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Syringa reticulata subsp. amurensis (Rupr.) P. S. Green & M. C. Chang (Oleaceae) is a shrub or tree with high medicinal value as well as great ecological significance as an urban garden plant. To better understand the molecular genetics and evolutionary of S. reticulata subsp. amurensis, its complete chloroplast genome was sequenced and annotated. The assembled chloroplast genome is a circular 156,141 bp sequence, consisting of 87,108 bp large single copy (LSC) region and 17,239 bp small single copy (SSC) region, which were flanked by a pair of 25,897 bp inverted repeats (IRs). The GC content of the chloroplast genome is 36.14%. Moreover, a total of 132 functional genes were annotated, including 88 protein-coding, 36 tRNA, and eight rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that S. reticulata subsp. amurensis was most closely related to S. reticulata subsp. Pekinensis and the genus Syringa is paraphyletic group. This study provides important information for further phylogenetic studies on S. reticulata subsp. amurensis and its allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We estimate 8 indicators indicating the impacts of urban agriculture at a city scale. • Urban agriculture impacts are sensitive to the type of urban garden. • There are trade-offs among social and environmental benefits of urban agriculture. • The model we introduce provides quantifiable evidence to reduce those trade-offs. In the first decades of the 21st century, urban agriculture has gained attention for its role in enhancing food security, particularly in developing nations. Additionally, it is commonly assumed that urban agriculture also has positive implications for other aspects of urban sustainability, such as mitigating runoff and creating job opportunities. However, the extent of these contributions has not been extensively quantified. This study aims to address this gap by presenting a stochastic model that quantifies the contributions of urban agriculture to urban sustainability, using Sant Feliu de Llobregat, a Mediterranean city, as a case study. We assessed eight indicators, including accessibility to green areas, food self-reliance, green surface area per capita, job creation, NO 2 sequestration, runoff mitigation, urban heat island effect, and volunteer participation. These indicators were estimated across twelve different simulated scenarios using 1000 Monte Carlo simulations for each scenario, to account for uncertainties. The findings revealed that the contributions of urban agriculture are not straightforward, as they are influenced by factors such as garden typology and location. Although urban agriculture typically originates as a grassroots movement, it often receives administrative support. Therefore, strategic planning can be employed to maximize the contributions of urban agriculture to urban sustainability and minimize trade-offs between social and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers new forms of relationship between city and landscape. It also reveals one of the major challenges for planning and urban governance: to use the creative potential which is formed in different pioneering or temporary uses and activities of people for sustainable development of the urban environment.

This article reflects on traditional and contemporary gardening movements in Germany. The focus is on forms of gardening, that take place in spaces subject to land lease agreements and similar forms of tenancy or of illegal land take or squatting. The author examines various definitions taking into account the variety of practices, the development of urban gardening over time, and the respective backgrounds or values that users relate to such gardening activities. The examination of definitions led to the drawing up of a timeline of traditional and contemporary gardening movements in Germany and to the tentative approaching of this issue from a semantic perspective. The latter is due to the usage of many different terms mostly as yet undefined in a legal sense. Translation into English or, most likely, to any other language, further blurs the common understanding of the terms used. The author concludes with some considerations on these gardening movements in relation to urban sustainable developments. A presentation at the 5th Rencontres Internationals de Reims on Sustainability Studies, dedicated to Urban Agriculture – Fostering the Urban-Rural Continuum, which took place in October 2015 in Reims/France was the starting point of this article. The basis of this article is a literature review, nourished to a certain extent by observations randomly made over many years and complemented through talks with competent young colleagues. Special thanks go to Martin Sondermann, Leibniz University Hannover, who shared his research experience in various discussions with the author, as well as to Friederike Stelter, internship student at the author’s place of work, who gave highly appreciated support to the preparation of the presentation.

