• Form: from small individual plots to collective cultivation
• Setting: spanning rural, suburban, and urban landscapes, on public or private land 
• Management: such as by charitable organizations or by the gardeners themselves
• Content: growing varieties of produce, pollinator gardens, or other plants that suit the needs of the community

History of community gardens

In addition to providing food, community gardens have a long history of producing social, economic, and ecological benefits.

Prior to the 1600s, England used an “open field system” that fostered communal land use. However, from 1604 to 1914, the Enclosure Acts transformed communal land into the legal property of a single owner. Owners leased “allotments” from their estates to tenants, leading to the emergence of community gardens. 

During the First and Second World Wars, food shortage was common, and the public was encouraged to grow fruits and vegetables in communal spaces such as parks, school grounds, and vacant lots, dubbed “Victory Gardens”. In 1944, 40% of the United States’ fresh vegetables came from Victory Gardens. After the resolution of WW2 in 1945, the number of Victory Gardens dwindled as individuals began buying easily accessible processed foods.

The 1970s witnessed a resurgence of community gardens fueled by the rise of the environmental movement and economic turmoil related to the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) crisis.

The most recent interest in planting community gardens began during the COVID-19 pandemic. As supply chains broke down and people lost their jobs, growing in a community garden offered cost-saving sources of food and mental health benefits through outdoor activities in nature and opportunities for social interaction, all with minimal COVID-19 exposure risk.

Today, in 2025, community gardens continue to flourish in schools, neighborhoods, hospitals, prisons, and other public spaces. 

By decreasing the distance food must travel to reach consumers and minimizing trips to grocery stores, community gardens can reduce fuel-related carbon emissions. 

Community gardens are not, however, a panacea for the climate crisis. Whether a community garden has environmental benefits depends on how it is designed and maintained. In some cases, conventional agricultural practices can produce less greenhouse gases than community gardens. Site design and land use practices are critical in making gardens climate-friendly, like reusing materials for raised beds, using food waste as compost instead of synthetic fertilizers, growing food that is usually energy-intensive in commercial farms, like tomatoes, maintaining gardens long-term, and maximizing social benefits.

• Ease climate distress by providing a space to connect with others who value the environment. 
• Enable access to green spaces: A 2021 literature review found that green spaces – including community gardens – support mental health via opportunities for physical activity, social connection, and by reducing poor air quality and noise pollution. 
• Offer individuals social support and a sense of purpose, particularly among groups disproportionately susceptible to adverse mental health outcomes such as refugees, the elderly, incarcerated individuals, and children. 
• Build social sites and community cohesion by fostering healthy relationships and bridging linguistic, ethnic, and generational divides.
• Reduce the stress of food insecurity by allowing individuals and communities to save money and have a source of healthy food.
• Promote family bonding by offering a relaxing environment for families to enjoy quality time together.
• Promote resilience after natural disasters by providing post-disaster social interactions that help relieve stress and carrying the potential to replenish food supplies. 
• Preserve cultural practices by serving as spaces where elders can teach younger generations cultural harvesting and land management practices and preserve native languages. As culture plays an essential role in many people’s identity, loss of culture can have profound impacts on an individual’s mental health.
• Lower psychological distress through horticultural therapy – a guided practice of gardening or nature appreciation. 

Community gardens can help mitigate inequalities exacerbated by climate change such as food insecurity and negative psychological impacts. 

• Children and Adolescents: 
  • Community gardens can provide children facing food insecurity with nutritious produce that may improve physical health, social development, and academic performance. Lower exposure to green space in childhood is associated with increased risk for developing ADHD.  
• Migrants and Refugees:
  • Participating in community gardens reduces isolation in refugees and migrants.  Individuals can grow produce from their home country that is sometimes difficult to find in grocery stores, helping them sustain their cultural ties. Community gardens may also serve as spaces to host cultural events. 
• Mental Illness:
  • Therapeutic community gardening can improve wellbeing and life satisfaction for people with mental illness.  
• Elderly 
  • Exposure to green spaces such as community gardens can decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormone levels.  Participating in a community garden is associated with an improved self-perception of aging.  
• Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)
  • A 2020 report found that communities of color are three times more likely to live in an area with limited access to nature. This inequity stems in part from racially-motivated housing practices such as redlining. Community gardens can serve as BIPOC counterspaces where individuals can collectively heal from generational trauma, gather in a safe space, and promote physical and mental wellness. 

