This is Community Garden Week. What a great time to highlight the many benefits of these communal endeavors as garden enthusiasts across the country begin preparing their plots for spring. Gardening in and of itself is wonderful and has so many benefits, however those benefits are multiplied when we come together to build something bigger than ourselves.

To celebrate this growing trend, we’re diving into 10 benefits of Community Gardens!

10 Benefits of Community Gardens

1. Much like gardening at home, gardening as a community increases physical activity, and when we come together, we can create spaces that allow greater accessibility. This allows for new and different physical activity for people with varying abilities. When we put care into creating spaces with accessibility in mind we end up with something that has greater intention, functionality and versatility for everyone.¹

2. When located in underserved areas, they can provide fresh nutritious food in food deserts. This also helps to reduce the carbon footprint of transporting commercial produce into these areas, far from where it is produced.

3. A number of studies have found that community gardens may reduce depression and the incidence of gun violence, and perhaps even a reduction in all crime.²

4. Community gardens help nurture biological diversity. And not just in urban areas that have reduced the habitats of natural flora and fauna, but also in rural areas that may be surrounded by monoculture farmland.

5. These spaces also act as way stations for migrating pollinators, allowing them to rest and refuel as they make their arduous journeys north in the spring and south in the fall.

6. Green spaces have a cooling effect and can lower the ambient temperature in urban areas. Not only do trees provide shade, but all plants are capable of influencing the air around them through evaporative cooling in a process called evapotranspiration.

7. They also improve air and soil quality and may help to prevent or reduce pollution in events like severe flooding, by allowing greater permeability for excess waters than hardscaped features like sidewalks and parking lots.

8. Community gardens make spaces more beautiful and enjoyable. Humans are able to see more of shades of the color green than any other color, and green has a calming effect and reduces anxiety.

9. Bringing people of various generations and backgrounds together ensures preservation of valuable gardening knowledge and fosters a culture of stewardship in future generations.

10. And last but certainly not least, they bring people together, with shared goals and shared joys and that is why we grow stronger together!

1. Kym Pokorny. (May 2023) Gardening can be accessible to all with some adjustments. Oregon State University: OSU Extension Service https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/gardening-can-be-accessible-all-some-adjustments
2. Mardelle Shepley, et all. (2019 Dec 14) The Impact of Green Space on Violent Crime in Urban Environments: An Evidence Synthesis. National Library of Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6950486/