'Earth community': The significance community gardens have for participants and environmental knowledge

Previous research suggests that community gardens have a multitude of wellbeing benefits for participants, including that of social, physical and mental wellbeing. Research also suggests that community gardens educate participants on not just gardening, but also environmental issues. Negative wellbeing is a growing concern within the UK, with the number of suicides rising in the last few years. Additionally, more people need to be educated about the impact of climate change on the environment. The current study investigated community gardens in the UK, their significance to participants and whether attendance to a community garden positively contributes to an increase in environmental knowledge. A secondary aim of the study was to understand whether a community garden could be defined as an 'earth community', supporting individual wellbeing, human-human relationships, human-environment relationships and nature/wildlife communities. The study consisted of a research observation of a community garden (Kent Community Oasis Garden; KCOG), a preliminary interview with 14 participants from KCOG, and a self-report questionnaire completed by 95 participants from 46 community gardens around the UK. Out of the 95 respondents, 58 identified as female, 34 as male and 3 as non-binary. The most common age group of the participants was 65-74 years old (26 out of 95 respondents), with the age of the respondents ranging from 18-84. The majority of the 95 participants were retired (36 participants), 31 were employed, 9 were students, 5 were unemployed and 4 had other commitments. When the participants were asked if they feel they struggle with their mental health, 56 out of 95 participants responded no, 36 responded yes and 3 preferred not to say. This study discovered that community gardens positively affect participant wellbeing, specifically through physical gardening, socialising and connection to nature. There was also an increase in subjectively ranked environmental knowledge regarding four main subjects: conservation, sustainability, wildlife and gardening. Furthermore, when dividing the data into participants who feel they struggle with their mental health and participants who do not, there was a difference in importance regarding the top-ranked reason of attendance to the community garden. This study determined that those who reported struggles with their mental health ranked 'mental health' as the top reason for attendance. This information could be used to understand how important community gardens are for people who feel they struggle with their mental health. Overall, these findings provide evidence that community gardens have a multitude of benefits. Future research should measure the extent to which community gardens increase environmental knowledge to determine the role of community gardens in the education of environmental issues, as well as investigate the extent of the importance of community gardens specifically for people who struggle with their mental health.