Quantifying, Predicting and Promoting Edible Gardening in Eastbourne, Aotearoa, New Zealand

Urban edible gardening has potential economic, social, environmental, resiliency and sustainability benefits. Due to these benefits researchers are calling for effective behaviour change measures to increase the uptake of urban edible gardening. Responding to this need, the objectives of this study were to quantify and predict participation in edible gardening in Eastbourne, Aotearoa, New Zealand, in order to generate a greater understanding of the behaviour on which to base recommendations for its effective promotion. This is the first study to quantify the relative influence of psycho-social factors on edible gardening and use the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a conceptual framework.

Results showed that 89% of respondents participated in edible gardening, although the extent of their participation was limited. Furthermore, perceived behavioural control was the psycho-social factor which had the greatest influence on edible gardening intention and behaviour. Results also indicated that lack of sufficient skills, knowledge, time, space and sun were the greatest barriers to edible gardening in Eastbourne, making these factors the logical targets of behaviour change interventions. Community Based Social Marketing tools were considered as a framework for providing recommendations for lowering these barriers and increasing participation in edible gardening.