Community gardens can serve a different function depending on an individual’s socioeconomic status and what part of the world they live in. 

• Low Socioeconomic Status (SES) vs. High SES
  •  Lower SES individuals are more likely to cite food security as a primary motivation for participating in a community garden, and often consume or sell what they produce, whereas higher SES individuals are more likely to participate in community gardens for the social or environmental benefits. 
• Global North vs. Global South 
  • In the Global North, community gardens provide additional sources of food, however there is a focus on the associated positive outcomes related to health and wellbeing. 
  • In the Global South, community gardens or urban farms tend to focus on high productivity to address the more widespread and problematic food shortages experienced.  

1. Land ownership – private vs. public

Starting a community garden on private lands offers both benefits and challenges. Landowners who support community gardening on their property could benefit from tax breaks in some states, however, the owner could sell the property to developers putting the garden at risk. Long-term leases offer stability to both the landowner and the community garden and are recommended to maintain the garden. A potential benefit of leasing from private landowners is that they may be easier to negotiate with than government officials, and the garden may be approved more quickly. 

Many community gardens are started on public land in spaces such as public schools, prisons, government housing, city-owned vacant lands, and other areas. Local governments should ensure that their zoning policies allow for community gardens or specifically designate Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones. A benefit of building community gardens on public land over private land is that governments often allow for longer leases, in many cases three to five years.   

2. Limited resources

Community gardens are often predominantly run by volunteers, at times leading to short staffing and difficulties maintaining the land. Large group volunteer days at a workplace or school can help. 

Funding for community gardens can come from grants, private donors, communal funding, and numerous other sources, but many face financial uncertainty. Individual donations, advocacy for government funding, and fundraisers are several avenues to provide financial resources for community gardens. 

3. Accessibility 

Individuals who are elderly or disabled may find accessing a community garden or participating in specific tasks challenging. Offering activities that cater to all, such as seed sorting, seated harvesting from vining plants or raised beds, washing produce, and education and marketing opportunities can help make gardens more inclusive. 

Maintaining well-demarcated, cleared pathways within gardens and ensuring that they are located near public transit or within walking distance makes them more accessible.

4. Education

A 2013 study assessing 50 community gardens found vast differences in gardening practices and only half recognized the importance of soil health. Providing garden leaders with information on the impacts of different farming and gardening practices and their environmental impacts, such the benefits of regenerative farming, may help improve gardening practices.

5. Contamination

Some community gardens in urban low-income areas are in industrial or commercial areas that may be contaminated with harmful chemicals. A 2023 study assessing urban community gardens in Seattle found unsafe levels of contaminants in many of the sampled vegetables, highlighting the need for a greater focus on equity and justice when developing community gardens. Several avenues to address inequities in community gardens include expanded regulation, soil testing prior to building the garden, and being selective about which produce is grown (eg., avoiding root vegetables since they are more likely to bioaccumulate chemicals).

6. Green Gentrification

The creation of green spaces in a low-SES community can have unintended economic consequences. A 2022 study found that in 17 of the 28 cities analyzed, city greening exhibited a strong, positive relationship with urban gentrification. Enacting anti-displacement policies such as tenant protections can mitigate some of these challenges. 