Ophiopogon bodinieri Levl. is an important turfgrass and ornamental cover plants which is widely used in urban garden construction in southern China. In this study, we sequenced the complete chloroplast genome of O.bodinieri on the Illumina HiSeq Platform. The chloroplast genome is 157,078 bp in length, with a typical quadripartite structure and consisting of a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions (26,477 bp) separated by a large single copy (LSC) region (85,374 bp) and a small single copy (SSC) region (18,750 bp). It was predicted to contain a total of 132 genes, with an overall GC content of 38.63%. Phylogenetic analysis suggested O.bodinieri is closely relatedto Goodyera velutina, Anoectochilus emeiensis and Ludisia discolor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Die durch den Bürgerkrieg in Syrien ausgelöste Fluchtbewegung hat die öffentliche Debatte um den stets unscharf gebliebenen Begriff der „Leitkultur“ erneut befeuert. Wie schon in den rezenten Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Anhängern des Multikulturalismus und jenen einer strikten Forderung nach „Assimilation“ von Einwanderern in eine als statisch imaginierte Aufnahmegesellschaft ist auch derzeit wieder eine dualistische Zuspitzung zu konstatieren. Außen vor bleiben dabei oft die konkreten Lebensrealitäten der Migrantinnen und Migranten. Bereits während der Flüchtlingsbewegungen Mitte der 1990er Jahre im Zuge des Bosnienkrieges kam es zu einer Projektinnovation, die einen konstruktiven Umgang mit kulturellen Differenzen erprobt und damit als praktische Antwort auf die unterkomplexen Zuspitzungen gelesen werden kann. In der Projektform der Interkulturellen Gärten wird das gemeinsame Gärtnern en passant fruchtbar gemacht für transkulturelle Prozesse der Begegnung und des Austausches. In diesen Gemeinschaftsgärten werden die Ressourcen, die die Menschen aus ihren Herkunftsländern mitbringen, zum Ausgangspunkt für selbstbestimmte Prozesse des Ankommens und somit auf konstruktive Weise genutzt. Der Beitrag zeigt die Entwicklung der Interkulturellen Gärten seit 1996 am Fallbeispiel der „Internationalen Gärten Göttingen“ auf und beschäftigt sich mit den unterschiedlichen Potentialen dieser sozialen Innovation.

The massive exodus provoked by the civil war in Syria has breathed new virulence into the public debate around the rather ill-defined concept of ‘dominant culture’. In the recent clashes between the proponents of multiculturalism and the supporters of a strict requirement of ‘assimilating’ immigrants into the society which welcomes them—always seen as something stable—there is an aggravation of this dualism. But these debates often leave out the concrete realities of the lives of immigrant men and women. At the time of the movement which exiled many from Bosnia, during the war there in the mid-1990s, an innovative project was developed which tried out a constructive approach to the question of cultural differences, and which can be seen as a practical answer to the exacerbation of underlying tensions. In this project of intercultural gardens, the act of gardening together gives rise to transcultural processes of meeting and exchange. In these collective gardens, the resources brought from their country of origin by immigrant men and women serve as a point of departure for a process of empowerment, in a constructive way. This contribution examines the development of intercultural gardens since 1996, through the example of the ‘International Gardens of Göttingen’ and looks at the different possibilities of this social innovation.

Gardens are hot spots for urban biodiversity and provide habitats for many plant and animal species, both above- and below-ground. Furthermore, gardens provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including carbon (C) storage and nutrient cycling. Although the soil is the foundation of sustainable gardens providing those ecosystem services, very little is known about the consequences of garden management on soil quality. Here we present a comprehensive assessment of urban garden soil quality, including biotic and abiotic site characteristics combined with land-use history and garden management information in a multivariate evaluation. A set of 44 soil quality indicators was measured at 170 sites of 85 gardens in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, comprising contrastingly managed garden habitats along a gradient of urban density. Taken together, our results show that garden management was the driving factor that influenced soil quality and soil functions. Eco-physiological soil quality indices were useful to identify differences in disturbance and intensity of soil use, showing highest microbial [microbial biomass (Cmic)/soil organic carbon (SOC)] and lowest metabolic (qCO2) quotients in perennial grass sites compared to annual vegetable sites. Despite the intensity of soil disturbance in annual vegetable and flower beds, the highest endogeic earthworm biomass and diversity were found in those habitats. Whereas decomposition of green tea bags was higher in grass sites. Soil heavy metal contents varied considerably and could not be linked with garden management practices, but with spatial patterns of industry and traffic. We conclude that understanding soil quality in urban ecosystems needs multi-indicator frameworks to capture the complexity of soil characteristics and the influencing factors in space and time. This study contributes to a better understanding of urban gardens and enhances the development of sustainable soil management strategies aimed at long-term improvement of soil quality and related ecosystem services in cities.

