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When urban agriculture is addressed at a family scale, known as urban gardening, it is assumed as a non-commercial activity where some family members voluntarily take care of the plantation during their free time. If technology is going to be used to support such a process, then the solutions should consider the particularities of these gardeners (e.g., life dynamics and culture) to make them adoptable. The literature reports several urban agriculture experiences in Western countries and Southeast Asia; however, this activity has been poorly explored in South American countries, particularly at a family scale and considering the culture and the affordability of the solutions. This article presents an experience report of urban gardening in Peru, where a prototype of an IoT system and a mobile application were conceived, implemented, and used to support the gardening of vegetables at a family scale, considering the cultural aspects of the gardeners. This experience obtained positive results in terms of tomato production, mainly showing the system's capability to self-adapt its behavior to consider the cultivation conditions of these urban gardeners. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first IoT system that can be iteratively adjust its behavior to improve the chances of being adopted by a particular end-user population (i.e., gardeners). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture is often associated with sustainable agricultural practices. However, the variety of systems qualifying as urban agriculture and the limited information available about their sustainability question this direct relationship. To better understand differences in intra-urban agriculture systems and their sustainability, this paper proposed an holistic classification of urban agricultural systems and collected knowledge about the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of these systems. Such a classification is important to evaluate sustainability claims on urban agricultural systems, anticipate potential sustainability trade-offs between urban agricultural systems and propose preventive measures to address these, and ultimately guide the sustainable deployment of these systems. Compared with existing classifications, the novel classification scheme proposed here accounts for technological, social and economic characteristics of urban agriculture systems to better distinguish between all systems. It was built on 91 scientific papers. The economic intensity of production was, for example, an important characteristic to coherently group urban agriculture systems. The intensity of cooperation between all actors was another characteristic emphasized for certain urban agriculture systems. One end of the classification scheme describes ground-based open, socially motivated urban agriculture systems with high cooperation intensity and low production intensity. The other end of the classification scheme describes building-integrated quasi-closed systems with high production intensity. In between, we find: building-integrated conditioned systems, ground-based conditioned systems, and building-integrated open systems. Mapping sustainability claims from literature in the classification scheme supported its definition along the three characteristics. For example, urban farming was associated with job creation, food safety, water savings, and higher yields while urban gardening with educational potentials, biodiversity improvements, and lower yields. Their display in the classification scheme was therefore supported. To further support the use of the proposed scheme, additional quantitative research to better understand and quantify the sustainability of urban agriculture systems is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Urban agriculture has gained prominence over the last decade in New Orleans, but the majority of the new gardens and farms that have emerged in the city since 2010 are neither culturally nor socially connected to the vibrant history of local food provisioning in the city's Black communities. The history is tied closely to the region's economic boom and bust, systemic oppression and segregation, and the cultural co-optation and devaluation of Black folk foodways in the city. By relying on the oral history to complement where the official or academic documentation has failed to capture the rich history of urban gardening by Black New Orleanians, this article demonstrates that the residents of Black communities in New Orleans once grew their own food, both as a form of collective efficacy and as a way of passing on horticultural knowledge