ABSTRACT
In a five-year action research (AR) project from March 2016 to 2021, two PhD students at Chiba University’s Graduate School of Horticulture collaborated with a local neighborhood association (NA) in the Tokyo suburb of Matsudo to create a “new image of Neighborhood Association,” assisting citizens. In return, the graduate students could live in the vacant manager’s 2LDK space for free. By growing culturally significant plants like herbs, vegetables, and flowers and by utilizing plants for crafts, cosmetics, and other creative purposes, local women, the elderly, and children developed their own curriculums, gaining new skills, financial support, and social confidence. These activities expanded from cultivation of edible landscape in planters in front of houses to the creation of eight gardens. Gardening provided alternative forms of participation in the local community for those who sought to socialize as well as those who preferred to stay at home—an especially important option in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
