Urban agriculture has received considerable attention for its role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services, and health and well-being for growing urban populations. Urban gardens managed with agroecological practices and higher plant diversity support more biodiversity and may support higher crop production. Plant selection in gardens is a function of temperature and environmental conditions and also depends on gardener socio-demographic characteristics, motivations for gardening, and gardening experience. In this study, we examined how plant richness and composition vary with gardener socio-demographic factors, gardening experience and garden use, and gardener motivations. We focused on the socio-demographic factors of age, gender, education, and region of national origin, used information on years spent gardening and hours spent in gardens as a proxy for gardening experience, and collected information on motivations, as well as crop and ornamental plants grown by individual gardeners. We found that gender, region of origin, time spent gardening, and gardener motivations all influenced plant richness or composition. Specifically, women plant more plant species than men, especially of ornamental plants, and individual gardeners motivated by nature connection tend to plant strongly different plant compositions in their gardens. We also found that region of national origin strongly influences crop composition. In contrast to previous studies, we did not find that gardeners more motivated by food grow a higher proportion of or more crop species compared with ornamentals. Thus we show that multiple socio-demographic characteristics and motivations influence garden plant communities, and thus assuring access to gardens for all groups may boost plant richness and support ecosystem services in gardens.

中文翻译：

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园丁的人口统计学，经验和动机驱动着城市花园中植物物种丰富度和组成的差异

城市农业因其在支持生物多样性和生态系统服务以及不断增长的城市人口的健康和福祉方面的作用而受到广泛关注。通过农业生态实践和更高的植物多样性来管理的城市花园支持更多的生物多样性，并可能支持更高的作物产量。花园中植物的选择是温度和环境条件的函数，还取决于园丁的社会人口统计学特征，从事园艺的动机以及从事园艺的经验。在这项研究中，我们研究了植物的丰富度和组成如何随着园丁的社会人口统计学因素，园艺经验和花园使用以及园丁的动机而变化。我们关注年龄，性别，教育程度和原籍地区的社会人口统计因素，使用有关园艺年限和在园艺中所花费时间的信息来代替园艺经验，并收集动机信息以及各个园丁种植的作物和观赏植物的信息。我们发现性别，原产地，园艺时间以及园丁的动机都影响了植物的丰富度或组成。具体而言，女性比男性（尤其是观赏植物）种植的植物种类更多，并且由于自然关系的缘故，各个园丁倾向于在其花园中种植完全不同的植物组成。我们还发现，民族起源地区对农作物构成有很大影响。与以前的研究相比，我们没有发现与饮食相比，受食物刺激的园丁种植的作物种类或比例更高。