and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to pesticides may jeopardize pollinators, but it has rarely been examined in urban landscapes. We used larval food provisions (mix of pollen and nectar) of mason bees (Osmia spp.) nested in artificial shelters as matrices to investigate the rate of pesticide pollution in twelve allotment sites in Prague and Brno cities. Seven commercial croplands (fruit orchards, oilseed rape fields) were selected for comparison. In total, 79 samples of larval provisions were analysed using a validated UPLC–MS/MS method for the presence of 262 pesticides and/or important metabolites. Fifty-six pesticide residues were detected in the allotments and 74 in cropland sites. Fifty pesticide compounds were common to both landscapes. Fewer residues were found in the allotments (14.3 ± 0.9, mean ± SE) than in croplands (21.5 ± 1.1, mean ± SE; df = 17.4; t = −2.9; p < 0.01), and they were present at low levels up to 16 ppb. In cropland sites, ten residues occurred at high individual concentrations (mean per site > 10 ppb). The highest levels were observed for the fungicide pyrimethanil (mean = 1,989 ppb, maximum = 3,983 ppb) and among insecticides for thiacloprid (mean = 136 ppb, maximum = 170 ppb). The results supported the presumption of a lower risk of pesticide exposure in urban gardens than in croplands. Given the limited knowledge on the sublethal effects of pesticides and especially pesticide mixtures on solitary bee development, the regulation or control of pesticide use in allotment gardens is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a study of the introduction and prospects for introducing silver birch, Betula pendula f. dalecarlica (L.fil.) Schneid. in the extreme continental climate of the Akmola region, Kazakhstan. Primary tests of rare tree species were conducted based on Astana's Botanical Garden (AstBS). The results of the study indicate the high decorativeness and resistance of this species to adverse environmental influences, what allows recommending this tree planting for urban landscaping, which is considered a promising type of use of its potential in landscape design and gardening, as well as for complex use as part of medicinal gardens. Dalecarlian birch contains a fairly high amount of biologically active substances in leaves and bark. The primary results of tests of the rare tree species, Dalecarlian birch in the Akmola region are presented, which will expand the range of sustainable ornamental species for landscaping cities and towns in the region. Recommendations for further research are given.

Background. Currently, the use of an interdisciplinary approach based on a combination of traditional introduction methods and clonal micropropagation techniques makes it possible to solve one of the key problems of introduction – the establishment of bioresource collections consisting of selected plant accessions with valuable agronomic traits and resistance to unfavorable urban environments. Materials and methods. A plant introduction study resulted in identifying seven specimens of Malus niedzwetzkyana Dieck with resilience to urban environments, high rate of crown development, and longevity. They served as source material for the development of a clonal propagation protocol and in vitro preservation of selected genotypes of this species. Results. It was shown for M. niedzwetzkyana that the most favorable time for taking its plant material for introduction into in vitro culture is the beginning of the active growth of vegetative shoots after flowering. The most optimal sterilization technique for such plant material was a stepwise regime using alcohol, sodium hypochlorite, and silver nitrate: it provided from 50 to 70% of sterile explants and the maximum percentage of meristem proliferation. Combining 0.8 mg/L of benzylaminopurine (BAP) with 0.14 mg/L of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) at the stage of microclonal propagation ensured a significant increase of the reproduction coefficient (on average up to 5.3 ± 0.7) and an improvement in morphometric parameters of microshoots; the maximum frequency of shoot proliferation was 100%. The yield of shoots adapted to ex vitro conditions was 90%. Conclusion. The developed clonal micropropagation protocol made it possible to introduce selected M. niedzwetzkyana forms into in vitro culture and reproduce them in order to set up a resource base for further fundamental and applied research into the system of the genus Malus Mill.

Copyright of Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences is the property of University of Guilan & Association of Universities of the Caspian Region States 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.)

