Advantages & disadvantages — Turning public parks into community gardens

A number of cities now allow residents to grow fruit and vegetables on land that was previously open parkland. In my judgement the benefits of this trend outweigh the drawbacks, provided only part of each park is converted.

The gains go well beyond the produce itself. Growing food locally gives households fresh vegetables at almost no cost and cuts the food miles involved in transporting them across the country. The activity is also valuable in itself: gardening keeps older residents physically active and outdoors, and children who plant seeds learn where their food actually comes from. Most importantly, allotments bring neighbours into regular contact around a shared task, which builds a sense of ownership over public space and tends to reduce vandalism.

The objections, however, deserve to be taken seriously. A park is communal space that belongs to everybody, whereas a garden plot is allocated to a particular household for exclusive use. Runners, dog walkers, families with pushchairs and teenagers playing football all lose ground so that a minority can grow tomatoes. Gardens additionally require continuous upkeep, and a scheme that loses its volunteers quickly becomes an eyesore of weeds and broken fencing. In dense districts with little green space, this trade-off would be hard to justify.

In conclusion, community gardens deliver food, exercise and stronger neighbourhood ties that ordinary lawns do not. Cities should therefore support them, but convert only a modest share of each park, leaving the remainder open to everyone and setting clear rules for maintenance and fair allocation of plots.