A community garden is a piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people, which can fulfil a variety of purposes such as aesthetic and community development, physical or mental well-being, or land conservation. In the long term, community gardening in the United States changes with socio-economic and demographic trends. It initiated to respond to rapid urban migration and economic depression in the late 19th century when people were in great need of cheap food, and municipal leaders offer the residents the opportunity to grow food on open spaces in the city.

However, the economic boom in the 1990s resulted in urgent demand for residential and commercial spaces. Community gardens were regarded as prominent sites required development. The most consistent attack possibly occurred in New York City where Mayor Giuliani proposed the sale of city-owned lands where community gardens were leased. An agreement was reached at the end between community gardening and housing advocates to reserve 500 community gardens next year and use the other gardens to build more than 2,000 apartments. As a result, many gardens were destroyed or still unprotected.

The earlier community gardening movement focused on food production, while the recent interest in community gardens included not only agriculture but also the aspects of community development and open space. In this study, Latin Americans are chosen as the subjects of the research for the reasons that, on the one hand, their community gardens are usually located in poor communities and lack the facilities that gardens can offer. On the other hand, existing research mainly focuses on groups of African Americans and White gardeners, leaving the Latin America ones lightly touched.

The data were collected through open-ended interviews, observations and reviews of documents and then coded into categories in software to organize. In conclusion, the essential role of Latino gardens seems to be in community development, although they are also crucial as open spaces and as food production sites. Several particularly important factors include the importance of gardens to non-gardeners in the community, its role in enhancing the enthusiasm of members, its role as an educational venue, and the importance of preserving culture through community gardens. Besides, research has also found that not all community gardens accommodate every culture background of residents.

The importance of community gardens in providing community members with leadership, landscape design and organizational experience that sometimes affects other aspects of civic life was also high lightened. While this aspect of the community garden may not be unique to Latin American communities, it tends to be more critical in immigrant and poor communities where residents may not have other opportunities to develop these skills.