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In current consumer society, food has just become another commodity from the capitalist and global economics machinery. Within this context, being able to feed oneself apart from this system --by means of growing, harvesting and consuming your own food-- has become, actually, a social aspiration and an ideological allegation. In this contribution we research the role played by vegetable gardens for self-consumption in Sierra de Huelva (Andalusia, Spain) by analysing different aspects far beyond their productive function. Surveys, interviews and field observations have been used to obtain relevant information that contributes to define these agro-food systems as multi-functional ones. Besides, and although they are marginally represented in space, they are of key importance because of their singularity within a landscape dominated by the Mediterranean wood-pastures (dehesa). We reach the conclusion that gardeners that dwell in this region give these gardens and their harvests a special meaning, not only because the quality of the obtained food, but because the emotional attachment, the symbolic value and the wellness provided to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable access to safe, economic and nutritious food was at increasing risk many decades ago, burdening society and social relations, especially in urban areas. It is now known that climate change, the pandemics and the economic crisis are directly responsible for food security. For this reason, science has undertaken to safeguard the future of food. Any proposal to reduce the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis on cities must be based on ecological farming methods to achieve sustainable urban horticulture. Co-cultivation is an old forgotten cultivation method, beneficial to mankind and the environment. It can make a positive contribution to the agri-food planning of a city and to tackling the effects of climate change. A bibliographic review is carried out in the Mediterranean region concerning the co-cultivation (companion planting) of aromatic-medicinal plants and vegetables on the University premises (USAMV Bucharest). An attempt is made to evaluate the adaptability of Mediterranean plants and the evolution of their co-cultivation. The results of this research will be useful to city managers, architects, agronomists, etc. This work aims to prove through a comparative method that the use of co-cultivation is a critical factor in sustainable urban agriculture and, consequently, food security and that climate change can affect people's eating habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural light is imperative for the growth and development of plants. Nevertheless, spectrum of natural light is inadequate to meet the requirement of crops. Artificial lighting system by use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) could be adopted in horticulture in closed chambers, in greenhouses, in open fields, before pre-harvest until post-harvest storage in controlled environment. Various beneficial and physical properties of LEDs make it convenient for revolutionizing crop cultivation even in earth and on space. Selection of appropriate LED light could boost crop production, improve colour in ornamental plants, enhance phytochemical and nutrient contents, regulate flowering, induce or delay ripening, delay senescence, reduce microbial growth and tremendously improve crop production and preservation in the non-chemical way safe for consumption. LED light in combination with different colours and alteration of wavelength could lead to revolution of horticulture technology in producing super food microgreens and other vegetables possessing desired qualitative and quantitative traits. This innovative and futuristic advancement can be exploited to feed salubrious horticultural crops to the burgeoning population on land and off land. Monochromatic light and combination of LED lights can be employed in cold storage for preventing crop spoilage while enhancing various qualitative traits. Though previous researches have reported numerous benefits of LEDs still there is a vast scope for breakthrough novel inventions which could ameliorate LED lighting to an enormous extend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the entanglement of knowledge regarding vegetable gardening in early colonial Bengal through the prism of the yearly vegetable exhibitions organized in Calcutta by the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India (AHSI, founded in 1820). The European members of the society thought that there were not enough vegetables grown in Bengal and that the commonly eaten vegetables were nutritionally inadequate. In order to 'improve' local vegetable cultivation, the society held a yearly exhibition in which Bengali gardeners received prizes for growing new vegetables, such as cauliflower and cabbage. To supply these exhibitions, the society ordered large shipments of seeds and then distributed them to malis (Bengali gardeners) around Calcutta. In the 1830s they extended this practice to their satellite societies across India. The end result was an increase in the cultivation of these vegetables, and eventually their absorption into local cuisine. Yet, Bengali gardeners continued to bring other vegetables to the exhibitions which were not from the AHSI seed. Eventually, the society's officers reacted to these unsolicited contributions by including awards for them. However, many members were anxious and unsure about these changes, constantly trying to make the vegetable exhibitions mimic the vegetable market at Covent Garden in London. In order