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The renaissance in urban agriculture is driven by its contributions to fostering more sustainable, healthy, and renaturalized cities. While urban gardens are usually designed to improve food security or serve social purposes, they also offer additional benefits. The aim of this research is to study the urban allotment gardens in Valladolid, Spain, highlighting their capacity to support low-income populations and their potential contribution to urban cooling. As a result of research in twelve plots across four gardens, we found that crop selection in Valladolid aligns with broader urban gardening trends in the Global North, with production adapted to limited plot space and varying significantly by season. In addition, we observed that urban allotment gardens provide more stable and cooler temperatures compared to urban gray spaces, although not as significantly as urban parks. The cooling effect was most pronounced during the summer, a season with the highest number of crops and the warmest temperatures. The study identified that greater crop cover above soil had a more significant cooling effect at the plot level. Surprisingly, crop abundance and crop diversity showed a weak correlation with cooling benefits. As a complement, survey questionnaires conducted with gardeners revealed their awareness of climate change and its perceived direct threat to their crops, health, and city. The future concerns of gardeners regarding the availability of water for both crop growth and the development of urban allotment gardens are emphasized. The findings provide results on self-produced food, urban cooling, and the opinion of gardeners, underscoring the multifunctional contributions of urban gardens to cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a visual essay about small-scale urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda. It starts by introducing the context of Kampala, particularly, the K-zones, which are informal settlements with limited access to services, infrastructure and public spaces. This creates an urban environment where the health and well-being of dwellers in the K-zones are compromised. In this context, a partnership between Danish non-profit organisation, Dreamtown, and Ugandan non-profit organisation, Network for Active Citizens, has facilitated the creation of eight green, public spaces. These are spaces for urban agriculture, while additionally functioning as public space for the communities, spaces for skills training, livelihood activities and non-formal education. While a vision with the green, public spaces has been to provide training in urban agriculture for increased food security and to foster green livelihoods, residents explain that urban gardens must reach a certain scale to be economically sustainable for households. In conclusion, the essay showcases small-scale, low-tech urban gardening to optimise scarce urban space in informal settlements. Gardens which are more than just a space for urban agriculture, but also act as communal spaces for health and well-being in the communities, are more sustainable in the long term, especially during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's current urban gardening promotion policies mainly focus on community gardens and lack in-depth research on the differentiated needs of different urban gardeners. To meet the diverse needs of China's gardeners, this study proposes a typology that classifies gardeners into urban native and migrant ones based on their urban and rural living experiences in China. A questionnaire survey conducted in the core area of Chongqing city revealed significant differences and some similarities in gardening motivations and behaviors between urban native and migrant gardeners: (1) Although most of the gardeners approved of the value of food production and green scenery creation that Chinese urban gardening has, and disapproved of its value for family income generation, the urban native gardeners' disapproving attitude towards family income generation, and their approval of green scenery creation were more assertive, while on the contrary, the urban migrant gardeners had a more robust approval attitude towards food production. (2) The urban native gardeners preferred proximity and small private spaces for a combination of ornamental vegetation and edible vegetables. In contrast, the urban migrated gardeners preferred larger areas for gardening in non-community spaces and leaned towards edible vegetables. (3) Both have shared motivations related to the recreation and ecological conservation values of urban gardening. Given the above differences and similarities, this paper proposes an urban gardening development strategy that meets the needs of the two types of gardeners in China, including space planning and design, operation, and management of gardening spaces, and organization of activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inadequacy of agricultural production due to environmental factors and injustices in accessing food as a result of increasingly profit-oriented production-distribution-consumption processes have led to the food crisis in many cities worldwide. The fragility of the current food systems in the face of all these problematic conditions calls for alternative strategies to be developed. Food commons, in this sense, emerges as a novel form of commoning that blends practical aims (sharing of land, resources, and tools) with social aspirations (fostering cooperation, self-management, and community involvement) of the urban commons to address food-related problems. In this context, this study focuses on collective food production within urban gardens while accepting urban gardening as a form of food commoning. It further explores the role of common spaces and the social dynamics of urban gardening groups for urban food production. All these are discussed through a selected case study: METU Garden (ODTÜ Bostanı). Accordingly, this research aims to relate the social structures and spatial qualities of the METU Garden to food commons theories and frameworks. Acknowledging how food commoning practices occur in community-led urban gardens such as METU Garden can contribute to developing novel, bottom-up, and inclusive design strategies to tackle food-related problems in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green areas serve both the mental and physical health of the people living in the settlements; therefore, the ornamental plants used on green areas currently have a prominent role in reducing the effects of climate change and urbanization, as well as in providing ecosystem services. This is a dynamically changing, new field that requires close cooperation with several scientific