Course:CONS200/2025WT2/Ecological and Socio-economic Benefits of Home Gardens

Home gardens are small pieces of land allocated to growing various vegetables, fruits or flowers. These gardens can provide various benefits both ecologically and socio-economically. Some examples include improved biodiversity by providing a space for rare plants, and improved food security by providing a steady supply of fresh produce.

Home gardens are not a new concept, and with the explosion of climate change, grocery prices, food insecurity and declining biodiversity, home gardens are an increasingly appealing solution to combat many of these problems brought on by modern society.

The Problem

With rising prices and blander cities there are many people beginning to look towards home gardens as a way to both decrease their monthly spending on groceries and make a green space for everyone to enjoy. Food security is in question now more than ever with climate change steadily making it harder to grow the crops we rely on.

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Ecological Benefits of Home Gardens

Home gardens act as a semi-isolated growing space where anyone can choose what species of plants they want to grow and produce. This can be used as a helpful tool to bring back native wild cultivars of species we know and love. Crop wild relatives have actually been in use for a long time to help our crops develop beneficial traits to increase resistance to things like disease, drought and increase their likelihood of surviving in an ever changing climate. The act of growing plants in your home garden can also provide a way for the plant to adapt to your local microclimate and increase biodiversity. Home gardens also provide a place where crops that usually wouldn't be are in close proximity allowing them to hybridize and introduce new genes into the population.

Socioeconomic Benefits of Home Gardens

Food insecurity is a problem that is becoming ever challenging with the increasing of drought frequencies, population booms and corporate greed. In 2023, 13.5% of all US homes were food insecure. This is not a situation that will seemingly improve, as grocery prices in Canada exploded by 19.1% on average from 2018 to 2022

Home gardens can help combat food insecurity by providing a steady supply of healthy foods at a far lower cost. Independent production not only saves money but ensures access to a healthy diet that contains adequate macro- and micronutrients. Thus, homestead production of food provides households with direct access to important nutrients that may not be readily available or within their economic reach. These home gardens have proven themselves as very effective in certain regions of the world, especially in more rural areas. A recent study has shown that in several peri-urban villages around Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria), vegetable gardens and greenhouses were found in 31–71% of the examined yards. Various vegetables from Red Onions to Carrots were grown and many people reported having a productive enough garden to never need to purchase vegetables from the supermarket. These home gardens also allow gardeners to regulate exactly how and what is used when growing crops. Home-grown crops and homemade foods were claimed to be more valuable and of higher quality compared to purchased ones.

Discussion

- alternatives to home gardens

- drawbacks with home gardens

References

This conservation resource was created by Course:CONS200.