In the context of urban densification and central urban areas’ lack of open spaces, new forms of small-scale urban gardening practices have emerged. These gardening practices respond to urban pressures and open new modes of green space governance, presenting alternative and multifunctional ways to manage and revitalise cities. Focusing on the case of Geneva, the article unfolds two levels of discussion. On the one hand—and with reference to the theorist Habermas—it examines how multiple actors with different interests interplay and cooperate with each other in order to negotiate over open space, while discussing implications for local politics and planning. On the other hand, it describes how these negotiations result in new, innovative, and hybrid forms of public green space. The main findings indicate emerging forms of collaboration, partnerships, and governance patterns that involve public and private sectors and increase participation by civil society actors. Cooperation amongst several interested groups and the collective re-invention of public urban spaces increase these spaces’ accessibility for multiple users and actors, as well as present possibilities for alternative and diversified uses and activities. This might underline the hypothesis that future cities will be governed in less formalised ways, and that urban forms will be created through spontaneous, temporary, mobile, and adaptive negotiation processes.

Objective: Food security interventions with people living with HIV (PLHIV) are needed to improve HIV outcomes. This process evaluation of a pilot intervention involving urban gardening and peer nutritional counselling with PLHIV assesses feasibility, acceptability and implementation challenges to inform scale-up., Design: Mixed methods were used, including quantitative data on intervention participation and feasibility and acceptability among participants ( n 45) and qualitative data from a purposive sample of participants ( n 21). Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and coded using a codebook developed iteratively., Setting: An HIV clinic in the northwest-central part of the Dominican Republic., Results: The intervention was feasible for most participants: 84 % attended a garden workshop and 71 % established an urban garden; 91 % received all three core nutritional counselling sessions; and 73 % attended the cooking workshop. The intervention was also highly acceptable: nearly, all participants (93-96 %) rated the gardening as 'helpful' or 'very helpful' for taking HIV medications, their mental/emotional well-being and staying healthy; similarly, high percentages (89-97 %) rated the nutrition counselling 'helpful' or 'very helpful' for following a healthy diet, reducing unhealthy foods and increasing fruit/vegetable intake. Garden barriers included lack of space and animals/pests. Transportation barriers impeded nutritional counselling. Harvested veggies were consumed by participants' households, shared with neighbours and family, and sold in the community. Many emphasised that comradery with other PLHIV helped them cope with HIV-related marginalisation., Conclusion: An urban gardens and peer nutritional counselling intervention with PLHIV was feasible and acceptable; however, addressing issues of transportation, pests and space is necessary for equitable participation and benefit.