fields, such as landscape architecture and plant physiology, genetics, plant breeding, and ecology. The monitoring and research of settlement communities as ecological systems greatly serves the perception of the effects of climate change and helps to mitigate them. The sustainability and economic operation of established urban green space systems can be made effective by applying innovative technologies. The Special Issue "Ornamental Plants and Urban Gardening" was launched in 2022 and published 13 articles on the topic until 31 July 2023. The published articles also have a very wide spectrum of topics, which also shows the diversity and the interdisciplinary nature of the scientific field. In the following, we present the main topics of the published articles and the results with which their authors contributed to the enrichment of the scientific field. We present a brief summary of the articles in shorter subsections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In recent years, a growing number of citizen‐led gardens have appeared in the urban public spaces of large cities across the world. While many of these projects are initially launched informally without any support from the state, they gradually become integrated into the social fabric of the city. To understand the evolution of the formal–informal boundaries of the practice, we argue that we should be paying attention to the specific institutional contexts that frame gardeners' interactions with public authorities. Drawing from a study of citizen‐led gardens in Mexico City, we show that informal urban gardening becomes a disconnected‐from‐the‐state practice. On the one hand, the Mexico City government has shown a growing interest in regulating urban agriculture. On the other hand, gardeners are increasingly trying to find their own ways to formalize and perennate their practice. We suggest that this disconnection between gardeners and the state is best explained by the weakness of the institutional context in which their interactions take place. A top‐down policymaking process, along with the incapacity and unwillingness of the multi‐leveled city government to implement policies effectively, reinforces norms of mistrust and generates low expectations among gardeners as they interact with local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, the surveyed community gardeners quickly and autonomously set rules through discussions and continued their activities even with some restrictions. • Community gardeners felt more spiritual well-being than physical health benefits. • The need to care for the vegetables was also a motivation to continue their activities. • Community gardens can play a pivotal role in bolstering urban resilience. Numerous studies underscore the role of community gardens in sustaining food security, physical and mental health, and social networks during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to community resilience in different contexts of each country. Despite the rich history of urban gardening, Japan remains a geographical gap. This study conducted a mixed-method case study in suburban Tokyo and addresses the unique response of community gardeners to the pandemic within the Japanese context. The survey revealed that gardeners proactively established rules to navigate the crisis quickly through discussion and sustained their gardening activities. The findings also showed that their continuing activities helped the gardeners maintaining physical and mental health, and notably keeping their ikigai , sense of purpose in life in the unusual days. Thus, this study provided new evidence that community gardens may contribute to urban resilience, which indicates the significance of incorporating them into urban green space planning as a preparatory measure for future social crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The types of the city-regional, i.e. city-near rural, peri-urban and intra-urban agriculture ("urban agriculture") were qualitatively recorded in this study on the basis of an online research. The types of agriculture were assigned to main actors and their main intention. Profit-oriented companies, non-profit-oriented urban gardening initiatives and the administrations of the cities and municipalities were named as the main actors. The companies manage both open land areas and greenhouse areas, work in building-integrated or building-bound agriculture. They use open spaces, cages, stables, plant growth chambers or combined systems such as aquaponics to produce a wide variety of products. They use soil, substrates, hydroponic media or growing media. Their services range from the production of arable and horticultural crops to animal husbandry; Processing and refining of raw materials are included. The raw materials are used to produce food for humans, animal feed or to generate energy. Nature conservation and biodiversity services are increasingly being integrated. There are also social benefits. Funding measures play an important role in the orientation of many companies. Not-for-profit, urban gardening takes place in public spaces, community gardens and in house and allotment gardens. The focus here is on questions of lifestyle, self-realization, participation and cooperation, self-sufficiency, shaping the environment and experiencing nature. The common good-oriented work of the cities and municipalities themselves leads to programs and concepts in terms of services of general interest, but also to their own measures that represent the framework for urban agriculture. For this purpose, guiding concepts such as the edible city, urban-regional food systems, food councils, sponge city or green city concepts are adapted and further developed. The targeted addressing, networking and, if necessary, financial support of the economically working farms, the socially oriented working urban gardeners and the public welfare-oriented cities and municipalities that have to create the framework conditions for urban agriculture appear to be of central importance in order to support and promote agriculture in its multifunctionality and to develop its huge potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promise of urban gardening (UG) is allowing individuals to shape and engage with the built environment, bringing people together in public space. Municipalities may promote UG in public space for a wide variety of reasons such as enabling integration, reducing crime, or promoting area attractivity. While there is a general sense that UG can contribute to inclusive public space in these efforts, previous research provides ambiguous findings. UG in public space requires balancing inclusive and exclusive practices to create common values, as a select group of engaged