Abstract:

Community garden which is any piece of land gardened and maintained by a group of people， as one form of urban agriculture, has become an effective way to improve the relationship between human and land. To learn the foreign advanced experiences of community garden so as to stimulate China’s urban agricultural development, the history, main functions and basic forms of community gardens in America were briefly introduced．And a field survey about 14 community gardens in Los Angeles was conducted. The studies indicated that the community garden with a track record going back to one hundred years ago, fulfill multi-functions such as produces food, environmental benefits, as well as provide far reaching social, economical and cultural benefits. The community garden boasts various construction types and perfect management system. The public lands reclaimed have been used for food production first. The gardeners encourage frugality and organic farming. But the innate defects such as tenant would hinder the development of community garden. It has good reference significance for the urban agriculture and green space planning of China. This paper from urbanization, aging and development of communities perspective, explores the potential of community gardening as an important tool for city planning and urban agriculture. At last, the development strategies for community garden were discussed.