Community Gardening: Community Gardens
A guide to community gardening resources in the Boston Public Library and online
What is a Community Garden?
A community garden is a piece of land, either public or private, gardened by a group of people. The garden can be purely ornamental, grow vegetables for individual use or sale, or have a purpose such as protecting wildlife or native plants. Community gardens can be located in urban, suburban, or rural areas, and at different locations such as schools, churches, food pantries, hospitals, public housing, or in neighborhoods.
Community Gardening Statistics
The National Gardening Association, a leading nonprofit in garden-based education, publishes annual statistics on food gardening in the United States. A recent report, Garden to Table: A 5-Year Look at Food Gardening in America, analyzed data collected from 2008-2013 and found:
- The number of Americans growing their own food in home and community gardens increased from 36 million households in 2008 to 42 million households in 2013. That is a 17% increase.
- There was a 29% increase in food gardening in urban areas, up from 7 million in 2008 to 9 million in 2010.
- Young people, particularly millennials (ages 18-34), are the fastest growing population segment of food gardeners. In 2008 there were 8 million millennial food gardeners. This figure rose to 13 million in 2013., an increase of 63%
- More households with children participated in food gardening, with participation increasing during the same time period by 25%, from 12 million to 15 million.
- From 2008-2013, the number of households participating in community gardens tripled from 1 million to 3 million, a 200% increase.
The American Community Gardening Association estimates that there are 18,000 community gardens throughout the United States and Canada. According to the City of Boston's Open Space Plan, 2015-2021 Boston has 175 gardens, with 15,000 residents participating in community gardening.
Community Gardening - Boston
A short documentary on urban gardening in Boston. It deals with the history of urban gardening in the area and interviews some people currently involved.
Community Gardening
Welcome to the Boston Public Library's guide to community gardening resources. This Research Guide will connect you to relevant books, media, and journal articles in the Boston Public Library's collections, as well as useful online resources
Use This Guide To:
- Explore the history of community gardens
- Find a community garden in your area
- Get tips on how to start a community garden
- Learn what to plant in your garden
- Locate support organizations, gardening programs, and workshops
- Connect to local community gardening resources
History of Community Gardening in the United States
In the United States, the use of community gardens to help ease conditions for urban dwellers in times of social change or economic crisis can be traced back to the 1890s and Detroit, when Mayor Hazen Pingree introduced his "potato patch" program. The program allocated vacant lots for cultivation to the unemployed. It was a success, and was later adopted by other major cities. Community gardens were also used as a relief measure during the 1930s depression.
During World War I and World War II, citizens were encouraged to grow their own food in their home gardens or community gardens so that commercially-grown produce could go to support the war effort. After World War II, the interest in community gardening declined, but In the 1960s and 1970s there was a resurgence of interest driven by environmental and social activists who worked to turn neglected lots into useful community spaces.
The present interest in community gardens is driven by many factors including rising food prices, food insecurity, concerns about health & nutrition, a desire to protect the environment and live sustainably, the chance to share gardening knowledge and experience with children and youth, and more.
Learn More About Community Gardening
Start a Community Food Garden: The Essential Handbook by
LaManda Joy, the founder of Chicago's Peterson Garden Project and a board member of the American Community Gardening Association, has worked in the community gardening trenches for years and brings her knowledge to the wider world in Start a Community Food Garden. This hardworking guide covers every step of the process: fundraising, community organizing, site sourcing, garden design and planning, finding and managing volunteers, and managing the garden through all four seasons. A section dedicated to the basics of growing was designed to be used by community garden leaders as an educational tool for teaching new members how to successfully garden.
Call Number: SB457 .J69 2014ISBN: 9781604694840Publication Date: 2014-12-30
Community Gardening by
Today, more and more people are thinking green, and there's no urban activity greener, in every sense of the word, than community gardening. This all-region guide, filled with hands-on tips, offers a snapshot of today's vibrant North American community gardening movement. Whether you are already a member of a community garden, want to get involved in one, or are just curious, this guide will inform and inspire you. Models include vegetable gardens, aesthetic and art gardens, children's and youth gardens, and several others. Using real-life case studies from around North America, the expert contributors show how community gardening produces safe, eco-friendly food; brings neighbors together; offers valuable lessons for children; and gives each participant the personal satisfaction that comes with cultivating the land and making things grow. Like all Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbooks, this entry features sustainable and organic gardening practices.
Call Number: SB1 .P56 no.190ISBN: 9781889538389Publication Date: 2008-07-01
City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing by
City Farmer celebrates the new ways that urban dwellers across North America are reimagining cities as places of food production. From homeowners planting their front yards with vegetables to guerilla gardeners scattering seeds in neglected urban corners, gardening guru Lorraine Johnson chronicles the increasing popularity of innovative urban food growing.
