Community Gardens Can Save Us: 21 Benefits of These Volunteer-Led Spaces
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can save the world. And this introspection has brought me to New York City community gardens.
The more I’ve thought about how to change the world, the more I’ve been drawn to observe that the problems of our world always interconnect.
That’s what I’ve discovered with community gardens.
The value of community gardens intertwines issues related to climate change, systemic inequality, building vibrant communities, and helping every person who walks in one of these gardens live a healthier life.
It may sound crazy, but I think community gardens can literally save the world.
If you want to learn more about the history of community gardens, specifically in New York City, I found this 4-part podcast series, Lots to Grow, insightful and inspiring. I will be referencing it throughout this article.
I’ve divided the benefits of community gardens into three categories: benefits for the climate, for the community, and for your health. However, they all overlap and go hand-in-hand.
So the category is at times arbitrary.
Community Garden Benefits for the Community
First, I want to talk about the community aspect of the community garden. Unlike parks, which are maintained by cities and towns, community gardens are maintained by the community, for the community.
In New York City, they’re all volunteer-run. They are pure labors of love. Here’s how this extends to supporting the entire community.
1) The Beautification of Neighborhoods, From The Ground Up
The history of community gardens in many cities, including New York, begins with a story of the city abandoning undesirable neighborhoods.
In the 1970s, when New York faced its city-wide financial crisis, low-income communities bore the worst of the consequences.
One consequence of this era was the widespread abandonment of buildings. In fact, many landlords even set their own buildings on fire to collect insurance. Pure insanity.
Abandoned by the city and their landlord, the communities took matters into their own hands.
They transformed these neglected spaces into vibrant gardens, driven by a desire to beautify their neighborhoods and create safe, green havens amidst the urban blight.
What started as informal “guerrilla gardening” efforts, like tossing seed-filled water balloons into empty lots, evolved into a citywide movement. Hundreds of community gardens sprung up.
These community gardens have since become powerful tools for neighborhood beautification.
By converting trash-strewn vacant lots into lush green spaces, gardens instantly improve the visual appeal of city blocks. They introduce color, life, and natural beauty into areas that were once eyesores, creating pockets of tranquility in dense urban environments.
Of course, the aesthetic value is just the beginning.
2) Community Empowerment!
Community gardens were made by the community, for the community, without any government support or intervention.
The residents took control of their surroundings back then, and they continue to today.
Unlike parks, community gardens are built and maintained 100% by volunteers.
It’s an opportunity for anybody to step in and begin to shape their community in any direction they want.
So often I think we can feel powerless against the big forces of government and giant corporations. Community gardens are a reminder that we have control. We have agency over the spaces around us.
This aspect also explains why community gardens are so varied. You will see different plants, layouts, gardening styles, events, and more at each community garden. Every single garden is unique because every community is unique.
Participation in Gardens = More Voting!
This community empowerment has far-reaching benefits. As Lots to Grow reported, a survey by the Center for Active Design found that neighborhoods with community gardens reported elevated measures of trust, participation, stewardship, and even local voting.
I think of gardens as an open-door invitation to meet people working to support the local community.
That’s how I’ve felt in my short time volunteering.
3) Places for Community, Without Spending Money
Last month I was invited to a Saturday barbecue at a community garden in the Bronx.
One of the garden members had family visiting from Puerto Rico, and they were playing handheld drums and singing. I learned some Puerto Rican slang, got to meet more community members, and just got to, well, hang out.
I often joke that it costs money to breathe in New York City. Renting out spaces run absurd numbers, a place to sit and drink coffee now runs up to $8. So much of the city is privatized. It’s even hard to find a bathroom without needing to spend money!
Critiques of the late stages of capitalism we find ourselves in aside, I find it beautiful and refreshing that the entire setup of the community garden is to build a space for people to hang out.
You’ll see solar-powered DJ sets, barbecues, swings, and tables where you can read or even use your laptop. It’s a hang out place for anybody, and it’s open to the public.