Mobile gardening applications offer a wide range of opportunities to shape the environmental behaviour of city dwellers, while stimulating action for greater access and contact with nature. Despite this, their educational potential is not sufficiently recognised and exploited. The aim of this qualitative research is to gain an in-depth understanding of the extent to which existing mobile apps can facilitate digital education for the development of green cities. For this purpose, the user insight approach has been applied. The study analyses 7 980 reviews of fourteen apps applications from Google Play Store. The results reveal the motivations behind users' decision to download urban gardening apps and the features that facilitate or hinder their use. The obtained results are relevant not only for green information systems research but also for app developers, and those involved in the urban education process: city authorities, urban educators, pro-environmental associations, and grassroots activists, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a growing interest in citizen-led initiatives, there is still no consensus on how to situate them, especially in relation to state institutions. On the one hand, citizen-led initiatives are seen as being co-opted by formal institutions in a context of austerity. On the other hand, these initiatives are often presented as "spaces of resistance" to neoliberalism, or as political acts of reclaiming the city. Mapping and tracing urban gardening and dumpster diving from their grassroots emergence to their inclusion in the institutional world through a two-level analysis, we show that individuals and loosely organized collectives involved in such initiatives are embedded in complex relationships with local institutions and third sector organizations that do, in turn, structure their practice and its consequences. The two-level analysis we propose follows this process: it is through interactions and relationships with other "practitioners" and with their social and institutional environment that these urban social practices gradually institutionalize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardening has become more and more popular in recent years, as people might prefer to grow their own vegetables from controlled sources. In addition, community building also plays a key role. However, air pollution in settlements is a serious hazard affecting the quality of home-grown vegetables. During the vegetation period, traffic is the main factor generating atmospheric particulate matter. These particles will, in turn, bind to potentially toxic compounds, of which heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the most widely studied and discussed. In addition to their potential toxicity, both groups contain carcinogenic species. Heavy metals, as well as PAHs, are capable of bioaccumulation, depending on the element or compound's characteristics and the vegetable species. Some leafy vegetables can accumulate these toxic materials in significant quantities. As dietary uptake is considered the major exposure route of both heavy metals and PAHs, the consumption of impacted vegetables might even pose human health risks. This recent review summarises available data reported on heavy metal and PAH accumulation in urban environments, specified by vegetable species. Also, the assessment of possible human impact is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban community gardening is emerging as a form of quiet activism challenging the corporate food system. In urban community gardening, quiet activism subtly challenges the dominant corporate food system. However, research tends to overlook its presence and impact in global South cities, where issues of food insecurity and corporatisation are acute. There is a gap in research on urban community gardening activism, with a focus mainly on global North cities. Global South cities and populations face unique challenges in the corporate food system that require attention and exploration in scholarly literature. We draw on qualitative research conducted with urban community gardeners in Cape Town, South Africa. Through interviews and observations, the study investigates how these gardeners engage in quiet activism to challenge the corporate food system. We find that community gardens are subtle but potent platforms for bolstering local food movements and fostering healthier dietary practices by cultivating and sharing produce. Quiet activism through community gardening offers a nuanced approach to challenging the corporate food system. The study highlights the need to recognise and understand varying levels of activism intensity and their implications for reshaping urban food systems. We underscore the need to discern the distinct embodiments necessitated by different modes of activism. Understanding these different modes of activism is crucial for comprehending their varying impacts on challenging and reshaping the corporate food system. This nuanced approach reveals the transformative potential inherent in community gardening practices. Community gardening in Cape Town exemplifies the transformative potential of understated acts in food activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explore participants' perceptions of urban gardens and peer nutritional counseling intervention for people with HIV and food insecurity on antiretroviral therapy in the Dominican Republic. Semistructured endline interviews (n = 21) with intervention participants about their perceptions of diet, health, and quality of life. A codebook was applied to verbatim transcripts, and coded data were analyzed using matrices to identify themes. Participants were mostly Dominican (86%; 14% Haitian); 57% were men; the mean age was 45 years. The most salient experiences described by intervention participants were improved dietary quality and diversity, improved food security, and saving money. Participants also emphasized improved social interactions, mental health, and emotional well-being. Urban gardens and peer nutritional counseling may improve participants' diet and psychosocial well-being. Nutrition programs with marginalized populations may need to improve access to healthy foods and build camaraderie and linkages to programs addressing structural factors. [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]

Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) is an excellent cool-season turfgrass that is widely used in urban gardening, landscaping, and golf turf. Triennial field experiments from 2017 to 2019 were conducted to investigate effects of the foliar application of chitosan (CTS), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), or sodium chloride (NaCl) on mitigating summer bentgrass decline (SBD) and exploring the CTS, GABA, or NaCl regulatory mechanism of tolerance to summer heat stress associated with changes in chlorophyll (Chl) loss and photosynthetic capacity, osmotic adjustment (OA), oxidative damage, and cell membrane stability. The findings demonstrated that persistent ambient high temperatures above 30 °C during the summer months of 2017, 2018, and 2019 significantly reduced the turf quality (TQ), Chl content, photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm and PIABS), leaf relative water content, and osmotic potential (OP) but significantly increased electrolyte leakage (EL) and the accumulations of free proline, water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA). The foliar application of CTS, GABA, or NaCl could significantly alleviate SBD, as reflected by improved TQ and delayed Chl loss during hot summer months. Heat-induced declines in Fv/Fm, PIABS, the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), the transpiration rate (Tr), and water use efficiency (WUE) could be significantly mitigated by the exogenous application of CTS, GABA, or NaCl. In addition, the foliar application of CTS, GABA, or NaCl also significantly improved the accumulations of free proline and WSC but reduced the EL, OP, and H2O2 content and the MDA content in leaves of creeping bentgrass in favor of water and redox homeostasis in summer. Based on the comprehensive evaluation of the subordinate function value analysis (SFVA), the CTS had the best effect on the mitigation of SBD, followed by GABA and NaCl in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The current study indicates that the foliar application of an appropriate dose of GABA, CTS, or NaCl provides a cost-effective strategy for mitigating SBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the more-than-human politics of a community garden in Rotterdam, as an expression of sustainable and resilient city making. Challenging the anthropocentrism underlying most research on the politics of urban sustainability/resilience and urban gardening, the paper proposes a more-than-human assemblage approach to urban gardening politics. I argue that urban gardens can be understood as more-than-human configurations and conceptualised as urban garden assemblages. Such assemblages are processes with different temporalities and types of agencies (insects, plants, soil and fences) and can be analytically understood as more-than-human: (1) relations and performances; (2) power hierarchies/resistances; and (3) ethical co-becomings. Building on participatory ethnography, interviews and (online) documents, the paper then presents an empirical account of the Gandhi-garden, a community garden in Rotterdam, embedded in the global Transition Towns movement. The empirical case shows how mundane acts of pulling weeds and using permacultural planting methods are more-than-human place-making practices. It also highlights how, for example, human–soil, human–seed and human–bee entanglements challenge urban neoliberalism while gardeners experiment with sustainable food and a non-violent economy. The paper illustrates the ethico-political expressions of more-than-human community gardening through solidarity bonds with Palestine via olive trees and non-violence thinking, as well as some human/non-human ambivalences when dealing with dog waste and potentially harvest-stealing birds. Finally, the paper presents some reflections and contributions regarding scholarship in the fields of urban gardening, and sustainable/resilient city making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban community gardens, once seen as a counter to neoliberal subjectivity, are now perceived as inadvertently reinforcing neoliberal dominance, challenging the progressive goals of urban gardening. This study investigates how the state shapes urban community gardens in alignment with neoliberal principles, potentially diluting their intended advantages. By analysing policies and interviewing state actors supporting urban gardening initiatives and activists, I argue that the state actively cultivates neoliberal subjectivities in these contexts. Unfortunately, state policies and projects often fail to address the root causes of food and nutrition insecurity in urban areas. This neoliberalisation of urban community gardening diminishes their potential to act as tools for advancing food justice in historically disadvantaged communities in Cape Town. Nevertheless, there is hope in the agency of gardeners who are not passive participants in this process. I conclude that relying on the state to implement projects for a more equitable food system may not be a dependable strategy. Instead, urban gardeners must carefully select their allies to effectively pursue their goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of MEMLEKET: Politics & Administration / Siyaset Yönetim is the property of Local Governments Research, Assistance & Education Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One of the contemporary challenges facing urban areas is the necessity