Urban gardening has become an important civic activity. Individual and allotment
gardens are an attractive form of land use because of their ability to satisfy the
needs of modern day citizen; providing fresh and healthy vegetables of controlled
origin, supporting employment, education and recreation. Ljubljana and London’s
lively gardening activities have been analysed within the FOODMETRES (FP7)
international project, which through case studies of European capital cities answers
the question how to shorten food supplying chain from producer to consumer.
Through mapping of digital ortophoto images both capital cities current extent of
allotment gardens and their economic potential were estimated along with
economic eligibility of vegetable production. Results showed that cities strongly
differed in number of citizens per hectare of allotment gardens (Ljubljana 1.809
citizens/hectare, London 9.550 citizens/hectare) and because of different economic
conditions also in economic production potential. In Ljubljana gross margin is 2,42
EUR/m2/year whereas in London it’s corresponding value is 2,89 EUR/m2/year.
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