Call Number: S494.U72 J65 2011xISBN: 9781553655190Publication Date: 2011-02-01
Edible Cities: Urban Permaculture for Gardens, Yards, Balconies, Rooftops and Beyond by
Want to grow food but have nothing larger than a balcony, windowsill, or a piece of wall? No problem! This is a gardening book with a difference. It will help you to grow your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and even mushrooms in small spaces in the most ecological way possible. Edible Cities shows you why the urban landscape can be a great place for permaculture. Discover inside: • Principles of permaculture • Worldwide examples of urban gardening projects • Ideas for flats and balconies • Green roofs • Vertical gardening and urban beekeeping • Guerrilla gardening and successful community projects • Illustrated practical techniques with clear instructions • Preface and contributions by Sepp Holzer • Urban case studies from cities all over the world. Packed with inspiration and practical, fully illustrated ideas, discover how people around the world are inventing new growing opportunities and making them a reality with few resources and a lot of creativity. Find out how you, too, can plan and create your own urban growing paradise.
Call Number: SB453 .S54413 2013xISBN: 9781856231374Publication Date: 2013-12-15
Growing Cities
From rooftop farmers to backyard beekeepers, Americans are growing food like never before. Growing Cities goes coast to coast to tell the inspiring stories of these intrepid urban farmers, activists, and everyday city-dwellers who are challenging the way this country feeds itself. From those growing in backyards to make ends meet to educators teaching kids to eat healthier, viewers find that urban farming is about much more than simply good food.
Call Number: D494.5 .U72 GPublication Date: 2014
Urban Farming: Sustainable City Living in Your Backyard, in Your Community, and in the World by
It doesn't take a farm to have the heart of a farmer. Now, due to a burgeoning sustainable-living movement, you don't have to own acreage to fulfill your dream of raising your own food. Hobby Farms Urban Farming, from Hobby Farm Press and the same people who bring you Hobby Farms and Hobby Farm Home magazine, will walk every city and suburban dweller down the path of self sustainability. Urban Farming will introduce readers to the concepts of gardening and farming from a high-rise apartment, participating in a community garden, vertical farming, and converting terraces and other small city spaces into fruitful, vegetableful real estate. This comprehensive volume will answer every up and coming urban farmer's questions about how, what, where and why - a new green book for the dedicated citizen seeking to reduce his carbon footprint and grocery bill.
Call Number: SB494.5.U72 F69 2011ISBN: 9781933958934Publication Date: 2011-04-26
A Handbook of Community Gardening by Call Number: SB457.2 .H26 1982ISBN: 0684174669Publication Date: 1982-05-01
City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America by
Since the 1890s, providing places for people to garden has been an inventive strategy to improve American urban conditions. There have been vacant-lot gardens, school gardens, Depression-era relief gardens, victory gardens, and community gardens, each representing a consistent impulse to return to gardening during times of social and economic change. In this critical history of community gardening in America, the most comprehensive review of the greening of urban communities to date, Laura J. Lawson documents the evolution of urban garden programs in the United States. Her vibrant narrative focuses on the values associated with gardening, the ebb and flow of campaigns during times of social and economic crisis, organizational strategies of these primarily volunteer campaigns, and the sustainability of current programs.
Call Number: SB457.3 .L39 2005ISBN: 0520243439Publication Date: 2005-05-30
A Patch of Eden: America's Inner City Gardeners by
"Imagine a place in the inner city where flowers and vegetables grow, and trees flourish. H. Patricia Hynes tells the stories of America's urban gardeners, who are transforming rubble-strewn lots in more than 200 cities across the nation into wonderful neighborhood sanctuaries." "By describing in detail successful community garden projects in Harlem, North Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco, Hynes celebrates an innovative form of urban renewal that is undertaken with seeds, soil, and sweat. These gardens cool and cleanse the air, soften the noise from traffic and factories, collect rainwater that would otherwise drain away into storm sewers, and provide habitat for songbirds and butterflies." "A Patch of Eden brings you an ecological story of heroic dimensions. In what might seem to be the most unlikely of places, expert gardeners like Bernadette Cozart, Cathrine Sneed, Rachel Bagby, and Dan Underwood are working with children, elders, immigrants, inmates, low-income people, and no-income people to create gardens that are overflowing with flowers and food. Here is a glimpse of the cities of the future."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Call Number: SB457.3 .H95 1996ISBN: 0930031806Publication Date: 1996-05-01- To Dwell Is to Garden: A History of Boston's Community Gardens by
n the heart of a squalid city, community gardens are oases of productivity for the resident gardenersa source of satisfaction and pride for some of the city's least-powerful people. As Warner points out, community gardens have a long history, from the ``allotment gardens'' of England to the back-to-nature plots of the 1960s. Focusing on the Boston area, this study describes in the gardeners' own words and in photographs the importance of gardens to the neighborhood and the individual. The ethnic heritages of the gardeners are seen in the variety of crops grown; the book's final section considers the vegetables grown in the Anglo-Irish, the Afro-American, the Italian, the Chinese, and the Hispanic garden. Well-written and photographed, but of interest mainly to sociologists and students of the history of horticulture.
