Effect of Apartment Community Garden Program on Sense of Community and Stress

Apartment housing has become a dominant form of urban residence. High dwelling density in apartment complexes causes frequent conflicts and disputes. To counter this, it is necessary to promote a sense of community among residents with programs such as a customized horticultural program for the introduction of a community garden in an apartment complex. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a community garden program in an apartment complex in fostering residents’ sense of community and reducing stress. Experiments were performed in three groups: a group participating in the program based on the sense of community theory (SCG; n = 11), a group participating with a focus on horticultural education (HEG; n = 11), and a non-participation group (NPG; n = 10). The experimental results revealed that the sense of community was significantly higher in the SCG than in the HEG and NPG. The results suggest that the SCG positively affected the sense of community, overall energy, ratio between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and stress resistance. Considering these results, community garden programs with appropriate interventions to promote a sense of community are more effective in improving community life and reducing stress than programs based on horticultural education.

Horta Comunitária e Quintais Produtivos da Comunidade Coelho Atikum Jurema e os Desafios da Covid-19 / Community Garden and Productive Backyards of the Coelho Atikum Jurema Community and the Challenges of Covid-19

A pandemia de Covid-19 gerou grandes mudanças na forma de comercializar os produtos da agricultura familiar. Foram dois anos de perdas e incertezas, mas também de redefinição das formas de produção e comercialização dos produtos da agricultura familiar. Neste contexto encontra-se a Comunidade Coelho Atikum Jurema, que, após anos de luta, implantou um projeto de horta comunitária e quintais produtivos. Neste espaço os agricultores familiares passaram a cultivar, de forma orgânica, e baseado na agricultura Atikum, espécies de olerícolas, mediante uma gestão coletiva e parental. Com o objetivo de identificar como a horta comunitária foi afetada pela Covid-19, realizou-se uma pesquisa descritiva, qualiquantitativa, no período de setembro a dezembro de 2021, onde foi possível identificar uma série de adversidades enfrentadas pela comunidade em adaptar-se ao mercado que surgiu como consequência das regras de convívio social, impostas em decorrência da Covid-19, as quais impactaram diretamente nas técnicas mercadológicas empregadas pela comunidade.---The Covid-19 pandemic generated major changes in the way in which family farming products are sold. There were two years of losses and uncertainties, but also of redefining the ways of production and marketing of family farm products. In this context is the Coelho Atikum Jurema Community, which, after years of struggle, implemented a project for a community garden and productive backyards. In this space, family farmers started to cultivate, organically, and based on Atikum agriculture, vegetable species, through collective and parental management. In order to identify how the community garden was affected by Covid-19, a descriptive, qualitative and quantitative research was carried out from September to December 2021, where it was possible to identify a series of adversities faced by the community in adapting to the market that emerged as a result of the rules of social interaction, imposed as a result of Covid-19, which directly impacted the marketing techniques used by the community.

GROWING URBAN GREEN MOVEMENT: EVALUATE THE REINFORCEMENT OF COMMUNITY GARDEN FOR RENEWAL COMMUNITY

As per the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) “Sustainable cities & Communities” is vital for the healthy planet by 2030. Because nontackle population growth at city level causing to deforestation and it is outstripping for unsustainable cities as such for better livability. Since, 1990s, the decrement of non-built-up areas due to rapid urbanization directly cause for interrupting socio- ecological interaction & social ties among community in Sri Lanka. Recently, there is an emerging tendency on continuing community based agricultural sites as a social space for community gathering and interacting with variety of active physical activities as well to increase the urban fabric. The aim of the research is to investigate reinforcement of community garden for renewal community by studying diverse social and physical factors, evaluating functioning community garden in Colombo. The methodology of the study was comprised with onsite observations and in-depth interview and the data were qualitatively analyzed by using NVvio software. Accordingly derived 15 different social and 9 different physical factors from the community perceptions. Particularly, respondents having a desire to create a village and sense of place within the urban setting as SDGs rely.

Identification and Analysis of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria in LEAF Community Garden Soil

In today’s largely populated modern world, crop yield is becoming increasingly important. To increase crop yield, new modern technologies for farming are continuously being innovated. The aim of this study is the identification of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPBs) and their properties. In order to conduct the experiment, soil samples were collected from the community garden LEAF (Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont). These samples were grown in Luria Bertani agar plates, and the two bacterial strains that grew from them were analyzed to determine the species of the bacteria. Using a DNA extraction kit, DNA was extracted from the bacteria and then amplified versions were sent to RF Biotech for DNA sequencing. The DNA sequences were then used to determine that the two bacterial species in question are Bacillus cereus and Morganella morganii. Afterwards, multiple assays were used to measure the efficiency of each bacterial species to absorb various substances that would be helpful for plant growth. The aim of this research is to better understand which bacterial strains are beneficial for plants, and which are harmful. Through having greater zones of inhibition, the bacterial species M. morganii proved to be more efficient in the siderophore and phosphate solubilization assays. In contrast, the bacterial species B. cereus proved to be more efficient in the cellulase and amylase production assays. These results will assist LEAF in enriching their soil in order to increase their crop yields by creating an increase in concentration of advantageous bacteria and decrease that of detrimental bacteria.

Reflections on the North Central Community Gardens Branch Out Project

The North Central Community Gardens, an urban agriculture initiative of the North Central Community Association in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, introduced the Branch Out Project in the summer of 2020. The project’s purpose was to expand the North Central Community Gardens, which already consisted of three locations, onto additional schoolyard and backyard land. Despite—or perhaps because of—the COVID-19 pandemic, the first season of the project resulted in the construction of eight new gardens and has positively impacted food access, community engagement, and knowledge development and exchange. The goals of this commentary are two-fold: (1) to provide insight into the process of community garden expansion, with the hopes of benefiting other practitioners; and (2) to contribute to an understanding of the possibilities, challenges, and impacts of community gardens in general, and community garden expansion in particular, as a counter-neoliberal food sovereignty practice.