Written by: Declan Murphy
Edited by: Alessa Zaitseva
Designed by: Eleanor Jeavons
Published by: Rayna Almas
In general, when planning and preparing a site for a community garden, committees seek safe places to establish them. But did you know that establishing a community garden also increases the safety of the area where it is built?
Not only do community gardens increase community cooperation and access to nutritious foods, but your community garden may also be contributing to the quality of life in your neighbourhood in other surprising ways.
People have long understood that community gardens can contribute to neighbourhood revitalization and to cultivating a sense of community and pride in one’s community. These things can encourage neighbours to care more about the area’s environment and beauty by picking up litter and treating the public space better. As a result, community gardens can increase property values in a neighbourhood, as well as contribute positively to peoples’ mental and physical wellbeing.
However, recent research may suggest that establishing and maintaining well-lit and well tended community garden spaces can also reduce property crime and other illicit behaviour in an area, and may actually lower the rates of violent crime surrounding them. When the Victoria Hills community garden was established in Kitchener in the 1990s, there was an immediate 30% drop in police reports in the area, with a further decrease of 48.8 and 55.7 percent in the following years. Community garden committees have reported a decline in robberies, vandalism, car thefts, drug dealing, and other activities surrounding their gardens throughout North America.
How can a community garden have such a positive effect on an area?
Kristine Hahn from the Michigan State University suggests that the secret lies in replacing an unattractive and depressing place with a place of beauty, and in replacing criminal activities with positive activities, such as gardening and producing nourishing food. By replacing negatives with positives, the garden cultivates a more positive atmosphere. Further, by working together in the garden, people living in the area talk to one another more and make connections with one another, a key factor in neighbourhood safety.
Green spaces in general can have a major impact on rates of crime and violence. Obviously green spaces increase the air quality and reduce temperatures, which can impact emotional and behavioural patterns, but research suggests it’s more than this. Replacing barren concrete with nature increases peoples’ sense of wellbeing, and reduces fear and anxiety in a neighbourhood. Lighting, maintenance, and the presence of people gathering to participate in positive activities can all help discourage crime in an area.
Amelia Showalter, a student at the Kennedy School of Government, points to the ‘broken windows’ theory of James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which connects the physical signs of neglect with the normalization of crime in an area. Where you have abandoned lots with scruffy tarmac and broken windows, citizens get the message that no one cares about that region and they shouldn’t get involved with the common good. One broken window soon leads to more broken windows, which further enforces the feeling of neglect. However, when a garden replaces that lot, and locals work in that garden, the citizens around the garden receive the message that it’s good to invest in their neighbourhood, and they should care about it, too.
Community gardens are wonderful sources of healthy, affordable, culturally-appropriate foods, but it can also be a source of empowerment and social capital for a neighbourhood. This is especially true for the elderly and young people, who can find in them a safe space for positive activity in their neighbourhood. This improves their mental and physical health, and also, it seems, creates positive change in the neighbourhood as a whole by keeping everyone safer in the surrounding area.
What’s your favourite thing about your community garden? Do you feel like it improves the life of your area? Please share in the comments!
Sources:
Ellis, M.E. (2023.) “Plants That Fight Crime: How Community Gardens Lower Crime Rates.” https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/urban/community-gardens-lower-crime-rates.htm.
Good Food Organization. (2018.) “8 Things To Know About Community Gardens.” https://nourishproject.ca/8-things-know-about-community-gardens.
Hahn, K. (2013.) “Community gardens can be anti-crime agents.” Michigan State University Extension. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/community_gardens_can_be_anti-crime_agents.
NEEF. (2024.) “How Greening Communities Can Reduce Violence and Promote Health.” https://www.neefusa.org/story/health-and-environment/how-greening-communities-can-reduce-violence-and-promote-health.
Showalter, A. (2008.) “Homegrown Peace: Community Gardening and Crime Prevention.” https://graduallygreener.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/amelia-showalter-community-gardening-crime-prevention-paper.pdf.