UC Santa Cruz

Ecological knowledge emerges from different ways of knowing in urbangardens. Recognizing and identifying ways of amplifying dialogue across epistemologies in agroecology research is essential to address interrelated and complex challenges in the food system and agriculture. In my dissertation, I think across epistemologies with different forms and expressions of ecological knowledge. First, I consider the type of ecological knowledge that emerges from the scientific study of insect communities. I measure environmental features at the local (garden-based) and landscape (land cover surrounding urban gardens) scales to describe how insect and spider abundance and richness are associated with Cucurbita pepo (Chapter 1). Second, I reflect on how I came to learn about ecological knowledge held by Latinx and Indigenous Latinx urban gardeners (Chapter 2). Third, I analyze survey data collected from gardeners to consider how knowledge of insects is associated with gardeners’ learning experience and background (Chapter 3). Urban gardens support a diversity of natural enemies, and habitat factors at the garden, and landscape scale differentially shape the abundance and richness of insect groups found on C. pepo plants. Gardening as practice creates opportunities for Latinx and Indigenous Latinx community members to recreate or continue expressing their ecological knowledge through food crops, and this practice nourishes a relationship with land. Lastly, gardening as practice develops knowledge of insect and spider functional roles among community gardeners through embodied and program-based learning experiences.