Homes Gardens Magazine

Community gardens improve personal and neighborhood health, CU-led research finds

Community gardeners eat more vegetables, exercise more, weigh less and feel healthier than nongardeners -- and even home gardeners -- in the Denver-metro area, researchers led by scholars from the University of Colorado have found.

Further, community gardeners are more attached to and protective of their neighborhoods.

Community gardens are parcels of land divided into plots in which neighborhoods grow vegetables, herbs and flowers. Aside from anecdotes, scientists have collected little evidence that gardening fosters human and neighborhood health.

A team including CU researcher Jill Litt is changing that. Its findings have been distilled into a film, "A Garden in Every Neighborhood," that has been shown locally and may be viewed at vimeo.com/21818738 .

The team's most recent findings were published this summer in the journals Social Science and Medicine and The American Journal of Public Health.

Denver-area community gardeners consume an average of 5.7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, compared to 4.6 servings for home gardeners and 3.9 servings for nongardeners, the team found. The average body-mass index for community gardeners is 24.2, compared to 27.2 for nongardeners. (A BMI of 25 or higher suggests that the person is overweight.)

Community gardeners engaged in 720 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise, compared to nongardeners, who reported 570 minutes per week. The surgeon general recommends 150 minutes per week.

Denver residents are more active than average Americans, but Denver gardeners are even more active than average Denverites.

Litt, an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and an assistant professor in CU-Boulder's environmental studies program, noted there are ample studies in the United States and abroad that illustrate the beneficial relationships between nature and health, but few studies focusing on community gardens and health.

Litt's team was funded in 2004 to begin to fill this gap in evidence. Litt's team included students and faculty from epidemiology, anthropology, public health, sociology, urban planning and architecture.

The goal was to explore how neighborhood environments influence health and well-being and whether community gardens were a viable strategy to promote health at the neighborhood level.

"To understand the meaning of gardens, we interviewed about 67 gardeners across 29 garden sites in Denver," Litt said.

MASTER BEDROOM LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF BETTER HOMES AND ...

I don’t know what magazines they are reading! Absolutely hideous  complete with Kawlums ! Strange, there are no granite countertops or red walls???  Very fancy outdoor kitchen and shed too! Maybe the house looks better in person? Could be just a horrible set of photos, a lame description, and lack of caps or punctuation that makes this one a candidate for the blog!

No Worries, I’m not going anywhere soon. I made an offer on a reo no go, lost a sale at the last minute ( short sale) then bought a fixer MONSTER ( which I really should offer you it’s so bad,) when it was six days on the market. Now, I have turned around and put it back on the market and not to make a flippin profit either. Sigh… I was so hungry to buy a house, I took on a project I couldn’t handle. After this, I am sinking back into the ooze with the renters.

Gawd that’s ugly. And it’s in Milpenis.

There’s a good chance that fireplace is a wonderful gadget called a pellet stove. You buy these bags of wood pellets that look like a constipation cure for rabbits and pour ‘em in, a lil’ motor feeds them out and the poor bitty things burn a few at a time. A fan blows the resulting warm air around. Out in hickville where I am, you can buy those pellets all over.

Tracy tea house – you’re babbling. Disclaimer The posts on this weblog are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and only represent the view of Burbed.com's editor. Comments are the views of commenters, not Burbed. If companies, properties, etc are mentioned on this blog, you should assume that I have a financial stake in them. Trust no one.

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