to identify novel approaches to resident involvement in solution creation, with a particular focus on ensuring the best possible nutrition. By investigating the process of co-participation of city dwellers in a unique education project, this paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of the health-related motivations that underpin the decision of early adopters of the implemented technological innovations to join the social experiment. The qualitative study employed purposive sampling and in-depth interviews conducted in two waves, the first between October and November 2022 and the second between September 2023 and January 2024. The study comprised 42 participants drawn from two communities of residents in Łódź and Warsaw, Poland. Transcriptions of the interviews were carried out using semantic field analysis, employing a quantitative approach that counts the frequency of keyword occurrences. Three categories of semantic fields were identified: associations, oppositions, and actions toward the subject, including positive, neutral, and negative temperatures. The findings demonstrate that the health concerns of residents are a pivotal factor in their decision to participate in urban food self-production initiatives, given their limited access to nutritious and healthy vegetables. This is related to several factors, including restrictions related to urbanization and the displacement of local suppliers, lifestyle, and the fast pace of urban life. The dissemination of innovative solutions for growing food in urban environments could, therefore, facilitate awareness-raising and motivation to alter the dietary habits of inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of urban residents in the Global South are turning to rooftop gardening, whether through soil or hydroponics, to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs. In Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, rooftop gardening serves as an important alternative to traditional wet markets and more recently established supermarkets. In this paper, we examine the motivations, practices, and constraints of Hanoi's rooftop gardeners, along with the level of government support or disapproval for rooftop gardening. Our study is grounded in critical urban geography and urban political ecology and specific debates regarding informal life politics. Our findings reveal that Hanoi's rooftop gardeners feel confronted by a critical food safety crisis, emphasising their need to access safe, fresh, and affordable produce through rooftop gardening. Simultaneously, they express scepticism about the capacity and willingness of formal political institutions at both the municipal and national levels to address and resolve these concerns. We explore whether Hanoi's urban rooftop gardeners can be considered to be engaging in a form of everyday life politics and examine the dynamics emerging in this regard. We conclude by offering potential policy recommendations for Global South cities to support urban gardening communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead (Pb) is commonly found in urban soils and can transfer to vegetables. This entails a health risk for consumers of garden crops. The increasing demand of gardening on urban soil linked to the population increase and concentration in urban areas induces an increase in the risk, as people could be forced to cultivate contaminated soils. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a cropping system that allows simultaneously (i) growing eatable vegetables that accumulate few Pb and (ii) cleaning up the soil with other plants by phytoextraction. The tests were carried out in an allotment garden (Nantes, France) where soils are moderately enriched by Pb from geogenic origin (178 mg.kg−1 of dry soil on average). Four vegetables known to accumulate slightly Pb (Solanum lycopersicum, Brassica oleracea cv. "Capitata," Solanum tuberosum, and Phaseolus vulgaris) were grown. The in situ ability of Brassica juncea L. to progressively absorb the phytoavailable Pb of the soil was assessed during four seasons. Analyses of the edible parts of the four vegetables confirmed that they can all be safely cultivated. The accumulation of Pb in B. juncea shoots was too low (ca. 1 mg.kg−1 of dry matter at best) for phytoextraction purposes. Our results confirm that it is possible to grow very low Pb-accumulating vegetables on soils moderately contaminated with Pb, although it was not possible to reduce phytoavailable Pb rapidly enough with B. juncea. This study identifies possible avenues of research to improve this cropping system by using appropriate vegetables that will allow food production to continue on moderately contaminated soil while cleaning it up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardening is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., in metro and nonmetro communities alike, to address rapid urbanization and food insecurity. Urban gardens are incredibly diverse systems, and likely have equally diverse invertebrate communities. To support this growing trend, more information is needed on invertebrate communities that impact crop production. The primary objective of this study was to describe invertebrate community composition at 10 urban community gardens across two counties in Indiana. We also aimed to identify possible mechanisms that determine community assemblages, such as garden size, surrounding land use, ground cover management, and crop diversity. Using pitfall traps, sticky cards, and in-situ visual assessments, we determined that herbivores represent the dominant feeding guild at community gardens, and herbivore counts were highest on zucchini and tomato. However, sentinel prey releases suggested that predators and parasitoids are important regulators of pest populations. Overall, the assemblage of feeding guilds was similar across sites, suggesting a common metapopulation present