Urban garden communities’ social capital as a support for climate change adaptations – a case study of Warsaw

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Typology of gardening societies’ leaders in statements of gardeners and experts

No.	Types of leaders	Quotes (translated from Polish to English) [group / age range]	Findings
1.	Institutional employees	No statement	–
2.	Social activists – ‘amateurs’	(...) there are these two layers of people: those who have always done it, not even calling it urban gardening. It’s not this activist bubble, let’s say, left-wing urban activists, just people who have been doing it for a hundred years and, for them, it’s something normal and they just cultivate something because they like it. And there is some part of these new people who say: ‘here we are doing very important things for the city, and this is urban gardening here or whatever’ [expert / 40–50]	anyone who has a need for gardening activity can cultivate garden
3.		I am a journalist by trade. [Name 1] is an English philologist who works at the ministry as an analyst. [Name 2] deals with industrial design. [Name 3] is a programmer. [Name 4] is the only one who graduated in environmental protection studies but she is also probably a secretary in some law firm [gardener / 30–40]
4.	Social activists – ‘professionals’	The disadvantage [of urban gardening] is the bubble nature, that it is one kind of people, like us, that there is little diversity, that these are people from larger cities, higher education. I am not from a larger city but I have been living here for ten years, higher education, some kind of cultural capital… Activist profile [expert, gardener / 30–40]	gardening is fulfilling the need to be an activist acting for others
5.		Besides, I am a social activist because of my temperament, my passion, always. And this is not the only social thing I do, so I just have it, I have this internal drive to do something for people and the world. That’s how it works [activist, gardener / 40–50]
6.	Social activists – ‘heroes’	There is a core of five people and there are no people joining. (...) And it works all year round (…) And these five people, I don’t want to say that they are heroes but, after we gathered momentum, we got used to the fact that the job needs to be done and we do it [gardener / 60–70]	gardening activism as a mission and dedication
7.		We are a bit tired of taking care of this garden because it requires vigilance. We are a bit like guards; we feel responsible for various things. Besides, it is not always possible to organise the workforce for various ventures (…). As long as it develops, as long as it is in the development phase and we are still getting the funding, we are involved in it more. However, I hope that at some point we will reach a place where we will decide that what we had to do has been done [gardener / 50–60]
8.		(…) creating such a small garden requires a lot of time and mental commitment to make everything work, to raise the money (…). Formalities, formalities in the settlements of projects. Bureaucracy. None of us really knew much about it. Being responsible for everything (…). As if we entered this association, this initiative with such strong desires to act (...) And work with the earth (…) And we just crashed (…) into the reality of the association and coping with it all. And, in fact, none of us had previously dealt with it professionally; so many things were done by trial and error (...) But, actually, [Name 5] is probably right that this project may have exhausted itself somewhere (...) I think the main reason was material fatigue. Quite strong actually, even burnout I’d say (...) It only seems that it is just a plot of land and it’s nice, but then it turns out that there is a lot of work and responsibility (…) So, it was a bit of additional activity besides work [activist, gardener / 30–40]

Social conditions for involvement in gardening activities, as well as for durability and effectiveness of gardens in the statements of experts and gardeners