to contain the changing exhibitions, they reiterated a divide between 'native' and 'foreign' vegetables by holding separate exhibitions for each. As such, this article reformulates the idea of mimicry, focusing more strongly on British ambivalence and anxiety as they tried to reiterate colonial boundaries with mixed success. • The British in India developed a view of Indian vegetables as nutritionally deficient. • These ideas shaped the exhibitions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India (AHSI, founded 1820). • Bengali gardeners shaped the exhibitions by bringing a wide range of vegetables. • The AHSI tried to reiterate a colonial divide by classifying these vegetables as 'native'. • Argues that colonial mimicry and hybridity cannot adequately describe the cultural entanglement evident at the exhibitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to share lessons learned from partnering with the national organization AgrAbility to develop horticultural therapy workshops for Veterans, to explore the need for promoting the profession, and to discuss the value of partnering with other allied healthcare organizations. The goals of this project were to develop and pilot horticultural therapy workshops for veterans or active duty service members, to connect veterans to other programs and services offered by Tennessee AgrAbility Project (TAP), and to discuss how horticulture and nature-based experiences provide therapeutic outcomes. The workshops were designed as an introduction to horticultural therapy for participants, who may or may not have experience in gardening or agriculture. Data was collected in the form of anonymous evaluations filled out by participants after each workshop. Evaluations found that participants enjoyed the hands-on activities with plants, as well as learning how horticulture could be a positive activity to improve their well-being. Recommendations for future research would be to measure details as to the impact of each activity, and workshops overall, on attendees. Future projects could also schedule follow-ups with participants to determine how they benefited from AgrAbility services offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coordinated, multi-component school-based interventions can improve health behaviors in children, as well as parents, and impact the weight status of students. By leveraging a unique collaboration between Texas AgriLife Extension (a federal, state and county funded educational outreach organization) and the University of Texas School of Public Health, the Texas Grow! Eat! Go! Study (TGEG) modeled the effectiveness of utilizing existing programs and volunteer infrastructure to disseminate an enhanced Coordinated School Health program. The five-year TGEG study was developed to assess the independent and combined impact of gardening, nutrition and physical activity intervention(s) on the prevalence of healthy eating, physical activity and weight status among low-income elementary students. The purpose of this paper is to report on study design, baseline characteristics, intervention approaches, data collection and baseline data.Methods: The study design for the TGEG study consisted of a factorial group randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which 28 schools were randomly assigned to one of 4 treatment groups: (1) Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) only (Comparison), (2) CATCH plus school garden intervention [Learn, Grow, Eat & Go! (LGEG)], (3) CATCH plus physical activity intervention [Walk Across Texas (WAT)], and (4) CATCH plus LGEG plus WAT (Combined). The outcome variables include student's weight status, vegetable and sugar sweetened beverage consumption, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. Parents were assessed for home environmental variables including availability of certain foods, social support of student health behaviors, parent engagement and behavior modeling.Results: Descriptive data are presented for students (n = 1369) and parents (n = 1206) at baseline. The sample consisted primarily of Hispanic and African American (53 % and 18 %, respectively) and low-income (i.e., 78 % eligible for Free and Reduced Price School Meals program and 43 % food insecure) students. On average, students did not meet national guidelines for vegetable consumption or physical activity. At baseline, no statistical differences for demographic or key outcome variables among the 4 treatment groups were observed.Conclusions: The TGEG study targets a population of students and parents at high risk of obesity and related chronic conditions, utilizing a novel and collaborative approach to program formulation and delivery, and a rigorous, randomized study design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article reports on a historical study of gardeners and their work in Bamberg, Germany, undertaken as part of the celebratory naming of Bamberg as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1993. The time period celebrated by the award covers the beginning of the 18th century to the present, although Bamberg's gardening and viticultural fame and legacy date to the Middle Ages. The author aims to show the effects of modernization and globalization on Bamberg's historic gardening practice. The gardeners' traditions as an organized guild or association are also examined.

The author talks about several issues related to the horticulture industry. The author offers an overview of garden fashion. The author cites some of the trends in gardening, including vegetable gardening. According to the author, the economic crisis may be an explanation of why there is a new romanticism in gardens.