in the surrounding landscape. On-farm practices that had the greatest influence on insect diversity were crop diversity, the presence of floral resources, and ground cover management. Insect diversity was positively correlated with crop diversity, and pollination activity was associated with flowering crops, namely dill. Parasitoid counts on sticky cards were often associated with sites that had more ground cover, such as straw mulch. This study provides useful insights on the dominant invertebrate groups present at urban community gardens in Indiana and accessible on-farm practices to improve farm biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the boom in urban living has come a boom in urban gardening. In particular, urban community gardening is an increasingly popular form of horticultural production, community involvement and connection to nature. Through the establishment and management of community gardens, biodiversity can flourish, with community gardens as 'hotspots' of flora and fauna within the urban matrix. Gardeners can deeply connect with the natural elements of gardens and thus learn about and gain appreciation for the natural world. Such interactions can combat the loss of nature experiences in cities. Despite their benefits for nature and for people, community gardens are threatened ecosystems as often temporary fixtures in city landscapes due to lack of land tenure and policy protection.In this perspective, we recognize community gardens as an important ecosystem in urban conservation and argue for the defence of urban community gardens by city policy. We formalize this activity and the value of these ecosystems with scientific evidence from ecological and social‐ecological research in 39 community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany.Although our data reveal that these gardens support large amounts of biodiversity and catalyse human‐nature connections, a lack of comprehensive documentation of social‐ecological benefits at the city level can make community gardens vulnerable to urban planning threats; we have seen losses of multiple research sites in the last 4 years of biodiversity research.Policy implications: To protect community gardens now and for future urban generations, we call for systematic and comprehensive data collection on community gardening activities and policy support for these urban ecosystems. Some cities are starting to do this and this can be scaled out. We argue for the recognition of urban community gardens as a physical land use and also of the gardeners themselves as important habitat managers and stewards of urban biodiversity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job and its nature is one of the most important factors that directly affects a person's life. The nature of the job includes the activity environment, benefits, and losses resulting from it. The type of job can affect people's mental health and resilience. In this research, the effect of three job groups of urban agriculture, government job and freelance job on the psychological resilience of people was investigated. For this purpose, five components of social skill, capacity to deal with stress, positive thinking, feeling alive and motivation were used. In order to data collection, 156 people were selected purposefully and by snowball method. To evaluate the data at the level of inferential statistics, analysis of variance and multivariate analysis were performed. The results revealed that the psychological resilience of persons in the three job categories differed, with those involved in urban agriculture having higher resilience than the other two job groups (P=0.000). The total score of resilience varies significantly by age group, with the highest average value (19.85) for urban farmers above the age of 50. The interaction effect for age groups and type of employment was also significant (P=0.004). There was also a significant interaction impact for age groups and type of job (P=0.004). The total score of psychological resilience wasn't affected significantly by gender. Furthermore, the findings of the two-way ANOVA across groups revealed that the interaction impact between job and gender is not significant. Suggested to investigate other dimensions of resilience in the group of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 60,000 food pantries in the United States are well known for charity-based emergency food assistance and edible food recovery, serving 53 million people in 2022 (Feeding America, 2023a). Thousands of urban gardens emphasize vegetable production and food justice, but lack strong connections to food pantries. We explore how food pantries and urban gardens could partner to transform pantries into distribution sites that also become food justice education and organizing spaces. To assess this potential, we engaged in participatory action research with a leading social services provider that offers programs supporting both organized urban gardeners and a large urban food pantry in San Jose, California. We conducted and analyzed 21 interviews with food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners affiliated with the same agency, and eight interviews with other urban gardeners and food pantry staff from external organizations. We found that while both food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners expressed concerns about increasing healthy food access and reducing food waste, pantry volunteers were often unfamiliar with food justice and uncomfortable talking about race and culturally rooted food preferences. These findings were similar with the informants from external organizations. To support urban gardener and food pantry volunteer collaboration, we developed a food justice approach to emergency food assistance and food waste management in which both groups co-create onsite vermicomposting infrastructure and partner with a university to design