Gardens in environmental perspective: fertilizers and organic residues in gardens

Although domestic gardens cover a significant area, they are one of the
least known land use categories. Hidden behind the façade of urban
and residential development, they are currently a footnote in housing
policy and not explicit included in spatial planning, socio-economic
and environmental policies. Households consider domestic gardens
mainly as little paradises, safe family havens and places of direct contact
with nature. However, hundreds of thousands of gardens make
a big thing. The collectivity of domestic gardens – the ‘garden complex’
– can play a strategic role in various challenges of our society
like public health, environment, biodiversity, food security and climate
change. This book presents a collection of emerging views on the garden
complex in order to put the garden on the different agendas of
research and policy. It collects the current state of knowledge on gardens
from different experts in various disciplines, mainly in a Flemish
context. The authors write about the background of the present-day
Flemish garden, their spatial distribution and connection, the impact
of gardens on the environment, biodiversity in gardens, and the role of
gardens in the livability of neighborhoods. Together with other green
themes like greenways, community gardens and urban agriculture,
domestic gardens are part of an important rural-urban interface. It is
time for more systematic research on gardens, and planners and managers
should give more attention to the green faces of development in
their strategies towards enhanced sustainability.