members inherently shape space in their interest. UG initiatives vary considerably with respect to their aims, organisational forms, and spatial contexts – affecting inclusion in public space in different manners. The article seeks to unpack how urban settings, organisational forms, and municipal enabling affect UG practices towards inclusion in public space. To do so, the article draws on the theory of urban commons and intertwines it with research on inclusion in public space. This provides an understanding of multi-faceted UG governance and its exclusionary aspects. A framework is not only developed and applied to critically, but also constructively, to review how municipalities enable UG. A comparative analysis of UG initiatives in three Northern European municipalities explores both municipal enabling and the co-production of inclusive public space. The research abductively refines the framework for understanding the co-production of inclusive public space in UG. We argue that the findings and resulting framework have implications for research and for municipal enabling of UG towards inclusive public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vernacular practices in the public spaces of modern Ukrainian cities and vernacular gardening in particular can be perceived as a metaphor for the transformation of modern Ukrainian society and a way of addressing relational issues ingrained in relatively recent political history. 1 Vernacular Gardening as Post-Soviet Individual Practice The modern Ukrainian vernacular garden is the antithesis of the Soviet practice of home gardening, which has a centralised complexion. The semi-structured interview I conducted with gardener Tetyana, a resident of Rusanivka, revealed the following key characteristics of the garden she created. Thus, this case of vernacular gardening shows the peculiarity of the practice, which contrasts with Soviet practice as well as present-day practice of creating communal gardens. [Extracted from the article]

The depletion of natural resources, the increase in environmental problems and land use - the advancing urbanization brings with it a series of challenges that must be solved by sustainable and innovative approaches. In this context, it is particularly important to make use of existing potential in spatial and environmental planning, in order to guarantee sustainable and socially responsible urban development in the future. In particular, the revitalization of brownfields as Green Innovation Areas offers potential for the sustainable use of former industrial sites and for strengthening bio-economic management. Urban gardening is to be understood as a form for the use of inner-city brownfields as Green Innovation Areas, which can significantly contribute to a sustainable urban development. The urban gardening project Kölner Neuland serves as an example to show how a part of a 44,000 m² industrial brownfield in Cologne's Bayenthal district was revitalized by an urban garden. First, there will be an overview of the basic framework conditions based on the evaluation of existing technical literature. Subsequently, the topic of urban gardening will be treated as a form of Green Innovation Areas. In this context, it is also explained how urban gardening can promote a more sustainable and socially just urban development. In order to understand and evaluate the background of the urban gardening project Kölner Neuland, a detailed analysis of the project is required. For this reason, the historical course, financial aspects, current marketing measures as well as goals and visions of Kölner Neuland are explained after an overall view of the city. On the basis of the gained and evaluated insights of an expert interview, the urban gardening project Kölner Neuland will be examined for its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It was found that the urban garden Kölner Neuland is to be evaluated quite positively however, some aspects show the need for action. As a result of this work, recommendations for the future development of the urban gardening project Kölner Neuland are formulated. A distinction can be made between recommendations for action in the areas of financing, public perception, and control. In addition, the central conditions for a successful revitalization of inner-city brownfields through urban gardening are defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planned after the City Beautiful Movement and Garden City Movement, Manila City and Quezon City, now among Metro Manila's 16 cities, did not result in the desired outcomes of their planners. The history of unfulfilled visions that began with Burnham's 1905 Plan for Manila repeated in similar fashion in Quezon City in its 1949 Frost-Arellano Plan. How do Metro Manila's public green spaces, as remnants of these plans, sustained specific visions for meeting human needs? To find answers, we focused on Rizal Park and the University of the Philippines (UP) Academic Oval – two public green spaces that remained from the Burnham and Frost-Arellano plans. Contemporary uses of these spaces suggest that the intermingling of the upper and lower classes as envisioned in these plans is limited; nonetheless, they represent endeavours by fairly diverse groups to actively satisfy human needs within and beyond how these spaces were initially designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demise of public space in cities across the Global North has received considerable scrutiny from urban scholars in recent years, with accounts of the loss, privatisation and increased regulation of public space prevalent within the academic literature. This paper seeks to complicate these dominant narratives of public space transformation by exploring the complexities of existing public spaces and the emergence of new spaces of publicness in the city. It uses a case study of community gardening in mundane and everyday neighbourhood spaces to provide a more nuanced and progressive reading of the relations between publicness and space in the city. Drawing on empirical materials from recent research on community gardening projects in 15 cities in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA, the paper highlights how community gardening is creating new environments of publicness across public, private and in-between spaces that complicate both the end of public space discourse and conventional understandings of public space within urban studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum: Architectura is the property of Wydawnictwo SGGW 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.)

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rolniczego im. Hugona Kollataja w Krakowie 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.)