a training program focused on diversity, justice, and systemic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture should be promoted as long as the food produced is safe for consumption. Located in the metropolitan region of São Paulo-Brazil, Santo André has intense industrial activities and more recently an increasing stimulus to urban gardening. One of the potential risks associated to this activity is the presence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs). In this study, the concentration of PTEs (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, Mo, Pb, Sb, Se, V and Zn) was evaluated by soil (n = 85) and soil amendments (n = 19) in urban gardens from this municipality. Only barium was above regulatory limits in agricultural soil ranging from 20 to 112 mg kg−1. Geochemical indexes (Igeo, Cf and Er) revealed moderate to severe pollution for As, Ba, Cr, Cu, Pb Se and Zn, especialy in Capuava petrochemical complex gardens. A multivariate statistical approach discriminated Capuava gardens from the others and correlated As, Cr and V as main factors of pollution. However, carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks were below the acceptable range for regulatory purposes of 10–6–10–4 for adults. Soil amendments were identified as a possible source of contamination for Ba, Zn and Pb which ranged from 37 to 4137 mg kg−1, 20 to 701 mg kg−1 and 0.7 to 73 mg kg−1, respectively. The results also indicated the presence of six pathogenic bacteria in these amendments. Besides that, the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance for Shigella, Enterobacter and Citrobacter isolates suggests that soil management practices improvement is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art is an amorphous field of operations that continuously sheds revered traditions and adds unprecedented innovations. It is, therefore, primed to offer original solutions to entrenched problems, such as those associated with urban foodways. Assessing the significance of the novel forms of expression that artistic license often entails entering uncharted cultural territories, then surveying the new terrains for the insights they contain. The five contemporary artists who are featured in this essay affirm this observation. The artworks they produced bypassed traditional still lifes and rural landscapes. Instead, they interrogated the particularities of current urban foodways.I treated these artworks to two concurrent paths of inquiry. One involved assessing the content of the artists’ urban food anxiteies and solutions. The other involved relating this content to the unconventional art strategies they employed to convey their creative food-generating initiatives. Methodology, therefore, constitutes an essential component of their creative practices. Their innovative strategies offer pragmatic solutions regarding urban food dilemmas that far exceed the cultural arena of art.For example, although all five artists live amid urban abundance, their focus zeroed in on food insecurity. Their artworks not only expose potential shortages and citizen vulnerabilities; they also propose security-bolstering solutions. Significantly, those solutions are not vested in broad-scale systems of production and distribution. Instead, the responsibility is entrusted to individual citizens. Their artworks introduce schemes for gaining food security that are both modest and innovative. They are modest because they are scaled to individuals, neighborhoods, and communities. They are innovative because these domestically scaled initiatives offer novel nature-based urban food solutions. For this reason, the artworks discussed on the following pages could contribute to future NBS urban food approaches. Some seem suitable for scaling up. Others demonstrate the need to relax regulations that inhibit experimentation. A few might bolster broad-scale institutional policies designed to facilitate independent food production. All replace stress with confidence.

According to the hygiene and biodiversity hypotheses, frequent exposure to environmental microbiota, especially through soil contact, diversifies commensal microbiota, enhances immune modulation, and ultimately lowers the risk of immune-mediated diseases. Here we test the underlying assumption of the hygiene and biodiversity hypotheses by instructing volunteers to grow edible plants indoors during the winter season when natural exposure to environmental microbiota is low. The one-month randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind trial consisted of two treatments: participants received either microbially diverse growing medium or visually similar but microbially poor growing medium. Skin microbiota and a panel of seven immune markers were analyzed in the beginning of the trial and after one month. The diversity of five bacterial phyla (Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia) and one class (Bacteroidia) increased on the skin of participants in the intervention group while no changes were observed in the placebo group. The number of nodes and edges in the co-occurrence networks of the skin bacteria increased on average three times more in the intervention group than in the placebo group. The plasma levels of the immunomodulatory cytokine interleukin 10 (IL-10) increased in the intervention group when compared with the placebo group. A similar trend was observed in the interleukin 17A (IL-17A) levels and in the IL-10:IL-17A ratios. Participants in both groups reported high satisfaction and adherence to the trial. The current study provides evidence in support of the core assumption of the hygiene and biodiversity hypotheses of immune-mediated diseases. Indoor urban gardening offers a meaningful and convenient approach for increasing year-round exposure to environmental microbiota, paving the way for other prophylactic practices that might help prevent immune-mediated diseases.