No.	Success factor	Quote (translated from Polish to English) [group / age range]	Findings
1.	Access to land	Community gardens are sometimes such a fluctuating activity (…) due to the system we live in, how expensive the land is. It is very difficult for some gardens to stay in the same place for a longer time, for more than five years, for example, due to land reasons [expert / 50–60]	fear of losing space for a garden – temporariness and uncertainty about the future of the garden
2.		(…) from one year to the next, we were extending the occupancy permit for this land and it was done in a simple way, we wrote to the district office, which agreed for a year, because it was never known when this plot of land would disappear (…) it was a safety buffer for road expansion (…) So, we sat on top of a ticking time bomb, not knowing when this plot would be sold (…) [activist, gardener / 40–50]
3.	Ownership of the space	There is some kind of mixed model that everyone has some space of their own, but there is also a common space that we take care of. Or totally community-based that we have a common space, we plant together, we cultivate together, we use it together [activist, gardener / 30–40]	sense of the lack of ownership
4.		(…) maybe people lack a sense of ownership? Maybe, if it is not written that it is theirs, they do not fully feel the possibility of getting involved in it [gardener / 60–70]
5.		It seems to me that in Poland it is impossible to build on something that is fully public and common, that there is something in our nature that makes it necessary for us to know that something belongs to us [expert / 40–50]
6.	Ownership of crops	Probably yes, it happens quite often [that someone ‘steals’ a tomato or a cucumber], it is quite normal, that we probably do not get too attached to these crops, that we give ourselves some slack that maybe someone will just pick it and we won’t cry [gardener / 30–40]	ownership of crops is important
7.	Proximity	It seems to me that this is the most important thing – that it should be close to these people, within view. That these gardens should not be hidden somewhere in the distance, but just be localised between the blocks of flats [expert, gardener / 30–40]	necessity of close garden location in relation to one’s place of residence
8.		But, also, from such activity of this garden and from the fact that the garden requires constant care, it can be seen that people who lived here in the area, could drop in and do something on the way from or to work, they were much more involved than people from the other districts [expert, gardener / 50–60]
9.	Community	I see, the residents really come, take care of it [garden], etc. But there they also have a community that has been living there for many, many years (…) on the principle that there is a cohesive community [expert / 30–40]	sense of belonging and creating a community
10.		(…) take into account how it should be developed throughout the whole year or for several years, and not just be a whim for one season (...) to prevent this, you have to approach it wisely and take into account that this community around the garden simply has to just keep meeting during the winter [expert / 50–60]
11.	Regular work	(…) this work is similar to adopting a pet. And it’s just like that – that I don’t adopt a pet and then go away. Cultivating plants is year-round work, requiring regularity, and people do not know this, they are not ready for it (...) They would just like to play. It is fun, but it is also work [expert / 30–40]	responsibility and systemisation of gardening activity
12.	Operating model	(…) as [Name 6] mentioned, a very systematic approach to the matter is needed here, a very strong coordination of these activities, from the beginning of determining what it should look like, who should manage it, who should take care of it, simply by name, who has what duties. It must be established, because if we don’t have such arrangements, then there will always be some problems (…) It could be done by volunteers (…) only that it would have to be well planned [activist, gardener / 30–40]	need for organisation and management
13.		(…) some models are needed (…) Because they operate, from my observations, in this way – I am talking about community gardens now – in a somewhat guerilla, undefined way, which largely depends on what is the private knowledge of people who work in cultural institutions [activist, gardener / 50–60]

Characteristic traits of gardening societies in statements of gardeners and experts

No.	Gardeners’ traits	Quote (translated from Polish to English) [group / age range]	Findings
1.	Number of gardeners	As for the number of people, from our experience, it never exceeds ten people. For example, in ‘Motyka i Słońce’ in Warsaw, there are more people in this group of gardeners and in the Facebook group but, regularly, ten, a dozen, no more. Certainly, in our case, it was also a constant group; it was also eight people. In the best season maybe ten [gardener, expert / 30–40]	a constant number of people who are truly active gardeners
2.		[At the beginning] Forty or fifty people applied to join us (…) Fifty applied and maybe thirty-something came [to the meetings]. And the group that actually got involved at the beginning consisted of about twenty people and we started with them (…). When we started the first year with twenty people, we ended up with seven volunteers [municipal employee / 40–50]
3.	Age of gardeners	And it was cool because it was an intergenerational activity (...) These are older people, senior citizens, but there are also whole families who take care of the beds, so we have both adults and children, so we have a very wide age range (neighbourhood garden) [municipal employee / 30–40]	gardening as an intergenerational integration activity
4.		We have a team of senior citizens here who function in various configurations, in various entities [within a district]. We also have The Third Age University (...), so most of these people are involved in the Council of Seniors [Rada Seniora] (...) There are several very committed people who migrate between the Social Welfare Centre [OPS] and the Art Foundation [Fundacja Art] (…), Caritas and us (…). These are very diverse people; there are some with higher education (...) and these are usually women who outlived their husbands a bit or have different stories there (...) And, as for these young parents with children, I don’t know if it’s the middle class but most often educated people (…); there was also a young disabled boy who regularly appeared, so that there was no exclusion of anyone, quite the opposite [gardener / 50–60]
5.	Familiarity with the leaders	So, naturally, you know, they were mainly our friends (…). Various environments also evolved there. Also, some artistic environments (…). Various communities, where different people, also with some kind of, let’s say, artistic background, for example, but also activists and people involved in the urban gardening movement [activist, gardener / 40–50]	gardening as a place for friendships

