Gardening in Displacement: The Benefits of Cultivating in Crisis

Abstract

While the benefits of gardening to mental health and trauma recovery are well documented, and a number of voluntary organizations have been involved in developing gardens with refugees, as yet there is no clear mandate to allow and mainstream gardening in large-scale refugee camps. This article argues for the importance of this in the planning of camps on the basis that many crises are indeed protracted, that refugees often stay in camps for tens of years rather than months and that gardening has significant environmental, psychological and social benefits, as well as contributing to food sovereignty and sustainable drainage. Drawing on interviews with residents of a refugee camp in northern Iraq, all participants in a camp-based garden competition in 2016 and 2017, this article illustrates the benefits of gardening and argues for their sustained inclusion in camp design.