In the Gambia numerous projects have been implemented to boost vegetable production. A survey was conducted in Kanifing Municipality and Western Division of the Gambia to determine the level of technology development and transfer. The result shows that the total membership of the intervention sites is 726 and 1,115 growers in the non-intervention sites respectively. From the survey 92% of farmers considered variety improvement as a priority area for technology development. The result indicated that 45% of the respondents regard that 80% of technologies comes research and farmers and 90% of technology dissemination to farmers is through the public extension system, and 20% of respondents mentioned farmer groups. The aim of this study was therefore to examine acquisition, technology development, and transfer to farmers and to come with appropriate strategies of technology transfer in The Gambia in the areas of production and marketing of vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A field survey was carried on in Gyöngyösoroszi, Hungary, near to an abandoned lead/zinc mine to analyse the metal contamination of flooded and non-flooded vegetable gardens, and to evaluate the health risks to local population. Contamination levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and zinc were measured in soil and homegrown vegetable samples and bioconcentration factors and hazard indices were calculated. The high metal contents of flooded vegetable gardens were caused by floods, the results indicated significant differences between flooded and non-flooded vegetable gardens. The most accumulating vegetable was sorrel, the most mobile elements were cadmium and lead. Arsenic was not available for vegetables. The health risk was calculated for two exposure routes: ingestion of soil and ingestion of vegetables. The site-specific exposure parameters were established after a population based survey and a special equation was created to calculate the health risk due to homegrown vegetable consumption. The highest risk was associated with ingestion of vegetables, the most hazardous element being lead. The hazard index did not exceed the threshold value of one in flooded or non-flooded gardens. The analyses of health risk indicated that despite the high metal concentrations of soil the contamination of vegetable gardens does not pose an unacceptable risk to the inhabitants of the village. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study describes the self‐reported health and well-being status of field and packhouse workers in UK vegetable horticulture, and tests the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the self-reported health of workers on organic and conventional horticultural farms. The majority of those sampled were migrant workers (93%) from Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine. More than 95% of the respondents were aged 18-34 and recruited through university agricultural faculties in East European or employed via UK agencies. The health of 605 farm workers (395 males and 210 females) was measured through the use of four standard health instruments. Farm workers'' health was significantly poorer than published national norms for three different health instruments (Short Form 36, EuroQol EQ‐5D and the Visual Analogue Scale). There were no significant differences in the health status of farm workers between conventional and organic farms for any of these three instruments. However, organic farm workers scored higher on a fourth health instrument the Short Depression Happiness Scale (SDHS) indicating that workers on organic farms were happier than their counterparts working on conventional farms. Multiple regression analysis suggested that the difference in the SDHS score for organic and conventional farms is closely related to the range and number of tasks the workers performed each day. These findings suggest that a great deal of improvement in the self-reported health of farmers will need to occur before organic farms meet the requirements of the ‘Principle of Health’ as described by IFOAM. Ensuring that farm workers have a varied range of tasks could be a cost effective means of improving self-reported health status in both organic and conventional farming systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The "Pro Huerta" program, in the province of Chaco, first began with vegetable gardens set up in the spring - summer season 1992/93. After ten years it has become a large scale program, known and implemented in every place in the province. The main objective of this study has been to understand, in relation to the "Pro Huerta" program, the perception of the different social actors involved; from the classification of direct beneficiaries in accordance with their socio-cultural and structural characteristics, through surveys carried out among the participants of the program who live in County 1° de Mayo. These surveys were processed by means of cluster analysis, thus completing the first part of the project. The second part began once they had the classification of the beneficiaries, and all the volunteer representatives. It was meant to gather information by means of detailed interviews that gave grounds to understand the vision "from the actors` point of view", being the core of the qualitative analysis. The number of people interviewed was determined by an intentional sampling up to theoretical saturation. This research allowed outstanding information for the construction of including proposals from the program in the beneficiary county community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need to test the efficacy of weed control technologies on a commercial scale. Therefore, large-plot field studies were conducted on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) farms during 1999 and 2000 to compare the effect of 1,3-dichloropropene+ chloropicrin (1,3-D+Pic) application methods on rootknot nematode (Meloidogyne spp.), nutsedge (Cyperus spp.) populations, and