Highlights • Community gardens can support community resilience following disasters. • They should be promoted as long-term assets before a disaster strikes. • Well-established gardens provide social support among gardeners after earthquakes. • They should consider design features that support post-disaster social interaction. • They should be managed to support community-building activities and events. Abstract The paper examines community benefits provided by an established community garden following a major earthquake and discusses possible implications for community garden planning and design in disaster-prone cities. Recent studies show that following extreme storm events community gardens can supply food, enhance social empowerment, provide safe gathering spots, and restorative practices, to remind people of normality. However, the beneficial role played by community gardens following earthquakes is less well known. To fill this gap, the study examines the role played by a community garden in Christchurch, New Zealand, following the 2010/2011 Canterbury Earthquakes. The garden's role is evaluated based on a questionnaire-based survey and in-depth interviews with gardeners, as well as on data regarding the garden use before and after the earthquakes. Findings indicate the garden helped gardeners cope with the post-quake situation. The garden served as an important place to de-stress, share experiences, and gain community support. Garden features that reportedly supported disaster recovery include facilities that encourage social interaction and bonding such as central meeting and lunch places and communal working areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 20th century, urban gardening in central and northern Europe as well as in North America has received a great deal of academic attention. However, the recent proliferation of urban gardening in other geographies, such as southern Europe in the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2007–2008, remains underexplored. The economic crisis put on hold urban developments in many southern European cities, leaving idle plots of land waiting to be urbanized. The crisis also triggered radical political demands, such as those of the Indignados, as well as fuelling narratives revolving around social entrepreneurship and social innovation. Barcelona emerges as a laboratory of urban gardening initiatives in vacant lots mobilizing either radical urban demands or embedding new post-crisis rhetoric around social entrepreneurship. Through a combination of qualitative methods, including participant observation, a literature review, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and field diaries, we present a characterization and evolution of the three most prominent urban gardening initiatives in the city of Barcelona (including 54 gardens at the end of 2016): the Network of Municipal Gardens (municipally led gardens for retired people); the Network of Communitarian Gardens (social movements); and the Empty Plots Plan (social entrepreneurial urban gardening). Subsequently, we discuss the different meanings of gardening in crisis/post-crisis Barcelona as well as the urban politics that each initiative articulates. Our results show that urban gardens within the city are an expression of different and non-exclusive meanings that explicitly or implicitly, in a context of crisis and post-crisis, mobilize notions of political gardening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Urban cultivation for food production is of growing importance. The quality of urban soil can be improved by tillage and the incorporation of organic matter, or can be degraded by chemical treatments. Urban gardeners have a role in this process, through the selection of various cultivation techniques. Our study focuses on an allotment area in the town of Pisa (Italy), which since 1995 has been run as a municipal vegetable garden by the residents. We analysed the soil and compared the data with those collected five years previously, to verify the possible changes in soil properties and fertility. We also interviewed the gardeners regarding their backgrounds, motivations and cultivation practices. We looked for possible changes in the soil quality attributable to the cultivation techniques. We found that the allotment holders influenced the soil quality through the cultivation techniques. Organic carbon, electrical conductivity and the content of copper increased unevenly in relation to the gardeners' cultivation practices. At the same time the study highlights that the urban gardeners were not completely aware of how to protect and enhance the fertility and the quality of urban soil. We believe that town councils should be responsible for providing correct information to the allotment holders and thus prevent the possible misuse of urban soil to grow food, as this can affect everyone's health. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Urban cultivation for food production was investigated for soil quality. • We surveyed the changes in soil properties of ten allotments after five years. • The gardeners' identikit revealed their cultural background, and horticultural practices. • Electrical conductivity, organic carbon and copper increased unevenly. • Awareness of sustainable practices can contribute to protecting urban soil quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardening in Vienna, Austria, has gained a new significance over the last ten years. However, although demand is constantly rising and urban gardening is being marketed in many ways, a vast majority of the urban population still has no access to gardening and its various benefits. While community gardening projects in Europe are usually viewed as temporary, self-organised bottom-up initiatives on public or abandoned private land, this case study of the Roda-Roda pilot