The influence of emotional and conditional motivations on gardeners’ participation in community (allotment) gardens

Despite the benefits of participating in community gardens, motivations that influence gardeners’ participation in gardening activities is largely unexplored. The goal of the study is to quantitatively examine, beyond the commonly known functional motivations, the individual impact of emotional and conditional motivations on gardening participation. To reach our goal, a web-based survey and on-site surveys were administered to 180 gardeners in three community gardens in Austin, Texas. Results showed that, while most functional motivations were significant, the emotional motivation of attachment towards gardening was also statistically significant, demonstrating the individual role of emotional motivations on garden participation. Additionally, a significant conditional motivation was found, including time required to garden. We discuss the implication of our findings for ensuring continual community garden participation.