floristic fund, as well as in terms of the existing endowments; integral arrangement of Craiovița and Comițoiu parks as rest and relaxation spaces (in this sense, the transformation of Lake Craiovița into a real recreational area and for the practice of water sports is of special importance); the extension of the surfaces owned by the arranged ecosystems by transforming into squares or public gardens some vacant lands from the new neighbourhoods; improving the degree of arrangement of the parks and gardens of Craiova; restoration of street alignments damaged over time and their development by arranging arteries without such alignments; increasing the area owned by the species of trees and shrubs that are most indicated in the ecological conditions of Craiova, taking into account the current climatic trends and the possibilities of diminishing their effects; carrying out actions to raise awareness of the role that the population can play in protecting and enlarging the areas of landscaped ecosystems. In conclusion, we express our hope that this work will be a useful tool in the future management of the landscaped ecosystems in Craiova. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is composed of a series of moments that evolved from an inquiry with our community garden plot. This inquiry involved children's, educators', and families' experimentations and processes of "coming to know" the garden. We attempt to grapple with the messiness of a "garden" and the assemblages and binaries that exist within it. We experiment with sitting in our garden as a space not yet defined. Through this process, we found that a community garden is open to a plurality of possibilities. This entangled process of coming to know speaks to the imaginary and involves layers of touching, hearing, seeing, drawing, talking, writing, and storying our garden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, the Galleries of Modern London opened at the Museum of London, and included a re-making of London's Pleasure Gardens. Using an embedded ethnographic perspective at the museum, this paper explores the re-making of the gardens, and looks in detail at how and why the museum chose the gardens to explore London's history as a changing city. The gardens display required an ambitious combination of objects and display technologies, such as historic costume, film projections, Philip Treacy hats, object reproductions, specially made mannequins, and a soundscape, and this paper discusses the production and composition of these components. Reflecting on the gardens' place in London's history, the paper identifies what the gardens offer contemporary understandings of the city's past and the role of pleasure in public history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French picturesque gardens constructed during the last decades of the 18th century were a major vehicle to express the owners' artistic taste and world views, and offer a vantage point to observe the social, political and philosophical ideas of French Enlightenment. Current discussions on French picturesque gardens focus on their respect for nature and pursuit of "all times and places", yet not enough research has been conducted to examine the special representation of other in those gardens. This paper discusses the representation of other in both historical and geographical dimensions in a representative French picturesque garden Desert de Retz, and through architectural and hermeneutic reading of the garden, discussion on French art and aesthetic taste of the time, and examination of major works by representative philosophes, this paper exposes the different representation of the historical other and the geographical other in Enlightenment France, and argues that contrary to the fluid and dynamic image created for past stages in Western history, the image constructed for the Orient is completely divorced from its own context and history to become essentialist and static. The historical other is in fact still safely incorporated into the Enlightenment vision of a progressive development; only the Orient was the real other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Development of garden land has attracted political and media attention in recent years, yet there remained uncertainty over whether the issue was nationally or locally significant. Gardens are not a land use in their own right and have no special status in planning law. This enabled them to be considered, until very recently, as previously developed land according to The Brownfield Guide (). This allowed garden sites to be developed for new housing, thereby helping some authorities to meet their targets for residential development on brownfield land as monitored through their strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA). This paper reports the findings of a survey of local planning authorities carried out in 2009 and focused on planning applications and permissions on garden sites over a five year period ending 31 March 2008. The results reveal that garden development was a significant issue in only certain regional contexts, South East, London and West Midlands, and its actual and potential contribution to the local housing stock was variable. Where other forms of brownfield land were in short supply, garden sites might be crucial in meeting targets. The paper examines the policy framework underpinning such applications and shows that where local planning authorities had specific policies on the subject in place they were able to reach more robust decisions on garden site planning applications and there was less likelihood of first stage rejection decisions being overturned on appeal. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Garden visiting is a popular activity in Great Britain. This paper identifies the historical antecedents and accompanying development of garden visiting as a form of tourism and recreation, focusing on the management of gardens open to the public in both time and space. Such an approach reveals that many gardens have been established for some considerable time and visiting is by no means a new pastime. The paper reports on a survey of garden owners in Great Britain and uses historical reconstructions to assess the theme of continuity and change in garden management and visiting through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The garden at Full Street is reconstructed through maps, correspondence, botanical works, and a notebook in the Darwin papers in Cambridge University Library listing the plants and where they were grown. Whilst the fact of these gardens is not new, Elliott recreates these spaces and their uses - for pleasure, medical and scientific enquiry - in fresh detail. However, the way in which Erasmus' theories of evolution anticipated those of his grandson is one of the prisms through which the elder Darwin's contribution to science is revealed. [Extracted from the article]

