Home Gardens in Three Mountain Regions of the Iberian Peninsula: Description, Motivation for Gardening, and Gross Financial Benefits

Previous research on tropical home gardens stresses their ecological, economic, and social functions. This article a) describes home gardens (n = 252) in three rural areas of the Iberian Peninsula, b) explores motivations for gardening, and c) computes the gross financial benefits of crops in home gardens. Different from tropical gardens, the studied gardens specialize in edible plants, species with other uses being marginally present. Motivations for gardening relate more to people's way of living (i.e., hobby, keeping traditions) than to economic reasons. The average gross financial value of home gardens in our sample is 1,691 €/year/gardener, equivalent to almost three minimal monthly salaries in Spain. Home gardens seem to also provide noneconomic benefits that help explain the maintenance of those agroecosystems.

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