Effects of Urban Garden

For more than over a decade, the installation of urban gardens throughout our nation has become one of the most eminent ways of having community residents working together in order to preserve and amplify urban communities. Upon doing so, urban communities are immensely effected by the garden through various aspects. Community gardens are places where neighbors and friends can gather to cultivate plants, vegetables, and fruits. As a result, such gardens can improve nutrition, physical activity, community engagement, safety and economic vitality for a neighborhood and it's residents, responsibility to improve the community, and initiate a sense of pride in their surroundings.

Most urban areas in America do meet local or state requirements for open space and parks per capita, particularly minority communities that have fewer resources to obtain and retain open space. “For instance, in Los Angeles, neighborhoods with 75% or more white residents boast 31.8 acres of park space for every 1,000 people, compared with 1.7 acres in African-American neighborhoods and 0.6 acres in Latin neighborhoods.” (Dave Davis, 1) A neglected vacant lot can be transformed into a garden where people of all ages can grow food together and strengthen community ties. Community gardens are an inexpensive way for cities to mitigate this disparity and recapture unused land for the purpose of beautification.

The urban gardening project is also focused on enhancing education opportunities throughout many urban communities. “Predominant poor urban communities have ranked among the worst amongst the nation in standardized testing.” (Bryan Walsh) Hands on exposure to community gardens can teach children about sources of fresh produce, demonstrate community stewardship, and introduce the importance of environmental sustainability. Gardens are also great places for children to learn math, business and communication skills through applied activities and interaction. Integrating environment-based education into academic programs improves reading, math, science, and social studies test scores and reduces discipline problems in the classroom. Also, community gardens can be integrated into broader community projects such as after-school programs for children, activites for the elderly and reources for food banks and homeless shelters. “In Seattle, the city's P-Patch Program works with the not-for-profit P-Patch Trust to supply between 7 to 10 tons of produce to Seattle food banks each year through their well developed community garden network.” ()

In addition, urban gardening thrives upon having all of their volunteers work on their physical condition. “The U.S. Surgeon General, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine, recommends getting a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week for adults and 60 minutes of moderately or vigorously intense activity for children. Unfortunately, nearly 40% of adults and 23% of children do not get any of free time physical activity.” Gardening is a recommended form of moderate physical activity. Community gardening can encourage more active lifestyles by providing children and adults the opportunity to exercise by stretching, bending, walking, digging, and lifting tools and plants.

Being able to stay physically active during garden sessions is only half of your goal. In order to maintain healthy, one must remain physically active and also eat nutritiously. There are limited access to healthy foods in many urban communities with many fast food restaurants only a few minutes away from the very cramp city. Foods such