Community gardens are popular for all kinds of events, and I’ve seen free yoga classes, vegan barbecues, and kids’ activities like painting.
I’m sure one day I’ll host an event of some kind at my local garden.
Gathering Places During Hardship
In 2012 when Hurricane Sandy left much of Lower Manhattan flooded and without power, community gardens became central gathering spaces for locals.
Due to their flood resilience and open air, community gardens are uniquely suited to bring the community together during challenging times, whether that’s a storm or a pandemic.
4) Cultural Expression
Community gardens are also a place to reflect the cultures of a neighborhood’s residents.
At both gardens I have volunteered at, one in the South Bronx one on the Lower East Side, Puerto Rican flags adorn the garden.
From the ornaments, to the plants its caretakers choose to grow, it’s a reflection of their culture.
Here’s another quote I loved from Lots to Grow. “[My mom is] a member of a community garden in Astoria and she grows stuff she learned about in Bangladesh. Some types of hot peppers and some types of okra. I think it’s interesting to see the immigrant footprint in gardens by simply looking at what people are growing.”
5) Powerful Education Space
This is where the benefits get less intuitive but equally powerful.
In Lots to Grow, they mention, “A study in elementary schools in Texas proved that students got higher scores when they learned science lessons in an outdoor garden rather than in a traditional indoor setting.”
I grew up in Vermont where it was normal to go outside for science class when the weather allowed it. Some of those lessons are the ones that I remember most. Of course, in urban areas, it can be hard to get this outdoor space, which makes gardens all the more important.
Right now it’s summer, and I know the local garden has activities planned with a local charter school for the summer school students.
Some research also has shown a link between interactions with nature and our behavior towards it. That is, those who are exposed to nature more tend to treat it better. This is unsurprising, yet once again, especially powerful in urban and suburban areas without easy access to nature.
Intergenerational Connections and Knowledge Sharing
Working in community gardens also can mean the opportunity to learn from those long-time caretakers. As Lots to Grow mentions, “The caretakers who have been there the longest hold important institutional knowledge about what’s been planted before, what’s been attempted, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and they pass that information on to newer generations.” So while it’s a great space for formal science education, it’s also a great space for informal education.
I have already learned how to identify several kinds of plants, and I know it’s just the beginning.
In any case, the gardens and the knowledge they and their caretakers hold are treasures.
6) Provides Green Spaces That Fill Gaps in Parkland
Parks are great. I love parks. And you may be thinking, “Well, parks are free and have plants and other stuff. Why do we need community gardens?”
Community gardens work hand-in-hand with parks because they’re often built by the community out of a necessity for green space nearby.
For example, New York City has many parks, but not everybody is close to one. And real estate around New York’s great parks from Central Park to Prospect Park, is often some of the most expensive.
Often lower income areas have less access to park space. Community gardens fill these gaps.
Community gardens are also often made in spaces undeserving of parkland. For example, in the South Bronx where Interstate 87 cuts through, there’s a community garden just underneath and off to the side, on land owned by the Department of Transportation, not the Parks Department.
I’ve written a lot about the destruction highways cause to cities. Adding a garden is making the best of it.
These gardens also complement parks because they’re community-run and don’t require many city resources, if any.
7) Crime Reduction in Neighborhoods With Gardens
This is another fascinating benefit. Again, I’ll simply quote Lots to Grow. “Studies have also linked the creation of community gardens to reductions in crime. Their presence makes people feel empowered, involved, and connected to their communities.”
8) Economic Value for Cities
“According to the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project’s calculations, community gardeners provide $14.5 million in unpaid labor to New York City through their voluntary stewardship of public land,” Lots to Grow reported.
Community garden volunteers care for the city.
Being near a garden, compared to an abandoned lot will raise property values. This isn’t unequivocally good, but it does showcase the power these gardens have on the perception of the neighborhoods.
