Communitarian and urban gardens in Bragança, Portugal

Since 2011, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), through the Cultural and Recreational Association, welcomes and sponsors a project of communitarian urban gardens carried out in the arable land of its campus. The project was designed to promote community gardening at leisure time, while focusing on organic and sustainable agricultural practices, providing healthy produce and fresh plants, as well as satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community, connection to the environment and nature, and fostering interaction between users, which come from a broad geographical origin and have different gardening background and knowledge. In order to report motivation, agricultural performances, inventory all species grown, and to estimate the total production, we surveyed 51 gardens and we did consented interviews to 88 users from a total of 120.The authors are grateful to all the informants who kindly shared their knowledge and expertise. Strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011 for CIMO financial support.