project shows that community gardening can develop and persist even when favourable conditions for grassroots community gardens are lacking. The vast green spaces separating residential blocks (Abstandsgrün) commonly found in Vienna’s municipal housing (Wiener Gemeindebau) have a huge spatial potential for gardening, along with a forgotten tradition of self-organisation. Using an action research approach, this paper describes two principles for a successful implementation strategy under difficult conditions. Starting with a top-down approach, an interdisciplinary project team implemented a spatial and socio-economic framework that offered a stable basis for participatory community-building. As they “climbed” the ladder of participation stepwise - from exclusion to decision-making and true self-organisation - gardeners gained knowledge, skills and the self-confidence required to run a garden and create a well-working local community. At a more general level, the paper brings a co-creative planning perspective to the scientific discussion on community gardening in Europe and offers a practical approach to making local gardening opportunities available to suitable target groups by tapping into unused spatial potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Highlights • Suburban gardens consist of mostly exotic ornamental species. • Native species are planted less than their exotic congeners. • Some invasive plant species are intentionally planted. • Taxa richness increases with garden size and mortgage value. Abstract Horticulture has long been an important source of exotic plant species that may naturalize and become invasive. To analyze the extent of exotic plant species and their possible preference in modern landscaping in Rochester, New York, USA, we inventoried 101 randomly chosen suburban (peri-urban) house gardens. On average, 72% of plants per property were not native to the Eastern United States. Of the exotic species present in gardens, 44% have naturalized in New York State. Additionally, invasive plants were often intentionally planted, such as Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), which was found in nearly half of the gardens. We also sought to ascertain if garden diversity could be correlated with the age, size, or cost of properties. Although our findings were not as distinct as previous garden inventories, property size and mortgage value correlated positively with species richness. Overall, landscape trends across all property types favored exotic over native garden plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of urban gardening varies a lot in terms of gardening forms and main purposes. Followed by changes in people life style, growing interest in healthy living and sustainable urban development, the aims of urban gardening become more complex. The product of urban garden, e. g. vegetables or ornamental plants, nowadays plays less important role, as the main focus is on societal issues, urban regeneration, education and health. Thus, this article provides evidence of multi-functionality of urban gardening to address the variety of societal issues across people of different age and cultural background. Case studies from Malmo, Birmingham and Riga show how urban gardening contributes to social integration, inhabitants' well-being and urban regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alongside associated forms of socially and politically conscious food production, community food growing is routinely connected to a wide range of social and environmental benefits. However, robust evidence in support of these associations remains scant, and while the conversation has shifted in recent years to take account of the sometimes unintended or negative aspects of these activities, no consensus has been reached about how such forms of food growing should adapt to new conditions, or be scaled up to maximize their positive impacts. A July 2016 conference was organized to address this strategic shortfall. This themed issue presents the papers resulting from the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the underlying motivations of NYC community gardeners in order to gain greater insight into how these valued public resources support individual and community well-being. Semi-structured interviews were used to capture a range of enduring gardener motivations over time. We find that the underlying motivations of NYC community gardeners are both personal and collective. For many, community gardens provide a space for reflection and for profound connection to the natural world. Gardening was reported to be restorative, and to help to strengthen an individual’s connection to a larger community or cultural heritage. Themes of joy and personal fulfillment were consistently most prevalent over time, while the impulse to improve the community decreased in prevalence, and food production and cultural identity connections became more common motivations, possibly reflecting broader social shifts in NYC neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Developed a model to quantify the cooling potential of trees within the urban environment. • Created thermal comfort map to dynamically visualize pedestrians' thermal comfort. • Used model to assess tree planting scenarios on school campus in Dubai. Abstract Outdoor human comfort is an important factor in the evaluation of the liveability of a city as well as for promoting people's health and well-being. In hot arid climates in particular, urban planning and design can considerably impact the day-to-day thermal comfort of the pedestrians, for better or for worse. Strategies to reduce thermal discomfort include shading structures, water bodies, and the promotion of natural ventilation – and most significantly, green areas. Trees have a major impact on the pedestrians in the built environment as they not