In my short stint volunteering, I’ve already learned that each day before leaving the garden, we pick up trash on the sidewalk facing the garden. We’re doing a public service, and it shows around the garden.
Imagine if we treated the subway, the streets, and the waterways the same? There’s something beautiful about taking responsibility for our small spaces on earth.
Community Garden Benefits For Your Health
Our personal health and the community’s vibrancy go hand-in-hand. So there will be lots of overlap here. What’s good for us is most often good for everyone.
9) Healthy Food Production and Food Sovereignty
Community gardens allow communities to grow their own healthy fruits and vegetables.
Our food production systems and subsidies in the United States are totally backward. We subsidize cash crops like wheat, corn, and soy, so they’re cheap and available but terrible for us.
On the other hand, healthy fruits and vegetables are often expensive. Growing food in community gardens can take this financial pressure off, while providing healthy fruits and vegetables.
This in turn has too many benefits to list, because the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables range from children doing better in school to reduced risk of chronic disease.
It’s hard to quantify how much gardens grow, because most of it doesn’t get measured or reported. But as Lots to Grow mentions, Farming Concrete logged 25,000 lbs of produce from 217 gardens in NYC from 2010-2019. Of course, most people don’t log it, so that is a massive understatement. Nonetheless, it’s a non-trivial amount of food for communities with the least access to healthy fruits and vegetables.
What’s also beautiful about this is it’s not just for individuals, it’s for the whole community. That’s because when you grow food plants, you often have a natural abundance.
In the Bronx last month, I heard one gardener talking about the “Mulberry party” they went to. When the mulberries came, there were too many for the garden stewards alone to eat, so they made it a mulberry party and invited anyone to come and grab some. Urban food production became a community event and celebration.
Breaking Free From Extractive Capitalism
On a more philosophical level, I view growing our own food as a way to break free from dependence on extractive capitalism. Our current food systems keep us trapped in a system where we need to earn money to eat. Growing our own food is a key step to breaking free, and community gardens provide that opportunity. This is especially important when you consider the high costs of living, increasing costs of groceries, and stagnant wages, all of which will hit low-income areas the worst.
Community gardens provide the opportunity for anyone to do this and learn how to. That’s absolutely magical.
(I write more about this food sovereignty idea in my article on foraging for wild ramps in Vermont.)
10) Exposure to Plants = Eat More Plants
Of course, if you grow more fruits and vegetables and eat them, you’ll eat more healthier foods. But it goes beyond that.
Even if you don’t eat from the garden itself, some studies show, exposure to nature and gardens is associated with more fruit and vegetable intake.
If you see plants, if you see and observe nature growing, you’re more likely to put it on your plate just because it’s in your periphery.
We tend to take after the examples set for us. This is especially true for children.
11) Great Non-Exercise Physical Activity
The concept of “non-exercise activity thermogenesis” (NEAT) is not new to me. In fact, I came across it as a young personal trainer. Yet at the time, I didn’t view the world through the connected lenses I do now.
“NEAT” refers to non-exercise physical activity. It’s a big factor in those who are leaner, healthier, and happier.
(Of course, the health and fitness industry doesn’t like to talk about it much, because then you won’t buy their training programs and supplements that you don’t need.)
NEAT is a huge reason why those who tend to be healthier live in cities. Those in cities actually move their bodies to get places, rather than driving in our polluting death machines.
This is why we can’t separate discussions of health and fitness from our infrastructure, as I talk about in this article on how the health and fitness industry can combat climate change.
Well, whether you’re working in or moving around community gardens, you’ll get lots of this non-exercise exercise. In fact, one study showed that garden activities like weeding and raking burn about 300 calories per hour.
Even if you’re just around the garden, you’re likely up and moving.
12) Time in Nature Correlates to Better Health
In more unsurprising news, some studies like this one in Nature have linked spending at least two hours per week in nature to better health and well-being outcomes.
One of the main health downsides of living in cities is the lack of access to nature. Well, that’s where community gardens can help out.
