What motivations drive foreign gardeners to cultivate? Findings from urban gardening initiatives in Lombard municipalities

This paper examines the motivations that drive foreign gardeners to cultivate a garden in Lombard municipalities.Motivations underlying urban gardening are inspired by social, health, environmental and food-related benefits. Several studies document these benefits with reference to the entire population of gardeners, while ignoring the specific perspective of each social subgroup, mainly because of a lack of data. This scarce knowledge is particularly evident for the subset of foreign gardeners, i.e., migrants moving to Italy for work and/or family reasons who decide to cultivate an urban garden in the municipality of their residence. In turn, this prevents municipalities from adopting urban gardening projects that are consistent with the specific requirements of this group.As the regional government has legally recognized the importance of urban gardens and financed their realization, the Lombard municipalities have promoted many of these practices in their territories over recent years. However, neither the region nor the municipalities have created a database of these practices or collected information on the motivations that lead people in general – and foreign citizens in particular – to cultivate locally.This paper aims to fill that gap by presenting some results gained from the elaboration of two questionnaires sent to both the municipalities and the gardeners themselves.Findings indicate that about 21 % of the responding municipalities promote urban gardening initiatives. Of these municipalities, less than one in five have at least one foreign gardener. Foreign gardeners come mainly from North Africa and Eastern Europe, most of them are over 40 years old, and have usually lived with their families in Lombard municipalities for more than five years. Their motivations consist of a growing interest in participation in local communities, breaching multiple relationships and enforcing participation. Conversely, they attribute little importance to sharing values and strengthening personal and social identities, or to preserving the social ecological memory of ancient practices. Finally, they frequently highlight the contribution of garden cultivation in reducing pollution and in reconnection with food practices, making access to good food a priority.