The importance of community garden in the community development progress
社区花园在社区发展中的重要性

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.
社区花园是指由一群人集体开垦的一块土地，它可以实现各种目的，如审美和社区建设、身心健康或土地保护。从长远来看，美国的社区园艺随着社会经济和人口趋势的变化而变化。它的发起是为了应对19世纪末的城市快速移民和经济萧条，当时人们非常需要廉价的食物，市政领导人为居民提供在城市空地上种植食物的机会。

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.
然而，九十年代的经济繁荣导致了对住宅和商业空间的迫切需求。社区花园被认为是需要开发的重要场所。对社区花园最一致的攻击应该是发生在纽约市，纽约市市长朱利安尼提议出售租赁社区花园的市属土地。最后社区花园和住房倡导者达成协议，明年保留500个社区花园，用其他花园建造2000多套公寓。结果，许多花园被毁或仍未得到保护。

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.
早期的社区菜园运动侧重于粮食生产，而近期对社区菜园的关注不仅包括农业，还包括社区发展和开放空间等方面。在本研究中，之所以选择拉美人作为研究对象，一方面是因为他们的社区花园通常位于贫困社区，缺乏花园所能提供的设施。另一方面，现有的研究主要集中在非裔美国人和白人园丁群体，而对拉美人的社区花园较少涉及。

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.
研究数据是通过开放式访谈、观察和审查文件收集的，然后用软件进行分类编码整理。总而言之，拉丁裔花园的基本作用似乎是在社区发展中，尽管它们作为开放空间和粮食生产基地也是至关重要的。这些社区花园还有几个特别重要的功能包括：花园对社区非园艺者的重要性，它在提高成员的热情方面的作用，它作为教育场所的作用，以及通过社区花园保存文化的重要性。此外，研究也发现，并非所有社区花园都能适应每一个文化背景的居民。

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.
社区花园在为社区成员提供领导力、景观设计和组织经验方面的重要性也得到了高度重视，这些作用有时会影响到公民生活的其他方面。虽然社区花园的这一方面可能不是拉丁美洲社区所特有的，但在移民和贫困社区，它往往更为重要，因为这些社区的居民可能没有其他机会发展这些技能。