There is increasing interest in the use of healing gardens in healthcare settings to provide therapeutic benefits. However it is not yet well understood how people who spend time in these gardens use these spaces, and whether the intended benefits are experienced. This paper evaluates visitor feedback about healing gardens at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, to gain insight into end-user experiences compared with existing literature about experiences of healing gardens and natural contexts. We have coded and analysed unsolicited comments left in visitors’ books over a period of four weeks immediately after the hospital was opened. Several themes have been identified relating to reasons for which people access the healing gardens; benefits they perceive from spending time in these spaces; and features and aspects of the gardens that are most appreciated. We conclude that the gardens at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital provide emotional respite to visitors, through appreciation of the views, being able to have time out, being in nature, restorative experiences, and access to outdoor air. The visitor feedback suggests that the original intention of the garden design has been largely successful, and provides insight into particular aspects of the garden design that are critical to enhancing visitor benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences is the property of Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As cities take center stage in developing and brokering strategies for sustainability, examining the uneven distribution of green infrastructure is crucial. Urban agriculture (UA) has gained a prominent role in urban greening and food system diversification strategies alike. Despite that it is the preeminent form of food production in North American cities, residential gardening has received little scholarly attention. Moreover, research on the intra-urban variability of home gardens is sparse. In this paper, we use a mixed-methods approach to assess the scale and scope of residential gardens in Portland, Oregon, a metropolitan region renowned for its innovations in sustainability. Using a combination of mapping, spatial regression, and a mail survey, we compare residential UA and the characteristics and motivations of gardeners in two socioeconomically differentiated areas of Portland and one of its major suburbs. Results demonstrate that engagement in UA is differentiated along both spatial and socioeconomic lines, with more educated respondents engaging for environmental reasons and more lowincome respondents relying on their gardens for food security. We contextualize our findings within broader urban processes, e.g. reinvestment in the urban core and displacement of poverty to the periphery. For policymakers, our results suggest the need for sustainability messaging that is sensitive to a variety of motivations and that resonates with a diverse population. For a city to reach a broader population, it may need to reframe its sustainability goals in new ways, while attending to the structural constraints to food access that cannot be resolved through local food production alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The garden is a place of experimentation, where gardeners try out plants and both see how they grow and explore how to use them to effect, but does that make the garden a 'laboratory'? Roberio Dias (2008) has described the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx (Roberto Burle Marx personal garden and nursery outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as a 'landscape laboratory'. Using the Sitio as a case study and Dias's 2008 essay as a point of departure, this paper asks, if a laboratory is 'a room or building equipped for scientific experiments, research or teaching', does the phrase 'garden as laboratory' accurately describe how the garden operates as a creative space? If it does not, what would be a more appropriate description? Considering the garden as an artist's studio recognises that, even while science is involved in the process of growing plants, its aim is to cultivate plants for aesthetic purposes. If each plant is a test, and the tests interact ecologically, then the art produced in the garden as studio is of a radically different type: a moving work of art. In reconceiving the garden as studio and its art as alive, I aim to help enrich theories of planting design to engage them with growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contributii Botanice is the property of Contributii Botanice and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

'Home garden' (HG) is a complex sustainable land use system combining annual and perennial crops, trees, shrubs, livestock and fishery. The flow of goods and services provides not only food and nutrition security and employment, but also other co-benefits. Though HGs have attracted international attention since 1950s, it has not been widely researched especially in the context of rural India. This paper presents the results based on a field study carried out in 100 HGs in Paschim Medinipur District in the West Bengal, located in eastern part of India. A structured questionnaire was used to identify different aspects related to HG characteristics, their role in household consumption, problem areas and the different socio-economic characteristics of the HG owners. The results suggest that home gardeners with a higher level of education and who are using modern inputs are able to derive more benefits from the HGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization can promote the replacement of native species by exotic species resulting in an increase in community's similarity over time. This process is called biotic homogenization, which is usually studied at large scale from species lists. Our paper addresses the effects of urbanization on plant community at local scale in areas where urban policies are implemented. We focus on private gardens as they are the most common components of green spaces in European urbanized areas. They are also a place where exotic species are introduced. Observations were made on spontaneous flora sampled from gardens in two study sites of the French Mediterranean: a large city and a village located in an urbanizing rural area. We evaluated how urban landscape influences floristic similarity and how exotic species affect homogenization. We divided each study site in three built-up density zones. As the urbanization process of both sites did not take place at the same time, we were able to assess the effect of time on floristic similarity. Results indicate that floristic similarity is less important in high dense built-up areas than in low dense ones. Exotic species tend to reduce floristic similarity in city centers and increase floristic similarity in low dense built-up areas in both sites. Landscape metrics calculated in built-up areas surrounding the gardens influence floristic similarity. Lastly, we found that urban planning in terms of built-up density affects biodiversity distribution and that private gardens can provide landscape connectivity within urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare environments have a high potential for causing stress to patients, visitors, and staff. Hospital gardens serve as natural environments that can play an important role in counterbalancing high stress levels, enhancing well-being, and supporting healing. The first aim of this study is to assess the perceived restorative qualities of hospital gardens for staff and potential patients and visitors. Second, the study aims to develop recommendations for upgrading existing hospital gardens to restorative ones and designing new healing gardens. Four gardens from three hospitals in Lower Austria were rated by 411 participants in an online questionnaire and by 28 staff members from the hospitals in a series of workshops. Participants evaluated the gardens regarding their appearance and restorative qualities using semantic differential (SD) and additional psychological rating scales. They also evaluated an imaginary ideal hospital garden for restoration, which served as a reference. The most natural garden was rated closest to the reference garden and scored highest for restoration. SD factor analyses revealed six factors that are relevant for design: mood, well-being, nature, mysticism, tranquility, and sense of touch. Based on the findings, we developed recommendations for the (re)design of hospital gardens, which can be used by architects, planners, administrators, and researchers of healthcare facilities to improve healing gardens at hospitals. The method presented in this paper allows for the evaluation of existing hospital gardens, comparison of gardens regarding their appearance and restorative potential, and (re)design of hospital gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]