only provide shading but also improve the microclimate in urban areas, thereby reducing the time during which discomfort is felt. The objective of this paper is to present a new methodology for dynamically quantifying the impact of different plants in urban areas on outdoor human comfort, through 3D urban energy modelling. The proposed methodology makes use of an urban energy modelling tool, providing a comprehensive view of the city energy fluxes, with a focus on the impact of trees on the human thermal comfort. Outdoor human comfort is assessed using the Index of Thermal Stress for the campus of the Swiss International Scientific School of Dubai (UAE), where "Thermal Comfort Maps" are designed to quantify the pedestrian thermal sensation and its variation in time and space. Additionally, the energy fluxes impinging on the urban pedestrians are quantified, dynamically, in hourly time step, providing an important instrument to understand their thermal stress, and the environmental factors affecting it. Based on the simulations, thanks to native greening, a significant improvement in outdoor comfort conditions was achieved in the campus, reducing the "warm/hot" and "very hot" thermal sensations from 1,291 h (on average over the entire campus) to less than 300 h by planting Ghaf and Acacia trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Urban community gardens are resource dependent on the regime that causes barriers. • Nine barriers to urban community garden were identified. • The barriers cause problems for the persistence of the gardens. • Barriers to urban community gardens threaten an urban governance transition. Abstract This article explores how resource dependence leads to barriers to urban community gardening. Nine barriers to urban gardening were identified: finance, space, organizational structure, water, external damage, soil, communication, interpersonal issues, and participation issues. Using process tracing and grounded theory, we found that these barriers could be divided into three groups: primary, secondary, and participation barriers. Primary barriers are caused and directly influenced by the regime, whereas secondary barriers are the result of decisions and actions taken while addressing the primary barriers. All of these barriers cause frustration and affects the ability of the gardens to retain and acquire new members. This affects the longer term sustainability of the gardens and their potential to contribute to an urban governance transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der Beitrag diskutiert die neuen urbanen Ernährungsbewegungen und ihre räumlichen Wirkungen, ästhetischen Inszenierungen und wirtschaftlichen Konzepte. Auf der Basis qualitativer Einzelfallstudien in Deutschland wird gezeigt, wie die ‚Wiedereinbettung’ von Ernährungsarrangements in lebensweltliche und regionalökonomische Kontexte praktisch erprobt wird. Dafür schlagen wir ein Verständnis von „transformativem Wirtschaften“ vor und beleuchten, inwiefern transformative Vorstellungen von Urbanität, Wohlstand und kollektivem Handeln entstehen. Im Vergleich zu älteren öko-sozialen Bewegungen zeigt sich, dass die neuen Akteure immer zugleich auf mehreren Ebenen agieren und dadurch die Komplexitätsanforderungen von sozialem Wandel mit Bezug zu globalen Diskurs- und Problemzusammenhängen aufgreifen. The paper discusses the new urban food movements and their spatial effects, aesthetic staging and economic concepts. Based on qualitative case studies from Germany, it is shown how the ‘re-embedding’ of diet arrangements is practically tested in everyday life and in regional economic contexts. To this, we propose an understanding of “transformative economics” and highlight how transformative ideas of urbanity, prosperity and collective action arise. Compared to older eco-social movements, the new actors always act on several levels at the same time, addressing the complexity requirements of social change with respect to global discourse and problem-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces make a significant contribution to the social and ecological environment in cities, and the decisions of green space managers have direct impacts at both local and city scales. However most studies have focussed on public green spaces, despite privately managed gardens collectively forming a large proportion of urban green. The aim of this qualitative paper is to understand why people become involved in gardening and why they choose environmentally friendly gardening practices. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 gardeners in Lausanne, Switzerland and analysed them according to their content. Three major themes emerged as motivations for gardening: wellbeing, social aspects, and outputs (both tangible, such as food, and intangible, such as the feeling of having produced food). Motivations for gardening practices were grouped into extrinsic factors, such as practical constraints, inspiration from neighbours, following regulations, and social controls; and intrinsic, which were primarily based on knowledge and experience. Our results provide some evidence of the tangible and beneficial outcomes of gardening and provide additional support to urban decision makers with an interest in the management of urban green spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting community food production is a key strategy for all the community-based partners in Food Dignity, a community-university research partnership dedicated to supporting and learning from food justice organizations. Participatory action research (PAR) may develop knowledge and skills for sustainable agriculture, thus building gardeners' capacities to refine, implement, and share locally appropriate, sustainable food production practices. However, little research has explored the possibilities and challenges of PAR with urban