Abstract 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.

Basic Health Research data from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia in 2018 showed that nationally the problem of central obesity at the age of 15 years was still serious, namely, 31%, while the prevalence of central obesity at the age of 15 years in Maluku reached 33%. Obesity is becoming a health problem worldwide; even the WHO states that obesity has become a global epidemic. Obesity is a health problem that must address immediately because it is a risk factor for degenerative diseases and metabolic syndrome. Obesity in adolescents needs to get serious attention, be consistent, and be addressed together. To improve health status and optimize adolescent growth and development, it is necessary to apply a healthy diet through the socialization of balanced nutrition with comic media and implementation assistance. Urban gardening for teenagers through mosque youth can be an effort to implement healthy eating patterns for teenagers for optimal nutrition and health status.

The 60,000 food pantries in the United States are well known for charity-based emergency food assistance and edible food recovery, serving 53 mil­lion people in 2022 (Feeding America, 2023a). Thousands of urban gardens emphasize vegetable production and food justice, but lack strong con­nections to food pantries. We explore how food pantries and urban gardens could partner to trans­form pantries into distribution sites that also become food justice education and organizing spaces. To assess this potential, we engaged in par­ticipatory action research with a leading social ser­vices provider that offers programs supporting both organized urban gardeners and a large urban food pantry in San Jose, California. We conducted and analyzed 21 interviews with food pantry volun­teers and urban gardeners affiliated with the same agency, and eight interviews with other urban gar­deners and food pantry staff from external organi­zations. We found that while both food pantry vol­unteers and urban gardeners expressed concerns about increasing healthy food access and reducing food waste, pantry volunteers were often unfamil­iar with food justice and uncomfortable talking about race and culturally rooted food preferences. These findings were similar with the informants from external organizations. To support urban gar­dener and food pantry volunteer collaboration, we developed a food justice approach to emergency food assistance and food waste management in which both groups co-create onsite vermicompost­ing infrastructure and partner with a university to design a training program focused on diversity, jus­tice, and systemic change.

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]

Streetside gardening is an informal, resident-initiated activity undertaken in dense urban areas worldwide. Yardless urban areas with a high incidence of informal streetside gardening are called Convivial Greenstreets (CG). Site investigations in European and several U.S. cities over the last decade suggest that social, ecological, and local climate benefits may be found where CG are most intense. The aim of this research is to fill a gap in the research literature by better understanding the spatial distribution of CG and the potential benefits associated with them. Using inner-core neighborhoods in Delft, The Netherlands, and Philadelphia, USA, as test cases, we devised a Convivial Greenstreet Intensity (CGI) index to provide a consistent method for mapping and comparing levels of streetside gardening activity across neighborhoods and cities. We show that CG spatial patterning and quantification of informal gardening intensity using in situ documentation and integrated GIS and Google Earth analyses are feasible and should prove useful as a basis for further research. With the development of a reliable method for measuring and mapping informal streetside gardening activity with a focus on visually accessible biomass, we hope that opportunities for investigating links between convivial greenstreets and urban microclimatic and physical and mental health will be facilitated. [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]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have recently worked to broaden the definition of urban engagement in order to better understand the multiple manifestations of this concept. Some, interested in grasping the potential transformative or demonstrative effects of everyday actions in urban settings, have examined active practices, such as gardening. Others have focused on the scale of action and have demonstrated how limited activities can have significant effects on individuals and communities. Building on the case studies of collective gardens in the significantly different urban settings of Québec City (Canada) and Madrid (Spain), we explore how the practices of urban gardening offer forms of learning that often go beyond gardening itself and expand into collective decision making and social engagement. The gardens we look at are grassroots based, have been in operation for approximately ten years and receive a form of support from city programmes. Our results show that these gardens are the sites of social processes where gardeners develop a strong identity in relation to the alternative lifestyles that they build, as well as a sense of belonging that goes beyond the boundaries of their garden and that connects them to nature. By developing their ethos of care, gardeners learn that neighbourhood-oriented actions have political implications that can help change the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]