• The Kindness Farm: a first-generation immigrant, refugee, and queer-led nonprofit farm in southeast Portland. In addition to growing food for the community, this farm hosts LGTBQ+ only volunteer days to create a safe space to experience nature and hosts grief circles for those in need of communal support.
• The Cuso International-supported Mujeres Unidas por la Seguridad Alimentaria y Ambiental (MUSA)/Women United for Food and Environmental Security project: a community garden project in Lima, Peru supporting 350 farmers throughout the city with an emphasis on women exchanging knowledge of agricultural and cultural practices.  
• The Takunda program community gardens: a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project that granted individuals in Zimbabwe plots of land at a community garden and access to a solar-powered water pump. This project supported individual and community resilience in the face of an El Nino drought. 
• Insight Garden program: a national program in California, Indiana, and Ohio that offers incarcerated individuals opportunities to reconnect with nature and learn vocational skills at a garden within the prison. 

If you’re interested in supporting a community garden or volunteering, try searching online for “your city/area” and “community garden”. Many websites will have information on how to get involved, and some city government websites even have a page for signing up. 

City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America, by Laura Lawson, published in 2005 by University of California Press.

Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime, by Kenneth I. Helphand, published in 2008 by Trinity University Press

Author’s Garden Clippings Grow Students’ Love of Literature, published in NPR Morning Edition by Rebecca Kruth on August 26, 2015.  

Benefits of Trees and Vegetation, published by the Environmental Protection Agency, last updated on May 27, 2025

Case Studies on Children in Community Gardens and Gardening with Children, published in Each Green Corner by Casey Wu on November 12, 2020.

Creating a Successful Urban Community Garden: A Guide, published in the EcoMasteryProject on May 13, 2024.

Communal gardening helps refugees sink roots in a new land published in The Washington Post by Tara Bahrampour on September 4, 2012.

Farms following soil-friendly practices grow healthier food, study suggests, published in UW News by Hannah Hickey on February 24, 2022.

Frances Griscom Parsons and New York’s Children’s Garden Movement, published by the Cultural Landscape Foundation.  

‘Gardening helps our mental health. They should do more of it in jail’, published in The Guardian by Clare Horton on August 27, 2019

Gardens that Nurture Culture, published in American Indian, by Aaron Levin, Spring 2022.

How community gardening could ease your climate concerns, published in The Conversation by Jose Yong on 28 September, 2023

How gardens enable refugees and immigrants to put down roots in new communities, published in PBS News by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang on September 6, 2023.

How ‘nature deprived’ neighborhoods impact the health of people of color, published in National Geographic by Alejandra Borunda on July 29, 2020

New Mexico’s Community Garden Revolution, published in New Mexico Magazine by Alicia Inez Guzmán, updated April 18, 2022

New APA Poll Reveals That Americans are Increasingly Anxious About Climate Change’s Impact on Planet, Mental Health, published by the American Psychiatric Association on October 1, 2020

New MSU research shows gardening improves mental, social well-being, published in Michigan State University by Cameron Rudolph on August 26, 2024

Planning for sustainability… trowels and shovels in hand! A comparison of community gardening in the Global North and South, published in London School of Economics Regional and Urban Planning Studies by Aimee Baker, Claire Lidsky, Cory Russell, Magreth Mwikola, Joseph Oforo, Nassoro Rashadi and Jacquiline Solomon on April 21, 2021

Prison Gardens Help Inmates Grow Their Own Food – and Skills, published in NPR by Eliza Barclay on January 12, 2014. 

Redlining, published by Federal Reserve History on June 2, 2023.

Sowing the seeds of better health, published in Harvard Health Publishing by Maureen Salamon on June 1, 2023

Street Farmer, published in The New York Times Magazine by Elizabeth Royte on July 1, 2009. Profile of Will Allen, founder of Growing Power

Survey: People Turned to Gardening for Stress Relief, Food Access During Pandemic, published in UC David by Emily C. Dooley on March 17, 2022

The history of allotments, published by the National Science and Media Museum on October 21, 2021.

The importance of culture, language and identity, published in Racism. No Way!

The Role of Community Gardens During the COVID-19 Pandemic, published in the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health by Luz Mercado on February 25, 2021.

Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front, published in the National Park Service by Megan E. Springate

Wildlife numbers fall by 73% in 50 years, global stocktake finds, published in BBC by Victoria Gill and Helen BriggsScience on 9 October, 2024

Child Food Insecurity, published by Feeding America in 2019.

Community Gardening: Policy Reference Guide, published by the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, in October 2017.

Ground Rules: A Legal Toolkit for Community Gardens, published by ChangeLab Solutions in February 2011.

The Nature Gap: Confronting Racial and Economic Disparities in the Destruction and Protection of Nature in America, published by the Center for American Progress by By Jenny Rowland-Shea, Sahir Doshi, Shanna Edberg, and Robert Fanger, in July 2020

Behind Bars, New Growth. How Gardening is Transforming Lives at Santiam Correctional Institute, a video produced by KPTV Fox 12 

For some black people in the south, land is more than wealth. it’s community and culture, A WFSU public media original podcast 

Gardening Helps Ease Loneliness, a UF Health podcast

In conversation… The impact of gardening and outdoor space on our mental health and wellbeing and how individuals and communities living in urban areas can create green spaces, a Sustainability Research Pod podcast

This Community Garden isn’t Just Growing Plants. It’s Growing Community, a Growing Together Podcast

Ai, H., Zhang, X., & Zhou, Z. (2023). The impact of greenspace on air pollution: Empirical evidence from China. Ecological Indicators, 146, 109881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.109881

Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J. J., Cole, H., Garcia-Lamarca, M., Triguero-Mas, M., Baró, F., Martin, N., Conesa, D., Shokry, G., del Pulgar, C. P., Ramos, L. A., Matheney, A., Gallez, E., Oscilowicz, E., Máñez, J. L., Sarzo, B., Beltrán, M. A., & Minaya, J. M. (2022). Green gentrification in European and North American cities. Nature Communications, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31572-1 

Bassett, T. J. (1981). Reaping on the margins: a century of community gardening in America. Landscape, 25(2), 1-8.

Bikomeye, J. C., Rublee, C. S., & Beyer, K. M. (2021). Positive externalities of climate change mitigation and adaptation for Human Health: A Review and conceptual framework for public health research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2481. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052481 

Billings, D. R. (2018). White Space, Black Space: Community Gardens in Portland, Oregon (thesis). PDXScholar, Portland. 

Bratman, G. N., Anderson, C. B., Berman, M. G., et al. (2019). Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. Science advances, 5(7), eaax0903. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0903

Buxton, R.T., Hudgins, E.J., Lavigne, E. et al. (2024). Mental health is positively associated with biodiversity in Canadian cities. Commun Earth Environ 5, 310. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01482-9

Carney, P. A., Hamada, J. L., Rdesinski, R., Sprager, L., Nichols, K. R., Liu, B. Y., Pelayo, J., Sanchez, M. A., & Shannon, J. (2012). Impact of a community gardening project on vegetable intake, food security and family relationships: A community-based participatory research study. Journal of Community Health, 37(4), 874–881. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-011-9522-z 

Chen, K., Zhang, T., Liu, F., Zhang, Y., & Song, Y. (2021). How does urban green space impact residents’ mental health: A literature review of mediators. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(22), 11746. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211746 

Delshad, A. B. (2022). Community gardens: an investment in social cohesion, public health, economic sustainability, and the urban environment. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 70, 127549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127549

Egerer, M., Lin, B., Kingsley, J., Marsh, P., Diekmann, L., & Ossola, A. (2022). Gardening can relieve human stress and boost nature connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 68, 127483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127483

Guitart, D. A., Byrne, J. A., & Pickering, C. M. (2013). Greener growing: Assessing the influence of gardening practices on the ecological viability of community gardens in South East Queensland, Australia. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 58(2), 189–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2013.850404

Hahad, O., Kuntic, M., Al-Kindi, S. et al. (2024). Noise and mental health: evidence, mechanisms, and consequences. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-024-00642-5

