Roots and Research in Urban School Gardens

Book excerpt: This book explores the urban school garden as a bridge between environmental action and thought. As a small-scale response to global issues around access to food and land, urban school gardens promote practical knowledge of farming as well as help renew cultural ideals of shared space and mutual support for the organic, built environment. Through a comprehensive history of school garden practice rooted in Eastern industrial cities, to case studies from four Pacific Rim regions, this book examines the practice and culture of the urban school garden as a central symbol for environmental learning. As poetically described by students, teachers, and community members in both historical and contemporary gardens, the story of the urban school garden inspires a new narrative in connecting learners to the land.