ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the analysis of the individual motivations of gardeners’ existing allotment gardens of various types. Many city authorities and urban garden associations have seen waiting lists grow recently and in some cases people may wait several years before they can rent a plot for gardening. Urban gardening has had a long tradition in Barcelona but the accelerated expansion of the built environment since the mid-twentieth century, including the ‘modernization’ of the city associated with the Olympics of 1992 resulted in a decline of urban gardens. The economic situation affecting southern European countries, has opened up new reasons to join urban gardening. Motivations behind urban gardening are closely linked to societal changes. For example, in the case of Nitra as in other countries that experienced the transition to the market economy in the 1990s, the accession to private property through the allotment garden plots, is seen as a major motivation for gardeners.