【Objective】 In order to solve the contradiction of water consume between urban gardens and social life, the establishment of water-saving lawns has become the main direction of urban green space development.【Method】‘Houndog Ⅴ’ and‘Jaguar IVG’ were used as experimental materials in the present study, and they were cultured under four different water supply conditions: 15 %-20 %, 20 %-25 %, 25 %-30 %, and 30 %-40 %. The contents of proline(Pro), malondialdehyde(MDA), chlorophyll(Chl) and(P_n) Net Photosynthetic rate,(T_r) Transpiration, and(G_s)Stomatal Conductance have been measured.【Result】The growth of water conditions on the ‘Houndog Ⅴ’ of the lower limit was 25 %-30 %(moderate irrigation), and the ‘Jaguar IVG’ growth of water conditions limit was 20 %-25 %(mild irrigation).【Conclusion】With better lawn water-saving potential, the demand of Festuca arundinacea Schreb ‘Jaguar IVG’ for water was lower than that of the Festuca arundinacea Schreb P ‘Houndog Ⅴ’. Under the 20 %-25 %(mild irrigation) water conditions, the ‘Houndog Ⅴ’ meets the needs of lower quality lawn green landscape. The Festuca arundinacea Schreb ‘Jaguar IVG’ landscape effects and the ability to maintain the green period are more stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions for collective action (ICAs), comprising individuals that informally organize to manage collective resources, have gained recognition as a significant means of informal governance of common resources alongside the more formal schemes of privatization and top‐down regulation. Using the case study of community gardens, this article locates ICAs within the broader phenomenon of self‐organization in complex systems, and inquires whether ICAs exhibit dynamics of social contagion and diffuse in accordance with patterns that prevail in self‐organized complex systems. Applying quantitative methods derived from the field of complexity, we measure the temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal diffusion of community gardens in the city of Jerusalem. The results suggest that the spread of community gardens in the urban space displays patterns of self‐organization and social contagion. More generally, these findings suggest that ICAs may scale from the micro to the macro level in a bottom‐up, self‐expanding manner, while maintaining the advantages of local, commons‐based arrangements. This perspective carries significant policy implications, and highlights the potential use of ICAs as a means for the governance of public resources, not only on a local, micro scale but also on a more global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in urban gardening is growing as a means of enhancing social contact and reusing urban spaces. This practice in fact has positive effects in social and environmental terms. Positive effects include the increased social integration of people at risk of exclusion (elderly people, above all), the reduction of anthropic pressure on natural resources (the soil in particular) as well as the green requalification of vacant spaces. Because of these effects, urban gardening has spread especially in extensively urbanized and metropolitan areas where land consumption and pollution are more intensive, and also social distress and loneliness are more diffuse. Milan, New York and Barcelona are just a few examples of large metropolises where urban gardening is widely spread. On the contrary, urban gardens are not very common in mountainous areas, within which the reduced anthropic pressure and the permanence of communities of people who still help each other act as inhibitors. The regional graphic in this paper illustrates the spatial distribution of urban gardens in South Tyrol, a mountainous region in the north of Italy. Here, urban gardens are few and unevenly distributed. They are mainly concentrated in large municipalities and the provincial capital situated at a relatively low altitude above sea level (five of the eight municipalities with urban gardens which have answered to the investigation are situated on average at 250 m). They are absent in mountain municipalities above higher altitudes (from 1000 m upwards). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visiting parks and gardens supports physical and mental health. We quantified access to public parks and gardens in urban areas of England and Wales, and the potential for park crowdedness during periods of high use. We combined data from the Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey to quantify (i) the number of parks within 500 and 1,000 metres of urban postcodes (i.e., availability), (ii) the distance of postcodes to the nearest park (i.e., accessibility), and (iii) per-capita space in each park for people living within 1,000m. We examined variability by city and share of flats. Around 25.4 million people (~87%) can access public parks or gardens within a ten-minute walk, while 3.8 million residents (~13%) live farther away; of these 21% are children and 13% are elderly. Areas with a higher share of flats on average are closer to a park but people living in these areas visit parks that are potentially overcrowded during periods of high use. Such disparity in urban areas of England and Wales becomes particularly evident during COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown when local parks, the only available out-of-home space option, hinder social distancing requirements. Cities aiming to facilitate social distancing while keeping public green spaces safe might require implementing measures such as dedicated park times for different age groups or entry allocation systems that, combined with smartphone apps or drones, can monitor and manage the total number of people using the park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a vibrant community gardening movement in New York City since the 1970s. The movement is predominantly located in working class communities of color and has fought for decades to turn vacant land into beneficial community spaces. However, many of these communities are struggling with gentrification, which has the potential to transform access to and use of community gardens in the city and the politics around them. Drawing on separate multi-year ethnographic projects, this article compares two community gardens in food insecure communities in Queens and Brooklyn: one that is undergoing gentrification and one that is not. We analyze how race and class transformations in each community shape the trajectories of urban agriculture spaces, specifically the ideologies, agricultural practices, and daily interactions among gardeners and as well as between gardeners and nongardeners. We find significant differences in how the two sets of community gardeners conceptualize the purpose of their gardens, particularly in constructing them as green spaces, agricultural production sites, and tools for achieving food justice. We argue that these differences can be best understood at the intersection of the personal histories of individuals, the organizational settings in which the gardens are embedded, and each neighborhood's history of urban renewal and gentrification. Our findings show why some community gardens in food insecure communities adopt a food justice vision, while others do not, and how gentrification can amplify racial and class tensions within community gardens and between gardeners and nongardeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A