Call Number: SB457.2 .W37 1987ISBN: 1555530079Publication Date: 1987-03-20
The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by
The Earth Knows My Name speaks directly to this gap in our understanding, exploring the deeper implications of what it means to cultivate a garden and to grow one's own food.The fifteen gardens presented in The Earth Knows My Name have all been fashioned by people usually thought of as other Americans: Native Americans, immigrants, and ethnic peoples who were here long before our national boundaries were drawn, including Hispanics of the Southwest, descended from the Conquistadors, and Gullah gardeners of South Carolina, descendants of West African slaves. All of these gardeners straddle two cultures-mainstream America and their culture of origin. Their stewardship of the land is an expression of the desire to preserve their heritage against all that threatens it. And so each garden becomes an island of hope and offers a model, on a truly sustainable scale, of a restorative ecology that renders justice to both the land and the people who cultivate it.
Call Number: SB455 .K55 2006ISBN: 0807085626Publication Date: 2006-04-12
The Power of a Plant: A Teacher's Odyssey to Grow Healthy Minds and Schools by
In The Power of a Plant, globally acclaimed teacher and self-proclaimed CEO (Chief Eternal Optimist) Stephen Ritz shows you how, in one of the nation's poorest communities, his students thrive in school and in life by growing, cooking, eating, and sharing the bounty of their green classroom. What if we taught students that they have as much potential as a seed? That in the right conditions, they can grow into something great? These are the questions that Stephen Ritz-who became a teacher more than 30 years ago-sought to answer in 2004 in a South Bronx high school plagued by rampant crime and a dismal graduation rate. After what can only be defined as a cosmic experience when a flower broke up a fight in his classroom, he saw a way to start tackling his school's problems- plants. He flipped his curriculum to integrate gardening as an entry point for all learning and inadvertently created an international phenomenon. As Ritz likes to say, "Fifty thousand pounds of vegetables later, my favorite crop is organically grown citizens who are growing and eating themselves into good health and amazing opportunities." The Power of a Plant tells the story of a green teacher from the Bronx who let one idea germinate into a movement and changed his students' lives by learning alongside them. Since greening his curriculum, Ritz has seen near-perfect attendance and graduation rates, dramatically increased passing rates on state exams, and behavioral incidents slashed in half. In the poorest congressional district in America, he has helped create 2,200 local jobs and built farms and gardens while changing landscapes and mindsets for residents, students, and colleagues. Along the way, Ritz lost more than 100 pounds by eating the food that he and his students grow in school. The Power of a Plant is his story of hope, resilience, regeneration, and optimism.
Call Number: LA339.N5 R55ISBN: 9781623368647Publication Date: 2017-05-02
Food Justice by
In today's food system, farm workers face difficult and hazardous conditions, low-income neighborhoods lack supermarkets but abound in fast-food restaurants and liquor stores, food products emphasize convenience rather than wholesomeness, and the international reach of American fast-food franchises has been a major contributor to an epidemic of "globesity." To combat these inequities and excesses, a movement for food justice has emerged in recent years seeking to transform the food system from seed to table. In Food Justice, Robert Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi tell the story of this emerging movement. A food justice framework ensures that the benefits and risks of how food is grown and processed, transported, distributed, and consumed are shared equitably. Gottlieb and Joshi recount the history of food injustices and describe current efforts to change the system, including community gardens and farmer training in Holyoke, Massachusetts, youth empowerment through the Rethinkers in New Orleans, farm-to-school programs across the country, and the Los Angeles school system's elimination of sugary soft drinks from its cafeterias. And they tell how food activism has succeeded at the highest level: advocates waged a grassroots campaign that convinced the Obama White House to plant a vegetable garden. The first comprehensive inquiry into this emerging movement, Food Justice addresses the increasing disconnect between food and culture that has resulted from our highly industrialized food system.
Call Number: HD9000.5 .G675 2010ISBN: 9780262072915Publication Date: 2010-09-24
The Garden
The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.
Call Number: SB457.3 .GPublication Date: 2009
The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by
A pioneering urban farmer and MacArthur "Genius Award" winner points the way to building a new food system that can feed--and heal--broken communities. The son of a sharecropper, Will Allen had no intention of ever becoming a farmer himself. But after years in professional basketball and as an executive for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Procter & Gamble, Allen cashed in his retirement fund for a two-acre plot a half mile away from Milwaukee's largest public housing project. The area was a food desert with only convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to serve the needs of local residents. In the face of financial challenges and daunting odds, Allen built the country's preeminent urban farm--a food and educational center that now produces enough vegetables and fish year-round to feed thousands of people. Employing young people from the neighboring housing project and community, Growing Power has sought to prove that local food systems can help troubled youths, dismantle racism, create jobs, bring urban and rural communities closer together, and improve public health. Today, Allen's organization helps develop community food systems across the country. An eco-classic in the making, The Good Food Revolution is the story of Will's personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats.
