From Garden Cities to Cities Gardening

Elements of the garden city ethos still find expression in modern city community gardens

I recently spent a very pleasant afternoon at one of the open gardens in the Scotland’s Garden scheme. The garden I visited was the extensive grounds of a large country house which can trace its history back to the 12th century. The grounds featured, among other things, a walled garden and some impressive terraces leading down to an artificial lake. A very relaxing place in the spring sunshine.

Not all the gardens participating in the scheme are so grand. The scheme represents a cross-section of gardens in Scotland from magnificent formal gardens attached to stately homes to fine individual gardens created by private householders. In some towns and neighbourhoods residents have got together to open their gardens as a group, and the scheme now also includes a growing number of community gardens developed by volunteers as community development projects. Some of the gardens are deep in the countryside, some are in rural communities whilst others are located in towns and cities.

The open gardens attract good numbers of visitors and raise significant funds for the support of an wide range of charities. Despite the great changes in urban design and the scale and density of recent urban development it is clear that gardens remain popular, and are increasingly recognized as a key part of the drive for greener cities. The very diversity of gardens on show in the Garden Scheme led me to reflect on changing approaches to gardens and gardening within the urban context over the last 100 years or so. The evolution of The Garden City movement in the late 19th century into a growing Community Gardens Movement offers an interesting perspective on changing urban environments and priorities.

Garden cities

The Garden City Movement, associated with Ebenezer Howard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, proposed new urban designs which sought to create urban environments which could harmoniously balance urban efficiency with the tranquility of rural living. Howard founded the Garden City Association in 1889 and is best known for his book Garden Cities of Tomorrow published in 1898. His garden cities were planned as complete entities and contained residential communities surrounded by green belt (parks), and proportionate areas for industry and agriculture. The concept aimed to address the urban problems of industrial cities of the time and were seen as an effective response for a better quality of life, poor living conditions and threats to health.

These ideas were incorporated in the building of several new towns close to London in the early 20th century. Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City are perhaps the best known. He saw these as places as ‘magnets’ where people would want to come to reside and to work. Howard’s three magnets are represented in his diagram reproduced below.

But Letchworth and Welwyn remained the only garden cities even in the 1930s. Both grew slowly. Letchworth, which was some 34 miles from London became a self-sustaining town attracting both residents and industry, but Welwyn, closer to London, was less successful in its early years. Although some see the garden city concept as a failure, these new towns were able to offer a more pleasing environment than overcrowded and squalid districts in older cities. The movement did succeed in demonstrating the need for more enlightened urban planning policies and eventually led to the so-called New Towns movement after the end of the second Word War.

Shifting urban challenges

Howard’s original garden city concept has faced significant hurdles that limited its subsequent adoption. These include the availability of land, rapid urbanization, economic constraints, and the planning rigidities within the garden city model. The model requires extensive tracts of land to implement its green belts and self-contained communities which in the face of rapid population growth and urbanization became difficult to secure. Meeting housing and industrial needs often took priority over the creation of extensive green space. The increasing density of urban neighbourhoods in the face of rising land values and the desire for flexible mixed-use developments have all made adherence to garden city principles more difficult and unattractive for governments and developers alike.

Nevertheless, the legacy of the garden city model is considerable. Elements of the design are now found in many cities around the world, and still figure in current plans in the UK for the development of new towns and ‘urban villages’ as part of the government’s drive to build 1.5m new homes in the next 5 years.

Greening the city

But just as the kinds of pressures identified above have presented increasing difficulties for cities for physical and environmental planning, so has the appreciation of the benefits of green space for the well-being, physical and mental health and quality of life of city dwellers. In addition, the contribution of green space and urban greenery more generally for the mitigation of the effects of climate change and for the delivery of net-zero policies is now much better understood.

So too is awareness of issues of social and spatial justice arising from inequalities in access to the benefits of green spaces such as parks and to fresh food supplies. Pressures for the delivery of innovative and holistic green environmental strategies to address this complex array of issues are mounting and adding to the challenges faced by modern cities.

Place-based solutions

Faced with these pressures and severe financial constraints, cities are looking for solutions which lie in localized, place-based actions rather than in large-scale master-planned initiatives. Different neighbourhoods within cities will have their own set of priorities with policy solutions which can be adapted for the specific needs of the each community, ideally guided by community input. Unlike the Garden City model such solutions do not require the establishment of new towns or extensive land acquisition or the provision of major new infrastructure. Place-based approaches will build on local assets and can re-purpose underused resources and spaces. By addressing urban challenges on a smaller more immediate scale more pragmatic responses to Howard’s ideals can emerge.

Community gardens as an adaptable and grassroots approach to urban greening

It is in this changed context that the growth of the community garden movement can be placed. Community gardens come in all shapes and sizes depending on their purpose and structure. Here are some common categories:

Allotments: These are spaces divided into individual plots that residents can rent or use to grow their own plants, often vegetables and fruits.

Roof Gardens: Found on the rooftops of urban buildings, these gardens make use of otherwise unused space to grow plants and sometimes even small-scale crops.

Therapeutic Gardens: Designed to support mental and physical well-being, these gardens are often used in healthcare settings or for individuals with disabilities.

Educational Gardens: These are created to teach gardening skills, environmental awareness, or healthy eating habits, often targeting schools or community groups.

Guerrilla Gardens: These are informal gardens created on unused or neglected land, often without official permission, to reclaim urban spaces.

Urban Farms: Larger-scale operations that focus on producing food for local communities, sometimes incorporating sustainable farming practices.

Pollinator Gardens: These are designed to attract and support pollinators like bees and butterflies, contributing to biodiversity.

Urban forests: Larger wooded spaces for promoting recreation and biodiversity.

This categorization demonstrates the many functions of community gardens in addressing social and environmental issues arising in modern cities. They contribute significantly to environmental health, to tackling food insecurity, and as hubs for social interaction. They can be designed to provide educational opportunities and as areas of calm for reducing stress and improving mental health. The shared activity of gardening can allow adults to learn new skills, and especially in multi-cultural cities they become places where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures can share gardening techniques, recipes and stories.

Community gardens and cities

So community gardens are much more than not just pockets of land for growing food. As we have seen they serve many functions that can enrich urban living. They can be a symbol of community activism and empowerment.

• They transform unused city plots for recreation and growing crops.

• They increase the availability of fresh foods.

• They strengthen community ties.

• They reduce environmental hazards.

• They create a more sustainable eco-system.

By addressing urban challenges on a smaller, more immediate scale, community gardens can be seen as a pragmatic evolution of Howard’s ideals. They provide accessible green spaces, foster community engagement and promote environmental sustainability within often dense urban settings.

However, community gardens are not without challenges. Securing land and resisting pressure from developers in densely populated cities can be difficult. Maintaining these gardens requires both financial and volunteer commitment and also some administrative competence to negotiate funding programmes and the complexity of legal issues which may arise over land use and tenure. Local groups will need to secure local government support, and manage the day-to-day disputes which are bound to arise over garden activity for community benefit.

City authorities increasingly recognize the value of community garden initiatives in contributing to meeting their policy objectives for revitalizing economically depressed areas and for providing business opportunities such as farmers' markets and other economic spin-off. Many authorities support them through grant schemes, making under-used land available, and forming public-private partnerships or supporting non-profit organisations to manage them. However it remains the case that, in the UK at least, many community gardens do not have statutory backing.

Over 100 years after Howard’s visionary thinking his ideas for linking urban and natural environments still find expression in the community garden movement.