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The number of gardening-based mental health interventions is increasing, yet when the literature was last reviewed in 2003, limited evidence of their effectiveness was identified. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current evidence-base for gardening-based mental health interventions and projects through examining their reported benefits and the quality of research in this field.

Studies evaluating the benefits of gardening-based interventions for adults experiencing mental health difficulties were identified through an electronic database search. Information on the content and theoretical foundations of the interventions, the identified benefits of the interventions and the study methodology was extracted and synthesised.

Ten papers published since 2003 met the inclusion criteria. All reported positive effects of gardening as a mental health intervention for service users, including reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. Participants described a range of benefits across emotional, social, vocational, physical and spiritual domains. Overall the research was of a considerably higher quality than that reviewed in 2003, providing more convincing evidence in support of gardening-based interventions. However, none of the studies employed a randomised-controlled trial design.

There is a need for further high-quality research in this field. It is important that adequate outcome measures are in place to evaluate existing gardening-based mental health interventions/projects effectively.

This paper provides an up-to-date critique of the evidence for gardening-based mental health interventions, highlighting their potential clinical value.

In a world in which “England's green and pleasant land” sets the standard for garden excellence, gardeners in much of the United States will struggle in vain to adapt the British style to their own volatile climates. American regional gardening literature offers a new vision to help gardeners throughout the United States select plants suited to their climates (especially native plants) and use techniques to prevent losses to cold, heat, humidity, or drought. The resulting gardens may not always resemble the traditional English her baceous border, but their beauty and vigor will enhance the often monotonous American suburban landscape.

This paper describes how community gardens generate social capital, and with what potential implications for the health of gardeners and their communities.

This analysis draws on data from focus groups with gardeners from four community gardening programs, two each in Boston and Lynn, MA. The participants represent a diverse sample of community gardeners (n=32).

We identify four mechanisms through which community gardening increases social capital, with implications for individual and community health: (1) building social networks; (2) providing opportunities for resource sharing and social support; (3) preserving cultural knowledge and practice in diaspora; and (4) reflecting and reinforcing collective efficacy. We also describe gardeners’ perspectives on gardening itself as a political activity.

While much of the literature on social capital and health in community gardens comes from in-depth studies of single, relatively homogenous gardens, this analysis draws on data from focus group interviews with a diverse group of participants who garden in varied neighborhood settings. In contrast to studies that have suggested that the social capital generated in community gardens does not extend beyond the group of individuals actively involved in gardening, our study identifies multiple community level benefits. Consequently, this paper lends support to recent calls to consider community gardening as strategy for amplifying community assets in support of public health.

School and community gardens have long histories grounded in social justice. Currently there are advocacy movements calling for gardening programs that foster academics and equity movements through nutrition education, neighborhood green spaces and beautification, and ecological sustainability. While the authors contributed personal experiences and useful resources for those interested in school and community gardening, the authors primarily investigated multiple theories that embraced critical and ecological pedagogies in neighborhoods, schools, urban communities. The democratic movements of food security, removal of food deserts, and socioeconomic sustainability using applicable gardening programs were the driving forces behind this chapter.

What does the intersection of food gardening and public librarianship look like? This chapter examines the question through a close analysis of three case studies that represent the spread of this phenomenon in the United States and Canada. This is a first step toward identifying areas for further research that will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how food gardening in and around public libraries addresses community-level health disparities. Although it is the case that food gardens and related programming are no strangers to public libraries, this topic has not received sustained attention in the LIS research literature. Public libraries have long been framed as key institutions in increasing consumer health literacy, but a more recent trend has seen them also framed as key institutions in promoting public and community health, particularly through the use of the public library space. This chapter examines food gardens at public libraries with this more expansive understanding of how public libraries address health disparities, by considering how this work occurs through novel partnerships and programs focused on transforming physical space in local communities. At the same time, public interest in food gardens parallels increased awareness of food in society; food and diet as key aspects of health; food justice activism; and a long history of community empowerment in the face of the proliferation of food deserts through myriad activities, including community food gardens. The authors consider how food gardening in public libraries parallels these trends.