gardeners. In the context of Food Dignity, I examine those possibilities in a case study of a PAR project on cover crops with gardeners in Brooklyn, New York, USA. I address two questions: (1) How can PAR be designed in an urban community gardening context to achieve positive outcomes for science, education, and communities? and (2) What are the challenges, and how might facilitators address them? Several practices contributed to positive outcomes in our project. First, engaging gardeners in cover crop monitoring strengthened their knowledge of ecological processes (e.g., nitrogen fixation) and adaptive management skills (e.g., systematic observation). Second, facilitating opportunities for participants to share their knowledge (e.g., field days) supported leadership development. Third, sustained, in-person support enabled gardeners to implement cover cropping practices with benefits for crop production and environmental quality. Key challenges included addressing communitydefined priorities within the constraints of a dissertation project and providing sufficient one-on-one research and education support with limited funding for community-based partners. Despite its challenges, PAR in urban gardening contexts may develop knowledge and skills that support improved stewardship practices and community capacities. Implications for inspiring and sustaining more community-university research partnerships include strengthening institutional support for PAR at colleges and universities, funding community researcher/educator positions, and providing professional development for community and academic PAR partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green spaces are an integral part of a vibrant urban landscape. In this paper, we discuss the potential for social innovations to transform urban green space and cities. By introducing the concept of socio-ecological practices and applying it to the analysis of urban and guerrilla gardening in the cities of Groningen and London, we examine links between behavioural drivers, social innovation and green space governance. Based on document analysis, in-depth interviews and observation of gardens, we bring about an understanding of the motivations behind involvement in socio-ecological practices as an interface between people and their cities. We show how underlying motivations, including values and self-efficacy, offer insight on current place-keeping transformations and, by doing so, contribute to fostering sustainable, long-term governance dynamics. It emerges from this research that socio-ecological practices have the potential to generate socially innovative physical, social and policy transformations within the governance of urban green space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Urban gardening is part of a trend towards more parks and green areas in cities, consumption of organic, locally grown products, and a closer relationship with one's own living environment. Our literature review shows that urban gardens provide opportunities for physical activity and allow people to consume homegrown fruit and vegetables. Urban gardens may also reduce stress levels of gardeners and improve social cohesion. In this way, they can help to prevent health problems. Good quality of urban soil and the functioning of soil ecosystems are indispensable prerequisites for these. We developed a framework that shows how ecosystem health and human health are interconnected in urban gardening, by placing it in the context of urban green space management and valuation. This study yields a set of indicators, which can be used to assess soil ecosystem services and health impacts. They may provide a basis for the evolving dialogue in decision-making processes and partnership activities in urban management. Recognizing the potential effects and discussing what is important to whom, might be enough to find synergies. Importantly, the initiators of urban gardens are often citizens, who seek support from other stakeholders. The social network established by gardens may contribute to health-enabling, cohesive communities involved with their living environment. To maximize health benefits, it is useful to make the urban gardens accessible to many people. This study suggests that urban gardens deserve a position in urban green space management as they may help to address societal challenges like urbanization, health and well-being in aging populations and climate adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main research goals of the article are to explain the historical context of urban food gardens in Czechia, to describe the current spatial pattern of allotment gardens, and to introduce and analyse recent trends in urban gardening. The main method for achieving the first goal was a literature study. For the second goal, geographical mapping and analysis of data relating to the spatial distribution of allotment gardens were used. For the third goal, mapping together with analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out in community gardens in Prague were used. The analysis showed a strong tradition of urban agriculture and urban food gardening activities in Czechia. Both allotment gardens and newly emerged community gardens were concentrated mainly in the biggest cities and in areas with a rich industrial and mining tradition. This finding supports the significance of gardening as an important element of urban agriculture. However, uncertainty regarding land tenure and long-term sustainability were among the greatest obstacles for the future of allotment and community gardens. The authors' main recommendations are that urban agriculture should be included as primary land use in sustainable planning and there should be broader community involvement in planning and decision-making processes. [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]