Hawes, J. K., Goldstein, B. P., Newell, J. P., Dorr, E., Caputo, S., Fox-Kämper, R., Grard, B., Ilieva, R. T., Fargue-Lelièvre, A., Poniży, L., Schoen, V., Specht, K., & Cohen, N. (2024). Comparing the carbon footprints of urban and conventional agriculture. Nature Cities, 1(2), 164–173. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-023-00023-3

Lu, S., Liu, J., Xu, M., & Xu, F. (2023). Horticultural therapy for stress reduction: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1086121

Maylath, L. R. (2014). Progressive cities: Models for using public land for Community Gardens. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2486011

Malone, M., Hamlin, S., & Richard, S. I. (2023). Uprooting urban garden contamination. Environmental Science Policy, 142, 50–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.01.016

Nardone, A., Rudolph, K. E., Morello-Frosch, R., & Casey, J. A. (2021). Redlines and greenspace: The relationship between historical redlining and 2010 greenspace across the United States. Environmental Health Perspectives, 129(1). https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp7495

Nghiem, T. P. L., Wong, K. L., Jeevanandam, L., Chang, C. c., Tan, L. Y. C., Goh, Y., & Carrasco, L. R. (2021). Biodiverse urban forests, happy people: Experimental evidence linking perceived biodiversity, restoration, and emotional wellbeing. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 59, 127030. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127030

Raneng, J., Howes, M., & Pickering, C. M. (2023). Current and future directions in research on Community Gardens. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 79, 127814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127814

Rosenman, Ellen. “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web. https://branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=ellen-rosenman-on-enclosure-acts-and-the-commons

Scott, T. L., Masser, B. M., & Pachana, N. A. (2020). Positive aging benefits of home and community gardening activities: Older adults report enhanced self-esteem, productive endeavours, social engagement and exercise. SAGE Open Medicine, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312120901732

Shimpo, N., Wesener, A., & McWilliam, W. (2019a). How community gardens may contribute to community resilience following an earthquake. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 38, 124–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2018.12.002

Storm, H., Nielsen, N. O., Andersen, J., Præstegaard, J., Kjærsgaard, H., Petersen, B., Sønderskov, A. J., Rafn, J., & Lindahl, M. (2023). Community garden developed by refugees from Syria—a sanctuary and a space for learning and empowerment. Wellbeing, Space and Society, 5, 100162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2023.100162

Taylor, L., & Hochuli, D. F. (2017). Defining greenspace: Multiple uses across multiple disciplines. Landscape and Urban Planning, 158, 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.09.024

Thygesen, M., Engemann, K., Holst, G. J., Hansen, B., Geels, C., Brandt, J., Pedersen, C. B., & Dalsgaard, S. (2020). The association between residential green space in childhood and development of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A population-based Cohort Study. Environmental Health Perspectives, 128(12). https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp6729 

Tracey, D., Gray, T., Manohar, N., Kingsley, J., Bailey, A., & Pettitt, P. (2023). Identifying key benefits and characteristics of community gardening for vulnerable populations: A systematic review. Health and Social Care in the Community, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5570089

Wood, C. J., Barton, J. L., & Wicks, C. L. (2022a). The impact of therapeutic community gardening on the wellbeing, loneliness, and life satisfaction of individuals with mental illness. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 13166. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013166 

Zhao, H., O’Connor, J., Zou, S., Solaiman, Z. M., Mickan, B. S., & Bolan, N. (2024). Soil Health and carbon storage in community gardens in the Perth metropolitan area, Australia. Soil Use and Management, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.13033

Published: October 8, 2025

Author: Priscilla Jones, D.O.

Dr. Priscilla Jones is a psychiatry PGY1 at the University of New Mexico. She dedicates her time to advancing knowledge of climate change and mental health through prior leadership roles with PsychSIGN and the Climate Psychiatry Alliance. 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscilla-jones-17b50a175/

Editor: Colleen Rollins, Ph.D.