Preliminary meta-analysis of three popular academic databases

Round	Search term	Scopus	Science Direct	Web of Science	Total
1	‘urban garden’	1028	1700	341	3069
2	‘urban garden’ and (‘community garden’ or ‘urban agriculture’)	283	227	49	559
3	with keywords: ‘adaptation’ and ‘climate change’	2	5	23	30

Functions of urban gardening according to leaders and members of gardening communities

No.	Garden’s function	Quote (translated from Polish to English) [group / age range]	Findings
Experts and leaders
1.	Productive	There were simply fruit trees, which were also planted for this purpose, not for decoration, but so that people could utilise them. And I think that even such small interventions or allotment gardens could be a source of food for individual people. It certainly will not be a very large element of the food system and feeding the city’s residents, but it can be an addition and a piece in a larger puzzle [expert / 40–50]	additional / supplementary source of vegetables and fruits
2.	Educative and integrative	I consider community gardens to be very important places to provide some crops but, above all, they are platforms for creating groups that can then somehow – I want to say lobby or fight or learn – create a wider network for this movement [expert / 30–40]	network of educational activities – expanding knowledge and environmental awareness
3.		And really, ecological education is a broad term, from improper waste management, through some issues related to the cleanliness of water or air and ending with biological diversity. And here in the garden we mainly focus on this last issue [activist, gardener / 30–40]
4.	Maintaining biodiversity	I’ve put a bit more emphasis on a biologically diverse garden. I wanted it to be edible not only for people, but also primarily for various animals (…) the negligence in the garden gave such an effect that this nature feels great here and very rare, desirable species appear. For me personally, as a naturalist, it is something that I can see meaning in [activist, gardener / 50–60]	care for nature by gardening
5.	Leisure and recreation	Some people had some internal need to just work with the earth or plants, also to work physically (…) That was the only type of fitness exercise allowed back then [during the pandemic] (...) And we decided that it was a combination of something both pleasant and useful [activist, gardener / 30–40]	the joy of gardening, combined with pleasure and relaxation
6.	Variety of functions	(…) it seems to me that urban agriculture can simply be multifunctional, not only having the function of food production but can simply combine various themes and thus support traditional, rural agriculture as well [expert / 30–40]	being in a garden is much more than just cultivating it; it is an exchange of knowledge, meetings/events, fun, workshops, dances...
7.		They organised all sorts of activities there, from planting, ecological workshops, exchange of clothes, concerts, performances, various games (…) dance parties for older people, Senior Citizens’ Club (…) There were some birthday parties for the residents (…) There were projects organised by the city (…) where we even had operetta concerts [municipal employee / 40–50]
Users and gardeners
8.	Productive	(...) this community garden really gave me a lot of crops this year and was a big support to my diet, to what I had to buy [gardener / 50–60]	urban gardening as an owner – supporting diet with vegetables and fruit
9.	Ecological and educative	When I came to this garden, I knew that there is this ecology, that you have to take care of the environment (...) I am learning and trying to learn how to function in such a disastrous period [gardener / 20–30]	gardening as an ecological approach
10.	Therapeutic	By the way, it also has a very good effect on our mental and physical condition, so it’s really a dream job. For a city dweller, even more so, because we have a lot of deficits (...) And you really just return to more obvious and natural methods of taking care of your physique and psyche [gardener / 30–40]	gardening as a therapeutic approach
11.	Integrative	(…) people have a need to do it [gardening] together, as it used to be, that you sat and gathered, just like my grandmother (…) Bonds are formed (...) I also have this benefit that I have somewhere to go [activist, gardener / 40–50]	the need for belonging, creating communities and interpersonal interactions
12.		We have a friend (…) He worked in this garden for some time but he moved to Kraków and now he runs a community garden there (…). And he came this year (…). So, friendships are formed, such lasting ones [gardener / 30–40]