City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America - Softcover

Lawson, Laura J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520243439 ISBN 13: 9780520243439

Publisher: University of California Press, 2005

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 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.

About this title

Review

"The definitive history of the past hundred years of America's experience with community gardens."

From the Back Cover

"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.--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 time--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."--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."--Alice Waters, Owner, Chez Panisse

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0520243439
• ISBN 13: 9780520243439
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384