The Gateway Gardens: A Resource for a Diverse Urban Population at Gateway National Park in New York City
Parish, Ph.D SM. 1998. The Gateway Gardens: A Resource for a Diverse Urban Population at Gateway National Park in New York City. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Boston Support Office, Stewardship & Partnership Team. Boston, MA
For those involved in the planning and administration of urban community gardens, developing a sense of what gardeners get out of gardening - what meaning it has for them, what social, cultural and psychological benefits are associated with gardening - may help shed light on the nature of the resource a community garden site represents and may suggest management actions that can be taken to maintain and develop this resource. Not all managers or staff with responsibilities for garden sites will be gardeners, but even those who prefer city pavement over green acres, who like to bike rather than bend over a plot of earth, who would rather go to the beach or go fishing than go pull weeds, will need, as managers of a public program, to recognize, respond to, and plan for, the needs and activities of gardeners. To help managers and planners do this, this report offers information and insights into the community gardens of Gateway National Recreation Area: it provides an assessment of the nature of the resource these constitute, the nature of use, and the characteristics of the community that finds meaning in community gardening. This report will describe some key aspects of the value and meaning of gardening at Gateway, discuss the needs of gardeners, and make some suggestions for planning. Many of the findings and recommendations of this report have been made verbally to Park Service staff and some have already been acted on.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Parish, Ph.D, Steven
- Date of Issue
- 1998
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Boston Support Office, Stewardship & Partnership Team
- Units
- GATE , NER
- Keywords
- Breezy Point Queens (NY), Diverse Populations, Floyd Bennett Field Brooklyn (NY), Gardening, Resource Management, Urban Community Gardens, Visitor Use