Research and Public Policies

This page is divided into three sections:

Community Gardening -- books and studies related to community gardening; how they operate, challenges they face, and the history of them.

Advocacy & Research -- articles and research studies useful for advocating for community gardens.

Public Policies -- a compendium of public policies relating to community gardens by various cities and other government entities

Items with specific information about community gardens in Minnesota are denoted by

Sometimes links change. If you are unable to link to a document, please contact us for an electronic version.

Community Gardening

A Handbook of Community Gardening
by Boston Urban Gardeners and edited by Susan Naimark, 1982. A timeless, beautifully written, comprehensive how-to guide for community gardening, covering a wide range of topics. Check your used bookstore for a copy. 

City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America
Laura Lawson, 2005. A look at the long history of community gardening within the United States. Easy to read and provides some Minnesota-specific information as well. Available for purchase through University of California Press

Milwaukee Community Gardens: Current Trends and Recommendations
2002 Report by Matthew B. Mikolajewski, graduate student at School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Describes the status of community gardening in Milwaukee, explores major issues gardens face, and looks at how other organizations are addressing similar problems.

Patchwork: stories of gardens and community
Beret Halverson and Jim Flint, Friends of Burlington Gardens, 2005
The beautiful book shares the first-person stories of ten community gardeners representing a diversity of cultural perspectives. The detailed accounts gathered by Beret Halverson are accompanied by black and white photographs taken by Jim Flint. Editor’s journal entries and practical tips provide a "how to" guide for starting and sustaining a community, neighborhood, or youth garden.  Order from Friends of Burlington Gardens.

Twin Cities Community Garden Sustainability Plan 2005
Documents the challenges facing community gardens in the Twin Cities and recommends a strategy to preserve and promote community gardens.

Advocacy & Research

A Dietary, Social and Economic Evaluation of the Philadelphia Urban Gardening Project
Article by Dorothy Blair, Carol C. Giesecke, and Sandra Sherman. 1991.
Found that community gardens are "an important strategy for improving vegetable consumption, gaining control over the quality and variety of produce consumed, and facilitating community relationships and development."

Bloom to Grow
Why community gardens should be a part of our park system. Printed in the P&R Magazine, a journal of the National Recreatin and Park Association March 2006.

Community Development Through Gardening: State and Local Policies Transforming Urban Open Space
Article by Jane E. Schukoske, looking at the variety of public policies that have impacted community gardens over time and across the U.S. Can be found in Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, Spring 2000, Volume 3, Number 2.

Leave No Child Inside
Article by Richard Louv for Orion Magazine (March-April 2007) speaks to the physical and mental necessity of children exploring nature.

Peak Soil
A new take on Peak Oil - why growing food locally is so vitally important to our longterm success. Printed in Culture Change in April 2007.

The Food System: A Stranger to the Planning Field
An article reprinted in City Farmer from the Journal of the American Planning Association in 2000. Notes that planners are not aware of the food system and thus may undermine it.

Whitmire Study
Commissioned by Gateway Greening a community gardening organization in St. Louis, Missouri. This study examined the impact of community gardens on indicators of quality of life for years 1990 and 2000. They found a strong correlation between community garden development and reversal of urban decline in neighborhoods. Click to view slide presentation.

The Effect of Community Gardens on Neighboring Property Values
2006. Vicki Been and Ioan Voici, New York University, compared property values of properties located near community gardens and those that were not. They found residential properties near gardens were greater with an increase over time. Greatest impact can be found in disadvantaged neighborhoods, including greater economic development and increased rates of homeownership.

Making Policy: Steps Beyond the Physical Garden
2000 Issue of Community Greening Review, a publication of ACGA, is available online and has great tibits on public policy and community gardens. Well-worth a review!

The Diggible City
Completed by students in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at Portland State University, the Diggable City Project was an attempt to take an inventory of vacant, publicly-owned land in the Portland area, and to start a conversation about how that land might be used to support urban agricultural activities.

Community Garden Public Policies

Supporting Community Gardens: Gardening Matters' Recommendations for Cities and Counties
Interest in community gardens is growing among individuals, organizations and government agencies. Gardening Matters sets forth these recommendations for how local jurisdictions can support existing and new community gardens so that they can fulfill their potential as community assets.

Model Policy Language for Community Gardening
Prepared by Planning for Healthy Places, a project of Pubic Health Law & Policy with funding from the California Department of Health (Also includes model policy language for farmers' markets)

Community Gardens: A Study of Public Policies in Minneapolis and Hennepin County
GardenWorks intern, Erin Foster West, completed a study of public policies pertaining to community gardening in Minneapolis and Hennepin County in May 2007. This pdf document includes information on how to find out about land ownership, and how the various policies of different government entities regarding community gardens.

Boston's Community Garden Zoning
Read the actual language for this unique zoning code established in 1988.

City of Cleveland's Zoning Code for Community Gardens
In 2007, the Cleveland Planning Commission approved the adoption of a new section of the zoning code – Chapter 336, Urban Garden District – to protect and preserve Cleveland’s urban garden areas. Cleveland’s planners are to work with neighborhood groups to select additional sites that are appropriately located for an enlarged community garden program and work with the city and other funders to provide adequate resources to the Botanical Garden, Ohio State University Extension, Cuyahoga Community Land Trust and other collaborators interested in gardens and food production. For more information go to p. 6 "Urban Gardens and Food" section in Cleveland's 2020 Citywide Plan.

City of Seattle resolution to expand their community garden program, 2000
Resolution 30194 by the City of Seattle adopting a Five-Year Strategic Plan as guidance for the expansion of Seattle's community gardening program and adopting the policies and procedures necessary for the implementation of the plan.

City of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), Community Gardens Policy
Established 2005, this policy provides a framework for how the city can work with community associations and gardening organizations to establish and maintain community gardens on city-owned lands, park land and privately-owned land. These policies has been adapted by other cities in both Canada and United States.

Community Garden Policy of Saanich, British Columbia, Canada
The city of Saanich (108,000 people) is just north of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. City council passed a Community Garden Policy in 2003 (and later amended in 2006) describing the various ways that the city will support community gardening.

New York City & Liability Insurance
City of New York dropped liability insurance requirements for community gardeners in March 2006. The City extended municipal liability protection to community gardeners on city-owned land, thereby no longer requiring garden organizations to pay for private insurance policies. Read the press release.

Boise Parks and Recreation Department: Community Garden Policy
Established 2002, the community garden policy draft provides a framework for how community gardens will be developed on park property.

City and County of San Francisco, Recreation and Parks Department
Responding to a strong demand among San Francisco households, the Recreation and Parks Department established extensive community garden policies governing the establishment and maintenance of community gardens on park property, effective July 2006. "The intent of these policies is to continue equal opportunity for public access to all gardens by providing a uniform framework that will allow for flexibility in management within each garden."