Exposure to Nature Supports Mental Health
As the American Psychological Association reported, spending time in nature provides cognitive benefits, stress relief, and improved mood and emotional well-being. Again, this is both incredible and unsurprising to anybody who spends time in nature.
13) Spaces for Recreation and Relaxation
I’ve become fond of bringing my book to the garden to read and relax. I’ve seen others bring laptops.
As mentioned before, community gardens are popular places for community yoga and meditation classes.
I’ve seen parents bring their kids to play on a swing inside the garden. On the Lower East Side, the Children’s Magical Garden specializes in thinking about how kids and parents can use the space.
As I showcased in this TikTok, on Sunday afternoon the garden has permission to close the street so kids can do activities, in this case, it was painting.
They’re spaces for both recreation and relaxation, both for kids and adults alike.
Community Garden Benefits for The Environment
It should come as no surprise that what’s good for our health and what’s good for our communities is also good for the planet.
Community gardens are a climate solution, but as I hoped you’ve gathered, they’re so much more than that. They’re at the intersection of fighting social injustice, climate justice, personal health, and more. They’re a great example of why I don’t resonate with the idea of “single-issue activism.” Our issues are all connected.
As Jenny Price says in her book Stop Saving the Planet: An Environmentalist Manifesto, “All environmental crises are social, economic, and political crises.”
14) Improves Air Quality
Plants turn carbon dioxide into fresh, clean oxygen. It’s hard to say whether the amount of plants here really has an impact, but subjectively I will say it does.
Maybe it’s just all the good-smelling flavors or the mint plants, but when I step into community gardens, I love to take in the fresh air.
At scale, community gardens can play a role in cleaning the air in cities. They already do in their communities.
15) Cooler Temperature: Mitigation of Urban Heat Island Effect
When I visited Medellín, something that immediately stood out to me was the amount of plants!
This was a conscious effort by the city to add millions of planets. It not only improves the air quality, but it also has lowered the temperature by about 2 degrees Celsius.
Community gardens can do the same by mitigating the “Urban Heat Island Effect.”
As the EPA describes it, “Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies. Urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is limited, become ‘islands’ of higher temperatures relative to outlying areas.”
Concrete and buildings make cities hotter, while plants and soil make it cooler.
Community gardens also ads lots of shade from tree cover.
I’ve found them nice places to hang out on hot summer days because of this. It’s a great way to use less AC, and provides those who don’t have AC with somewhere cooler to go. It’s good for everyone’s electric bill, and has another downstream climate benefit of reducing AC usage.
16) Helps Prevent Flooding
Soil and greenspace absorb water. Concrete and buildings do not.
That makes more green space an essential player in mitigating flooding. Of course, this is even more important now as flooding because more and more common in coastal cities due to rising sea levels caused by climate change.
Well in New York City, community gardens absorb 165 million gallons of rainfall per year, according to a New York Times report. This isn’t enough to save us. However, it shows that at greater scales, community gardens are essential “green infrastructure” that politicians love to talk about yet take little action on.
Leave it to communities to accomplish more on their own than politicians can.
Cities have put up billion-dollar proposals for this or that to stop flooding, when the solutions (more green space and less concrete) have always been here.
That’s why I include community gardens in this list of green infrastructure examples.
17) Improves The Surrounding Water Quality
In a city like New York, community gardens don’t just help against flooding, they also improve the water quality.
As I explained in this TikTok, New York City’s sewer system is old and outdated. Every time it rains more than an inch, it overflows, and the city discharges raw untreated sewage into the New York Harbor. Obviously, this is disgusting and disastrous for essential marine life as well as unsafe for people.
Allowing more green space like gardens to flourish absorbs more rainwater, so it never gets to the sewer system.
