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theses

Large-scale community gardens are an increasingly common feature in the suburbs of Central New Jersey, and yet the inner-city model has essentially defined how we think of community gardening. Community gardens indicate where people are, and yet the literature bias towards urban community gardens neglects this growing trend of large non-urban community gardens. This study, therefore, investigates three large format suburban community gardens – gardens that consist of one hundred or more individual plots – that are removed from the urban setting. The questions that this research seeks to answer are: Who is participating in large-scale suburban community gardening, and what are their reasons for participation? In answering these questions, the intent is to also begin to understand the conditions of suburbia that foster the impetus for creation of such gardens. In order to understand the gardens spatially as they relate to their contextual surroundings, I used methods of geospatial mapping. To understand the gardens structurally as a place, I made use of on-site observation and conducted interviews with garden coordinators representing each site. In order to understand the garden in terms of the user group, I conducted a series of personal interviews with participating gardeners that focused heavily on themes of community and social capital, food systems and production, and recreation and well-being. The study shows that gardeners participating in large-scale suburban efforts are doing so for many of the same reasons cited in the literature and by organizations such as the American Community Gardening Association with regards to participation at urban locations; however, the suburban context has a significant impact on how these reasons are defined and the ways in which these reasons are described.

ETD_5490

M.L.A.

Includes bibliographical references

by Arianna Lindberg de Vries

doi:10.7282/T390222C

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.