renaissance of community gardening is unfolding on a global urban scale. Scholars have analysed community gardening projects as empowering, contested or controlled spaces depending on the local governance networks in which, or despite of which, they emerge. Focusing on the political-economic context in which gardening activities emerge in Amsterdam, we present community gardens as places where the neoliberal localisation of the city unfolds. Based on a qualitative study of 19 community gardening projects in the city of Amsterdam, we argue that community gardening projects in Amsterdam can be seen as "controlled space" [Eizenberg, E. 2012a. "Actually Existing Commons: Three Moments of Space of Community Gardens in New York City." Antipode 44 (3): 764–782.]: a space where various institutional governance actors have a varied level of influence and control. Following [McClintock, N. 2014. "Radical, Reformist, and Garden-Variety Neoliberal: Coming to Terms with Urban Agriculture's Contradictions." Local Environment 19 (2): 147–171.] who argues that community gardens can be "radical and neoliberal at once" we unpack this notion of controlled space. We compare differently managed gardening projects and describe the varied relations between gardeners and four governance actors, namely local government, welfare organisations, green NGOs and housing associations. We show how these relations both impair and enable the civic participation of gardeners, the inclusive potential of gardens and an alternative, local food provision and distribution. Finally, we reflect on what this means for the potential of community gardening, a rising urban phenomenon, to (re)claim urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can place-keeping be considered as urban commons or occurring through the sharing of activities? If so, then specifically, how? This paper discusses long-term place- keeping of Singapore's neighbourhood green spaces as a shared practice, actively engaging citizens in shared responsibilities and collective efforts in transitioning a 'public' space to a 'common' space. We discuss community gardens as a shared urban space and examine two initiatives for neighbourhood green spaces characterized by active involvement of citizens in place-keeping: Community in Bloom (CIB) and Allotment Gardens (AG). Six case studies were examined to understand the current process of shared green space management. An integrated Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA) framework was adopted to analyse the governance arrangements and evaluate the spatial qualities of the community gardens (CIB and AG). Our analysis highlights the positive socio-economic impact of community-led green space management through effective shared place-keeping strategies. It emphasizes the need for an innovative participatory governance approach with a conscious balance between 'autonomy' and 'authority' as the key to long-term place-keeping. Localized community initiatives within a mosaic governance model with flexible partnerships between authorities and citizens would be n good starting point in facilitating shared governance of green spaces in Singapore's public residential estates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Urban gardens can be related to turning points in life, as the decision to obtain a gardening space often followed after big life changes. • A complex of norms permeates urban gardens; both societal norms and norms specific to the gardening space determine what a legitimate behaviour is in the garden. • Urban gardens are to be understood as places where certain dualisms are transgressed, or at least have a more flexible and expansive logic. • Gardening is a kind of nature-human crossing point and a practice connecting city residents with countryside life and non-landowners with the land. Over the past 15 years, there has been an increased interest in urban gardening. Queues for getting a gardening spot have grown, as many urban citizens seek a spot to cultivate vegetables, and studies have stressed how urban gardens can be one ingredient in creating more sustainable cities. Following the work of urban theorists Henry Lefebvre and Edward Soja, this study explores urban gardens as thirdspaces. Interviewing allotment gardeners and community gardeners in small Swedish cities, we explore allotments as 'lived places', where experiences, meanings and a sense of place are developed. Thirdspace suggests us to think beyond binary constructions of space and analysing narratives of urban gardening through that lens shows that allotment spots can be understood as places where certain dualisms have, if not a transgressed, at least a more flexible and expansive logic. The result illuminates how allotment gardens are a kind of nature-human crossing point and a practice connecting city residents with countryside life and non-landowners with the land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anadolu University Journal of Art & Design / Sanat & Tasarım is the property of Anadolu University 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.)

Abstract This paper explores the potential of the global urban gardening movement to mitigate spatial and environmental injustice conditions in the urban space. After a background discussion of the spatial and environmental injustice theory and an assessment of methodologies that have been adopted in relevant studies, we will highlight existing links with urban gardening initiatives in a specific case study, i.e. the city of Rome, Italy. The case study is introduced to investigate the spatial coincidence of urban gardening initiatives in this specific city (assumed as the dependent variable) and spatial and environmental injustice (S&EI) indicators. Several S&EI-related phenomena whose relevance has been demonstrated are mapped, and their goodness of fit in serving as explanatory variables for the spatial distribution of urban gardening agency is investigated. The analysis builds upon a quantitative approach and features a linear spatial regression model. Surprisingly, findings suggest that social-economic variables generally have greater influence on spatial injustice than environmental variables. In fact, from a theoretical perspective, our results challenge the current interpretation of urban gardening as a mere means to address environmental, food or nature-related issues in cities. Instead, they support the increasingly popular interpretation of urban gardening as a political gesture. Our results provide policy-makers with useful observations about key variables related to spatial injustice in the city and contrasting initiatives, notably urban gardening projects. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of the results and the limiting and supporting factors of the featured theoretical and methodological framework. Highlights • narrow the ensemble of relevant issues related to S&EI; • Show that – conversely from part of the literature – social-economic factors are more relevant than environmental ones; • Explore the degree to which UG can be regarded as a potential grassroot mitigation option for S&EI conditions through the presentation of the case study of Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Croatian Journal of Ethnology & Folklore Research / Narodna Umjetnost is the property of Institute of Ethnology & Folklore Research 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.)

