What was it about?
Gardens are very valuable for people and nature. They provide healthy vegetables; they are places to encounter nature and for recreation; and they provide essential habitats for plants and animals. Despite the increasing recognition of the social and ecological importance, and the considerable proportion of urban green spaces in the city area, there are still many gaps in our knowledge about urban gardens.
With the research project Better Gardens we wanted to explore how gardeners manage their gardens and which factors influence their decisions. Furthermore we wanted to investigate what effects of different management practices on soil quality, biodiversity and the quality of life of gardeners.
The study was conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL. The project took place from January 2015 to December 2017 in the three cities of Bern, Lausanne and Zurich.
BetterGardens was supported by the Swiss Family Gardens Association and financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
How did we proceed?
In the project we investigated three types of gardens: allotment gardens, private gardens and alternative garden forms (such as community gardens). The entire research project consisted of four closely related sub-projects. In two subprojects, biologists took soil samples in a total of 80 gardens in Zurich and investigatded the biodiversity in the gardens. In the two other subprojects, social scientists interviewed gardeners and distributed questionnaires in the three project cities of Zurich, Bern and Lausanne.
What does the project show?
Many green areas in Swiss cities are vulnerable to densification. The research project demonstrated the importance of gardens for people, the city and nature and indicated strategies to conserve, or even increase, the quality of the gardens. Thus, the project provided arguments for the conservation of urban green spaces and allotments.
Contact
Robert Home, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, robert.home(at)fibl.org, Tel. +41 62 865 72 15
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