Synopses & Reviews
"The social history of American cities would not be complete without a full account of the rise of community open spaces. Lawson does exactly this by providing a compelling and poetic account of the history and making of urban gardens. Combining solid scholarship with engaging images of the gardens and stories of their makers, this book sheds new light on the value of urban open space. More important, it explains why community gardens need to stand alongside city parks as permanent open spaces. Essential reading for community developers and landscape architects as well as anyone who ventures outside, enthusiasm and shovel in hand, to improve their local environment.and#151;Mark Francis, author of
Urban Open Space and Village Homes "The definitive history of the past hundred years of America's experience with community gardens. A labor of love by a garden activist, the book appears at a most appropriate timeand#151;today our city dwellers and suburbanites are retreating onto carpets of passive open space tended by homeowner associations and lawn care outfits. Lawson thoughtfully analyzes the weaknesses of community gardens when used as a response to social crises and, by contrast, investigates community gardens as an alternative to today's managed care of open space. Her history clearly presents a way of community living that we can elect if we choose her wisdom."and#151;Sam Bass Warner, Jr, author of To Dwell Is to Garden
"An important book about how the urban gardening movement is transforming our landscape and reconnecting us to the land."and#151;Alice Waters, Owner, Chez Panisse
Synopsis
Since the 1890s, providing places for people to garden has been an inventive strategy to improve American urban conditions. There have been vacant-lot gardens, school gardens, Depression-era relief gardens, victory gardens, and community gardensand#151;each representing a consistent impulse to return to gardening during times of social and economic change. In this critical history of community gardening in America, the most comprehensive review of the greening of urban communities to date, Laura J. Lawson documents the evolution of urban garden programs in the United States. Her vibrant narrative focuses on the values associated with gardening, the ebb and flow of campaigns during times of social and economic crisis, organizational strategies of these primarily volunteer campaigns, and the sustainability of current programs.
About the Author
Laura J. Lawson is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her knowledge of community gardens has developed from academic interest as well as personal experience as coordinator of Berkeley Youth Alternatives' Community Garden Patch.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction. Garden Patches in American Cities
Part I. Early Garden Programs, 1890s to 1917
Introduction
1. An Alternative to Charity: The Vacant-Lot Cultivation Association
2. The School Garden Movement
3. The Goodness of Gardening: Gardens as Civic Improvement
Part II. National Urban Garden Campaigns, 1917 to 1945
Introduction
4. Patriotic Volunteerism: The War Garden Campaign
5. An Antidote for Idleness: Garden Programs of the 1930s Depression
6. Victory Gardens of World War II
Part III. Gardening for Community, 1945 to the Present
Introduction
7. The Community Garden Movement of the 1970s and 1980s
8. Community Greening: Urban Garden Programs from 1990 to the Present
9. A Look at Gardens Today
Conclusion. Sustaining a City Bountiful
Notes
Index