tomato growth and fruit yield. Treatments were 1,3-D + Pic (65:35 v/v) applied broadcast at 250 L·ha-1; 1,3-D + Pic (65:35 v/v) applied in-bed at 330 L·ha-1; and methyl bromide (MBr) + Pic (67:33 v/v) applied in-bed at 350 kg·ha-1. Both 1,3-D + Pic treatments received a broadcast application of the herbicide pebulate at a rate of 4 kg·ha-1 before fumigant injection. The results indicated that MBr + Pic and 1,3-D + Pic applied in-bed + pebulate resulted in the lowest rootknot counts, with nearly three times less nematodes than treatment with 1,3-D + Pic applied broadcast + pebulate. However, there were no differences among the treatments for nutsedge density, tomato plant height and vigor, and marketable and non-marketable fruit weight. This finding indicated that by applying 1,3-D + Pic broadcast, it is possible to reduce fumigant rates and personnel poisoning risks and maintain the same tomato yield, and nutsedge and rootknot nematode control as with MBr + Pic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vegetable growers must often hold transplants produced in multi-cellular flats for extended periods past the time they would normally transplant due to adverse environmental conditions for field planting. Research was conducted to determine the influence of three transplant ages (one, two, and four weeks after emergence) and two transplant cell volumes (102.5 cm 3 and 280.8 cm3) on 'Athena' muskmelon (Cucumis melo L. Reticulatus group) development and yield. Transplants produced in the smaller cell volume had fewer leaves, and less height, leaf area, and dry shoot weight than those produced in cells with larger volumes. Generally, as the age of the transplant increased, leaf number, height, leaf area, and dry shoot weight of muskmelon seedlings increased linearly, regardless of transplant cell volume. Plants produced in the large cell volume produced greater early season (first four harvests) marketable melon numbers and weights per hectare than those from the small cell volume; and, two-week-old transplants produced greater marketable melon yields compared to one or four-week-old transplants indicating that delaying transplanting by only a few weeks will potentially reduce yields. For total-season production, marketable muskmelon numbers and weights were similar for the cell volumes and transplant ages evaluated. However, marketable melon numbers per hectare increased linearly with transplant age, while marketable melon weights increased quadratically with transplant age. Two-week-old transplants grown in the small cell volume would be the best option for muskmelon growers if they are concerned only about total-season yields. However, if growers want to maximize early-season yields then twoweek- old transplants grown in the large cell volume would be the best choice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To achieve increment of the yields and to preserve the fertility of soils and substrate in the continuous exploitations of vegetable garden and organoponics, the combined effect of dose of the residual of solid biogas was studied (0; 0,5; 1,0; 1,5 and 2,0 kg/m-2), in three application moments to the beginning, alternately and in each cultivation of sequences of vegetables by means of a design of blocks at random with factorial arrangement; in the organoponics the same doses were studied at random in a design of blocks. He/she measured the yield of the vegetables and samplings of soil were made to the beginning and when concluding each study, being determined pH, P2O5, K2O and MO, in the case of the organoponics the watery method was used and in the vegetable garden that of soil. of the analysis of the results you concludes that in intensive vegetable garden in exploitation, 1 kg/m-2 of the residual of biogas should be applied each two cultivations and in organoponics, 0,5 kg/m-2 with the same frequency; in both cases the yields are increased above 20 %; being reached an economic benefit for the vegetable garden of $ 18,00/m²/year, and in the organoponics of $ 8,48/m²/year; also the contents of P2O5, K2O and MO increase when concluding the cycles of the vegetables so much in the soils of vegetable garden like in the substrate of organoponics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, a network of market gardens throughout Istanbul provisioned the city with fresh vegetables. These bostans and their gardeners held a respected place in Istanbul life, contributing to the city's food and employment needs. Today, only fragments remain. Massive urban development, intense competition for metropolitan space, modernization, changing institutions and laws, and the global industrialization of food have threatened this tradition with extinction. But in spite of the overwhelming forces behind their demise, some of Istanbul's bostans persist. Efforts to support and promote the gardens, and to draw from the expertise and experience of their gardeners, are emerging. From a historical perspective, this article examines Istanbul's bostans to understand their meaning and contribution to the city's people and landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations of dooryard gardens, kitchen gardens, home gardens, and house-lot gardens fall unequally into one of three groupings. The first are those that treat the plants in the gardens as biological entities and define a space considered a culturally controlled biological community or habitat. The second are those that consider plants cultural traits and the space defined by their positions a setting for household activities. The third conceives of plants as design elements within a garden or a landscape that frames a house or provides a setting for formal human performances. Recent decades have witnessed a broadening focus in the study of gardens, from spatial characteristics and biological content to social and cultural concerns such as reciprocity networks, contested spaces, and the concept of "dwelling." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]