City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America

by Laura J. Lawson

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 gardens―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.

Genres: Gardening, Food

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2005

Reviews

[RuBisCO Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super dry, just essentially a list of things that happened. Not much interpretation.

[Menser]

i'm liking this already for its analysis of the context dependence of (urban) gardening movements since the 1890s (for character building as much as subsistence) and for the attention to the neverending question of who owns the gardens and how real estate interests constantly shift where the gardens happen

[Gary Goosman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having worked in community gardening for years I found City Bountiful a great inspiration and slice of history. It pulled together all the forces that lead to the current community gardening movement.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written and thorough history of community gardening in america.