School gardening and garden-based learning (GBL) have gained great popularity in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic forced many educators to think creatively about safe, outdoor education. Scholarship from diverse disciplines has demonstrated the positive impact of GBL on student learning, attitudes toward school and various health outcomes. Despite widespread interest in school gardening, GBL remains absent from most teacher education programs. This is a critical disconnect, as teacher education programs deeply inform the pedagogy of future teachers. In this article, the authors discuss an independent study course for pre-service teachers designed to bridge this gap and share the perspectives of the future teachers who completed the course.

To understand and evaluate the experiences of the preservice teachers engaged in the GBL independent study course, the authors conducted an exploratory qualitative case study.

The authors argue that GBL curriculum integration in teacher education programs, along with garden-focused PDS partnerships, can be powerful levers in expanding gardening initiatives and preparing pre-service teachers to garden with their future students.

The authors also provide GBL suggestions for universities and partnership schools.

Community gardens are increasingly used as interventions during the resettlement of refugees and other migrants. Little is known about how garden programs might support their mental health and wellbeing. Given the links between climate change and forced migration, community gardens are especially relevant, as they can also support climate change mitigation. This study aims to document psychosocial outcomes of gardening programs for refugees and migrants, and mechanisms leading to these outcomes.

The authors searched major databases and the grey literature up to 2021, resulting in the inclusion of 17 peer-reviewed and 4 grey literature articles in a thematic, qualitative analysis.

Four consistent themes arose from the analysis: community gardening programs promoted continuity and adaptation (81% of articles), social connectedness (81%), overall wellbeing (95%) and a sense of meaning and self-worth (67%). The results suggest that community gardens can strengthen psychosocial pillars that are key to the recovery and resettlement of refugees and migrants. The land-based and social nature of community gardening may enable connections to the land and others, nurture a sense of belonging in the host country and provide a link to the past for those from agricultural backgrounds.

Further participatory action research is needed to develop guidelines for the successful implementation of community gardens by resettlement organisations.

This review indicates that community gardens can be effective psychosocial interventions as part of a network of services supporting the resettlement of refugees and migrants.

IT is fitting that a new series of this magazine should be introduced by some reflections on the whole question of book selection, both for the general public and libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to promote visual autoethnography as a tool to explore and represent the captive qualities associated with gardening.

Visual autoethnography is presented as a method to explore the personal meaning of gardening. Visual autoethnography allows the writer to enmesh narratives of memory, sensual experiences and the self with images that amplify personal meaning.

The garden is a sensual landscape offering potential for personal expression and the vagaries of the human spirit. Despite its prominence as a leading leisure time activity in Aotearoa New Zealand gardening has received little serious scrutiny. What does this tell us? Is there a need to restore meaning or at least bring meaning to the fore of garden conversations be they personal, agreed, shared, reinforced or not?

While research into gardens and gardening has largely focussed on the other, this paper explores meaning through the self. The meaning of gardening is presented as a highly reflexive endeavor. Images allow the reader to migrate to the ethnographic site and share the ineffable properties that can be associated with what Francis Bacon once described as the purest of human pleasures.

In recent years, quite a number of local initiatives in Berlin have turned former empty lots or brownfields into publicly accessible open (green) spaces, some only temporarily, others on a more permanent basis. A few of those projects – often inspired by those created in New York City – can be identified as community gardens. Collective gardening, in the form of community gardens, is still a rarely known form of creating, shaping and using public space in Germany. However, for more than a decade Berlin has experienced an increase in the emergence of those kinds of grassroots initiatives. Although there are much older examples of open spaces created by and for residents, as discussed below, most of the existing gardens today have been created since the year 2000. The question is, what led to the recent rise in community gardening projects in Berlin? To answer this question, this chapter will examine the local governing context in Berlin in which the recent rise of community gardening has taken place and compare community gardens across a 20-year temporal divide.