### id263560082 kitchen gardens are inversely correlated to population density > Cities were covered with backyard vegetable beds in which people planted cabbage, carrots, peas and other products they would eat. Historian Jerry Stannard dubbed such vegetable beds “kitchen gardens” and underlines that “the produce of the smallest, most crudely tilled plot was preferable to nothing at all,” in that they provided “free” food to their owners. Besides vegetables, artisans and workers also planted (grew) medicinal plants. > > the existence of kitchen gardens often depended on the population density of cities and on the demographic context. At times of demographic pressure, when cities were full, the spaces taken up by the gardens and vegetable patches of the poor were used for housing. The size and number of such gardens therefore decreased. But when the population declined, such as after the Black Death, unoccupied lots and abandoned houses were turned into vegetable beds to help sustain more modest households. Today still, depopulation in cities sometimes prompts the reconversion of available lands into gardens and parks. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fr20kkx6rnnvm4q10en43mjb) - [[Urban Agriculture in the Middle Ages by Lucie Laumonier#id263560082 kitchen gardens are inversely correlated to population density|View in Vault]]