Agriculture is a major sector responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Local food production can contribute to reducing transport-related emissions. Since most of the worldwide population lives in cities, locally producing food implies practicing agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas. Exemplary, we analyze the potential to produce fresh vegetables within Berlin, Germany. We investigate the spatial extent of five different urban spaces for soil-based agriculture or gardening, i.e., non-built residential areas, allotment gardens, rooftops, supermarket parking lots, and cemeteries. We also quantify inputs required for such food production in terms of water, human resources, and investment. Our findings highlight that up to 82% of Berlin's vegetable demand could be produced within the city, based on a reasonable validation of existing areas. Meeting this potential requires 42 km 2 of urban spaces for cultivation, a considerable amount of irrigation water, around 17 thousand gardeners, and over 750 million EUR of initial investments. The final vegetable cost would be around 2 EUR to 10 EUR per kg without any profit margin. We conclude that it is realistic to produce a significant amount of Berlin's vegetable demand within the city, even if it comes with great challenges. • There is enough space in Berlin for gardening/agriculture. • The potential amount of vegetables represents a significant share of the annual consumption. • Such local gardening can have many advantages in terms of sustainability. • Another advantage are reduced carbon emissions from food transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore some emerging strategizing practices that citizens use for the development of their immediate urban fabric. We make use of our experiences and engagements with two citizen-driven initiatives in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The first case attempts to rethink uses and actors of public space by creating viable conditions for the emergence of urban gardening in public spaces. The second initiative is engaged in a political discussion of the boundaries of participation, cultural appropriation and ownership of city space. We discuss and reflectively analyze some of their strategizing practices, as forms of infrastructuring, commoning and patchworking. The cases shed light on forms of designing that are enacted collectively through mobilizing particular concerns and caring approaches. We conclude by highlighting aspects made visible in the cases that can give a sense of direction for exercising forms of continuous, open-ended design that are attentive to the collective construction of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ethnological Forum / Etnoloska Tribina is the property of Etnoloska Tribina / Ethnological Forum 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.)

Over the past decade, there has been a steady emergence of community engagement in urban food production. This paper considers how design activism is expressed through urban gardening and how citizens seek to transform and challenge the quality of urban space through two examples. By situating urban gardening within design, the paper proposes new platforms of engagement for designers, while considering a more inclusive model of what constitutes design practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an emerging literature on guerrilla gardening as a political practice in public spaces, with few exceptions, these accounts theorise it as working against many corporate and bureaucratic forms of power. Using the example of ‘F Troop’—a group of gardeners operating on a site in an English midland city—this paper focuses on the practices of urban guerrilla gardening in order to illustrate that these are perhaps not as ‘resistant’ or ‘celebratory’ as previous accounts have suggested. Rather, this paper draws on ethnographic data to focus attention on the micro politics of garden activism, arguing that the social backgrounds and motivations of those involved in guerrilla gardening and their relationship with other users of the space surrounding the dig site are also important—but largely underacknowledged—aspects of guerrilla gardening. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Although community attachment and urban green space provide many benefits to local residents, the relationship between them seems to be unknown. The aim of the study was to analyse this relationship. The objective was to investigate the influence of public green space and recreation behaviour on community attachment and explore differences in community attachment between urban and suburban residents of the Vienna region. To a large degree, both study areas border on, and share, the same recreation areas along the Danube River and are subject to urban sprawl. A mail survey was carried out in 2006 to ask local residents (N =602) about community green space, recreation behaviour, community qualities, ownership of private green space and community attachment. Urban residents showed higher community attachment, valued the community green space higher and perceived a better quality of life in their community than the suburban sample. Regression analysis identified perceived green space supply and qualities, recreation behaviour, and residential variables predicting community attachment. Different predictors were found for the community attachment of the samples, while several public green space-related items were consistent and strong predictors. The study findings suggest that the perceived supply and quality of green space can foster community attachment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Allotments, as a part of urban tradition and history, have been present in the Polish landscape for over one hundred years. In the 19th century allotment gardens were located in the suburbs, on the outskirts of Kraków, Poznań, Warsaw and Silesian cities. At present allotment gardens located close to the city centre are often under threat to be overtaken by developers. A growing interest in active everyday recreation, healthy lifestyle, diverse urban space and urban ecology leads to the idea of saving allotments from demolition by developers. It has been widely recognized that allotment gardens not only improve the urban climate (like any other green open spaces), but also encourage various recreational, healthy outdoor activities such as gardening. Moreover, in Poland for thousands of low-income families allotments are essential as a source of fresh fruit and vegetables and also a possibility to enjoy free holidays. Thanks to purpose-built facilities and improvements in allotments, disabled gardeners can grow their greens in comfort, get to know people and socialize. Present-day allotments are a great attraction to members of many social groups, not only to low-income families but people of all walks of life seeking healthy outdoor recreation, social contacts, fun and relaxation. What is the present role of allotments in the contemporary green urban space and their meaning for urban inhabitants? What is the present statistical situation of allotments in Warsaw? Are they accessible for the disabled? How can they contribute to the socio-physical heterogeneity of public urban space? What are the local community comments about strategies for urban development when allotment gardens are considered? This paper is based on 12-month research project carried out by the Institute of Tourism and Recreation of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw in the course of which allotment gardens in Warsaw were surveyed (2008-2010). