Gardens Are Infrastructure, Not a Hobby

Gardens are often talked about as hobbies.

Something people do in their spare time. A leisure activity. A personal interest alongside other ways of unwinding.

That framing misses what gardens are actually doing.

Across cities, towns and neighbourhoods, gardens quietly perform essential work. They manage water, build soil, cycle nutrients, grow food, support learning and hold relationships in place.

None of that is decorative.

Gardens are not an optional extra to the food system. They are part of its underlying infrastructure.

What We Mean by Infrastructure

Infrastructure is usually imagined as large, formal and engineered.

Roads. Pipes. Power lines. Waste facilities.

These systems are designed to move materials efficiently and at scale. They are visible when they fail, and mostly invisible when they work.

Gardens rarely fit this picture, so they are treated as marginal.

But infrastructure is not defined by size or technology. It is defined by function.

Infrastructure supports everyday life

Infrastructure enables basic needs to be met repeatedly and reliably.

Food systems depend on infrastructure. So do water systems. So does waste management.

When gardens are viewed through this lens, their role becomes clearer.

How Much Space Gardens Actually Take Up

Gardens are often dismissed as small or insignificant.

In reality, they are widespread.

There are an estimated 25.8 million gardens across Great Britain. Collectively, they form one of the largest networks of green space in the country.

Access to gardens is also common. Around 78 per cent of adults in the UK have access to a private garden.

And yet, only about 34 per cent of adults use that space to grow food, such as fruit, vegetables or herbs.

This gap matters.

It shows that gardens are physically present but often underused as food and soil infrastructure. The capacity exists, but the system around it does not always support or value that role.

The Work Gardens Actually Do

Gardens are places where multiple systems overlap.

They do not specialise in a single function. They integrate many.

Soil building and fertility

Gardens maintain living soil.

Organic matter is added. Roots feed microbial life. Structure improves over time. Water infiltration increases.

This is not incidental. Healthy soil underpins food production, water management and carbon storage.

Water regulation

Living soil absorbs and holds water.

During heavy rain, gardens reduce runoff. During dry periods, they retain moisture longer than compacted ground.

Across millions of gardens, this has real effects on local water systems.

Nutrient cycling

Gardens are one of the few places where nutrients can return directly to soil.

When compost is applied locally, food waste becomes fertility rather than a disposal problem.

Nutrient loops shorten. Losses reduce. Soil gains capacity.

Food production outside industrial supply chains

Even small gardens produce food.

Not enough to replace supermarkets, but enough to reduce dependence, build skills and reconnect people with growing.

That knowledge accumulates. It travels with people when they move. It spreads informally.

Learning and confidence

Gardens are places where people learn by doing.

Mistakes are visible. Success is tangible. Understanding grows through experience rather than instruction.

This kind of learning cannot be replicated at a distance.

Why Gardens Are Treated as Hobbies

Gardens are often dismissed because their value is diffuse.

They do not produce single outputs that are easy to measure. Their benefits accrue slowly and unevenly.

They also sit outside dominant economic narratives.

Much of the work gardens do is unpaid. It happens in shared or private spaces. It resists standard metrics.

What gets counted gets valued

Industrial systems favour things that move quickly and predictably.

Gardens move at biological pace. They respond to weather, soil and care.

Because of this, their contribution is often overlooked rather than absent.

Gardens as Part of a Larger System

Gardens do not operate alone.

They rely on compost, seeds, tools, knowledge and time. They sit within wider food and waste systems.

Compost makes gardens possible

Without compost, soil degrades.

Community composting reconnects gardens to the food system that feeds them. Food waste becomes soil amendment. Nutrients stay close to where they were generated.

Gardens and compost systems depend on each other.

One closes the loop for the other.

Community Gardens and Shared Infrastructure

Community gardens make the infrastructural role of gardens more visible.

They are shared spaces where food, learning and care intersect.

Shared responsibility, shared benefit

In community gardens, maintenance is collective. Knowledge is exchanged. Soil improvements benefit many people over time.

These spaces act as local hubs for food system literacy.

They show what becomes possible when growing is treated as a shared concern rather than a private pastime.

Infrastructure Can Be Living

Infrastructure does not have to be concrete or steel.

It can be biological. It can change over time. It can require care rather than control.

Gardens remind us of this.

They show that food systems are not only logistical. They are ecological and social.

Supporting gardens is not an indulgence.

It is maintenance.

Seeing What’s Already There

Across the country, millions of gardens are already doing this work.

They hold soil in place. They grow food. They absorb water. They host learning.

The task is not to make gardening radical.

It is to recognise gardens as normal, necessary infrastructure and support them accordingly.