This will apply to many coastal cities in the United States. Here are a few that I’m aware of:
- Boston
- Los Angeles
- Miami and Miami Beach
- New Orleans
- Seattle
18) Cleaner Soil
In addition to creating oxygen, many garden plants also clean the soil they grow on. In city community gardens, this means it can undo some of the toxins that come from trash, industrial waste, car pollution, and more. The earth knows how to heal itself!
19) Reduces “Food Miles” In and Out of The Garden
“Food miles” refers to the distance food travels from where it’s grown. This concept is central to understanding the environmental impact of our food systems.
In conventional agriculture, food produce often travels hundreds or even thousands of miles before reaching the consumer. This long-distance transportation relies heavily on fossil fuels, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
To withstand long journeys, fruits and vegetables are often harvested prematurely and treated with preservatives, which is bad for their nutritional value and for you.
Community gardens, by their very nature, drastically reduce these food miles. When people grow food in their neighborhoods, the distance from garden to table is often measured in blocks rather than thousands of miles.
This hyperlocal food production offers several environmental benefits. The food often has a negative carbon footprint, by eliminating long-distance transportation.
It also tends to create much less packaging waste. Locally grown produce requires minimal packaging compared to store-bought alternatives, reducing plastic and cardboard waste.
Food from local gardens doesn’t require preservatives. With virtually no travel time, fruits and vegetables can be harvested at peak ripeness, maximizing their flavor and nutritional content.
By shrinking the distance between food production and consumption, community gardens offer a practical, grassroots approach to reducing our environmental impact while providing fresh, nutritious food to urban communities.
Education and Awareness Lead to More Sustainable Food Decisions
People who go to the garden will see, learn, and eventually talk about it. It brings opportunities for education and awareness about the “food miles” concept. This can foster a greater understanding of seasonal eating and sustainable agriculture practices.
It may mean that people try to eat more in-season. It may inspire them to check out the local farmer’s markets.
At the least, it’ll make them think twice about where their grocery store strawberries come from and the trek they took to get to their plate. Hopefully make them think four or five times about how that bag of Cheetos got made.
20) Increased Access to Composting: Reducing Waste
In many U.S. cities, composting isn’t the norm. According to 2023 NYC stats, a third of New York’s organic waste is still going to landfills.
As of 2019, two-thirds of community gardens were doing their own composting, and doing so in staggering numbers.
This is one of the first initiatives I’m starting with a community garden in the South Bronx.
Just like with the food miles example, even if people don’t compost at the garden, it educates them about food waste and composting. Maybe it means they’ll use one of New York City’s orange compost bins.
It can have educational ripple effects that create city-wide changes.
As I talk about in this article community composting is superior to industrial “anaerobic digestion.”
21) Creates Habitats for Pollinators (Butterflies and Bees)
We’ve all heard about how important bees are. That’s because they’re “pollinators,” which includes bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. By pollinating various plants, from flowers to many fruits and vegetables, they help the plants thrive.
In urban environments, where concrete often dominates the landscape, community gardens offer oases of diverse plant life that attract and sustain pollinator populations.
Some of the community gardens I’ve seen have sections dedicated to growing plants that attract pollinators for this reason.
These gardens provide habitats for them to flourish, and also act as “stepping stones,” creating corridors that allow pollinators to move between larger green spaces. After all, how will butterfly populations grow from Central Park to Prospect Park? They’ll need stepping-stone green spaces on the way.
Once again, these community spaces provide the opportunity to educate the community on the importance of pollinators, helping people understand these concepts which are fundamental to life on earth.
Community gardens represent taking back our power. We get to decide what they are.
I’ve come to believe that the most powerful and lasting change happens from the ground up. In the case of community gardens, that’s literal.
Of course, who’s in power at the federal level matters. But where we can all shape the world in the direction we want, where we can really make a difference, is in our local communities. Because even if it doesn’t “save the world,” it will help a handful of people we know.
It will give them a place to breathe cleaner air and relax. It will give butterflies and birds a safe home. It will give others a chance to eat more healthy food. That matters. That makes a difference. And at scale, maybe these little community gardens could save the world.
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