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the emergence of the urban gardening movement as a form of post-environmentalist political practice. Despite the general acknowledgment of the relevance of environmental issues in the contemporary world, according to Post-Environmentalism, environmental thinking is becoming increasingly “de-politicised”. The aim of the paper is to suggest that “re-politicisation” of environmental politics is possible, taking into account the political practices emerging in urban space. The attachment to place materiality can, by means of common practices, make evident forgotten or ignored environmental relations; and it can make them a “public issue”. These kinds of practices relay upon the association of humans and non-humans, as crucial actors in the political constitution of urban space. For instance, critical urban gardening practice may oppose the mainstream of environmental politics; it implies the use of biological material as a form of political expression, and activates material-semiotic networks existing in the urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Urban agriculture is a contested issue in the larger South African debate on urban poverty alleviation. This paper investigates the economic viability of urban agriculture and informs the debate on the optimal use of open space in Khayelitsha. It compares the economic performance of the Scaga community garden in the low-income township Khayelitsha, predicted in a 1998 study by Fermont et al., with empirical results of a similar study by Fleming in 2003. It concludes that urban agriculture in Khayelitsha is potentially economically viable, subject to certain conditions being satisfied. However, as a land use, urban agriculture competes with housing, ecological corridors, the stormwater management system and nature areas and reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Both public and private allotments are nature-based solutions with particularly positive impacts on the health and well-being of their users. • The impact on the environment, and especially on the biodiversity of a public allotment garden, is more significant than that of a private one. • Public and private allotment gardens are not competitive, but complement each other. • The freedom of cultivation and the freedom of access seem to be the main criteria to cultivate private or public allotment garden. • The role of both types of allotment gardens in mitigating unfavourable climatic conditions can and should be increased and further developed. Many European countries witness growing interest in allotment gardening. Thus, private allotment gardens (AGs) have been created in some countries, including Spain. As a result, there are places where non-consumptive and commodified allotment gardens coexist. The paper presents an in-depth comparison of public and private AGs through the lens of the nature-based solutions (NBS) concept. First, we assess the importance that gardeners attribute to the spectrum of environmental and socio-economic impacts provided by both types of AGs; we identify differences and similarities in their development and management, and assess the demographic and socioeconomic profile of gardeners. Subsequently, we discuss gardeners' and other stakeholders' opinions on both types of AGs and explore the roles that they can play as solutions for urban policy challenges. Our results show that both types of AGs are nature-based solutions with particularly positive impacts on the health and well-being of their users. These gardens do not compete but complement each other, fostered by their role as multifunctional nature-based solutions. Moreover, the option of cultivating a private or a public AG seems to be more linked to the freedom of cultivation and the freedom of access rather than economic reasons. We conclude that in the current complex scenario, public and private AGs must have territorial, legal and institutional frameworks within all urban policies that explore NBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardens, consolidating spaces as new urban commons, are faced with the contradiction and challenge of being embedded in neoliberal landscapes of urban governance. While their transformative and justice potential has often, and rightly, been celebrated –offering new pathways towards food security and sovereignty; serving social empowerment and political engagement; making cities greener, healthier and more participatory– the mechanisms that can limit such potential have not been explored as much. Focusing on community gardens that have received some municipal support, we apply a feminist political ecology lens to examine the so far under-theorized role of care and time in urban gardens, and the way these aspects are conditioning the sustenance and just distribution of benefits that we know can emerge from urban gardens. Our qualitative empirical analysis of eight municipally supported gardens in Athens, Barcelona, Dublin and Leipzig examines the conflicting timeframes and priorities that gardening projects often have to navigate, revealing how the function of urban gardens is constrained by two types of 'clashing temporalities': (i) the invisibility of gardening needs and of their social benefits in a context of limited structural support, and (ii) the undermining of care materialities in light of short municipal timeframes and fast urban growth. • Urban gardens and their transformative and justice potential depend on tangible and intangible materialities of care. • The time and care work that is required for gardening benefits to accrue is invisibilised by limited structural support frameworks. • Lack of long-term support for gardens jeopardises relationships and senses of community that can emerge in community gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the now widescale reporting of oral bioaccessibility data at contaminated sites, following our investigation of three sites (one public open space and two residential) for As and Pb contamination, a critical