Call Number: S494.U72 A45 2012ISBN: 1592407102Publication Date: 2012-05-10
Greening Cities, Growing Communities: Learning From Seattles Urban Community Gardens by
Although there are thousands of community gardens across North America, only Seattle and a few other cities include them in their urban development plans. While the conditions and experiences in Seattle may be unique, the city's programs offer insights and lessons for other cities and communities. Greening Cities, Growing Communities examines: -- Planning and design strategies that support the development of urban community gardens as sustainable places for education and recreation -- Approaches to design processes, construction, and stewardship that utilize volunteer and community participation and create a sense of community -- Programs that enable gardens to serve as a resource for social justice for low income and minority communities, immigrants, and seniors -- Opportunities to develop active-living frameworks by strategically locating community gardens and linking them with other forms of recreation and open space as part of pedestrian-accessible networks Greening Cities, Growing Communities focuses on six community gardens in Seattle where there has been a strong network of knowledge and resources. These case studies reveal the capacity of community gardens to serve larger community issues, such as food security; urban ecosystem health; demonstration of sustainable gardening and building practices; active living and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods; and equity concerns. The authors also examine how landscape architects, planners, and allied design professionals can better interact in the making of these unique urban open spaces, and how urban community gardens offer opportunities for professionals to have a more prominent role in community activism and urban sustainability.
Call Number: SB457.3 .H63 2009ISBN: 9780295989280Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Growing a Garden City: How Farmers, First Graders, Counselors, Troubled Teens, Foodies, A Homeless Shelter Chef, Single Mothers, and More Are Transforming Themselves and Their Neighborhoods Through the Intersection of Local Agriculture and Community by
Fifteen people--plus a class of first graders--tell how local food, farms, and gardens changed their lives and their community...and how they can change yours, too. Growing a Garden City includes: Fifteen first-person stories of personal and civic transformation from a range of individuals, including farmers and community garden members, a low-income senior and troubled teen, a foodie, a food bank officer, and many more Seven in-depth "How It Works" sections on student farms, community gardens, community supported agriculture (CSA), community education, farm work therapy, community outreach, and more Detailed information on dozens of additional resources from relevant books and websites to government programs and national non-profit organizations Over 80 full-color photographs showing a diverse local food community at home, work, and play Read Growing a Garden City to: Learn how people like you, with busy lives like yours, can and do enjoy the many benefits of local food without having to become full-time organic farmers Gain the information you need to organize or get involved in your own "growing community" anywhere across the country and around the world
Call Number: SB457.3 .S64 2010ISBN: 1616081082Publication Date: 2010-10-06
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
"When Cuba lost access to Soviet oil in the early 1900s, the country faced an immediate crisis -- feeding the population -- and an ongoing challenge: how to create a new low-energy society. Cuba transitioned from large, fossil-fuel intensive farming to small, less energy-intensive organic farm and urban gardens, and from a highly industrial society to a more sustainable one."
Call Number: HC152.5 .Z65 PISBN: 0910420327Publication Date: 2006
Urban Place: Reconnecting with the Natural World by
Amidst city concrete and suburban sprawl, Americans are discovering new ways to reconnect with the natural world. From community gardens in New York's Lower East Side to homeless shelters in California, the search for a more sustainable future has led grassroots groups to a profound reconnection to place and to the natural world.Studies of the health consequences of renewing a connection with nature support the urgency of providing green surroundings as cities expand and the majority of the earth's population lives in urban areas. Medical research results, from groups as diverse as healthy volunteers, surgery patients, and heart attack survivors, suggest that contact with nature may improve health and well-being. Engagement with nearby natural places also provides restoration from mental fatigue and support for more resilient and cooperative behavior. Aspects of stronger community life are fostered by access to nature, suggesting that there are significant social as well as physical and psychological benefits from connection with the natural world.This volume brings together research from anthropology, sociology, public health, psychology, and landscape architecture to highlight how awareness of locale and a meaningful renewal of attachment with the earth are connected to delight in learning about nature as well as to civic action and new forms of community. Community garden coalitions, organic market advocates, and greenspace preservationists resist the power of global forces, enacting visions of a different future. Their creative efforts tell a story of a constructive and dynamic middle ground between private plots and public action, between human health and ecosystem health, between individual attachment and urban sustainability.
Call Number: HT241 .U726 2005ISBN: 0262025868Publication Date: 2005-09-02