evaluation of the application and utility of such bioaccessibility testing was undertaken to better inform future use. Mean As and Pb soil levels across the sites varied between 12.5 and 24,900 mg/kg and 149–5930 mg/kg, respectively. Using the Unified Bioaccessibility Method (UBM) for in vitro bioaccessibility testing the highest bioaccessible concentrations were identified in the gastric phase. At site 1, a residential urban garden site the maximum bioaccessible As was 50.2% while the maximum bioaccessible Pb was 64.8%; similarly in site 2, also a residential urban garden site the maximum bioaccessible As was 38.72% while the maximum bioaccessible Pb was 66.0%. However, at site 3, a public open space site, the maximum bioaccessible As was 29.7% while the maximum bioaccessible Pb was 38.4%. Using the appropriate soil screening values and recommended statistical testing, we highlight that the use of bioaccessibility testing was unnecessary at sites 1 and 2 (residential urban garden sites), while at site 3 the value of oral bioaccessibility testing is highlighted as part of a 'lines of evidence approach' to support the site's specific risk assessment. We need to move away from the uncritical, blanket application of oral bioacessibility testing and strategically target where the results of these data add real value to site determination. • Investigation of pseudo-total As and Pb in urban soils reported. • Data from public open space and residential sites compared. • Critical evaluation of oral bioaccessibility testing in human risk assessment. • Role of oral bioaccessibility testing as part of a 'lines of evidence approach'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities have become major contributors to sustainability problems and, in the meantime, seedbeds for sustainability transformation. Urban nature-based solutions, such as greening strategies that foster urban food production as a cross-cutting issue, promise to have multidimensional benefits for sustainable urban development. However, a conceptual understanding of interlinkages between nature-based solutions and their contribution to sustainability transformation is lacking. The goals of this study are twofold. First, to develop a conceptual model for testing multi-dimensional impacts of urban nature-based solutions supporting social-spatial, social-ecological and individual sustainable transformation. The model has been developed based on the concepts of place attachment, human-food connection and pro-environmental food behaviour. Second, the conceptual model is applied to the example of edible cities. Edible cities can be considered an innovative nature-based solution that provides multiple co-benefits by offering (free) food for urban residents in public spaces. A Principal Component Analysis of a survey among residents of Andernach (N = 380), one of the first edible cities in Germany revealed, in contrast to the conceptual three-dimensional model, a four-dimensional model with high construct validity and reliability. The model comprises a) place attachment, b) experiential and c) material human-food connection as well as d) pro-environmental food consumption. Items of internal emotional and philosophical human-food connection included within the pro-environmental food consumption scale suggested their important role in fostering sustainability. Results suggest that the edible city can be considered a strategy for increasing urban attractiveness and place identity, supporting social bonding and experiential human-food connection by using the edible areas for nature observation and recreation. However, although the residents are well informed about the edible city concept, most residents are not actively involved and rarely use the food provided by the edible city. Thus, they also could not answer questions related to cognitive human-food connection such as estimating the food's taste and health quality. To strengthen material and cognitive human-food connection, policy implications of the results propose the implementation of accompanying information and participation activities. By linking nature-based solutions with sustainability transformation, this study provides conceptual and practical implications for the multidimensional benefits of innovative urban greening strategies such as edible cities. • A multi-dimensional model can assess impacts from edible cities. • It is based on place attachment, human-food connection, pro-environmental behavior. • Edible cities support place attachment and experiential human-food connection. • Internal human-food connection relates with pro-environmental food consumption. • Trust building on food safety in edible cities can support material food connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verge gardening is a citizen-led form of public urban greening where residents plant and maintain understorey and trees in the road easement, and it has the potential to significantly increase the diversity and complexity of street greenery which is, most commonly, mown grass and monocultures of street trees. In Melbourne, Australia, two forms of verge gardening – understorey planted by residents and street trees planted by residents– were investigated. The distribution of verge gardens was tested for correlation with a range of urban form and social factors that included the proportion of garden in residential parcels, the proportion of the street set aside as road verge, age of street development, the presence of footpaths, tree cut-outs (tree pits) and social disadvantage. By better understanding the factors associated with verge gardening, we hope planners, urban designers and land managers will be able to better incorporate verge gardening into urban greening strategies and so maximise the biodiversity, ecosystem function and human amenity benefits associated with this significant public activity. We found that verge gardening was common, occurring in almost a quarter (22.1%) of verges and was strongly associated with verges without footpaths, tree cut-outs rather than continuous verges, and verges on local roads rather than collector roads. Neighbourhoods with proportionally more garden had more verge gardening. With the exception of the oldest streets in our study, streets that were newer had more verge gardening than those that were older. The presence of street trees planted by local government was associated with less verge gardening. Verge gardening was less common in neighbourhoods with greater social disadvantage, and spatial contagion increased the likelihood of neighbours having verge gardens. Local government can facilitate verge gardening through engagement, education, adopting alternative street types, using tree cut-outs to better strategic advantage, and targeting areas of social disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]