Table 3. Selected Quotes of Participants With Moderate to Very Marked Disability, Pilot Rooftop Garden Study, Barcelona, Spain, January–June 2018.

Quality of Life Dimension/Aspects	Quotes
Physical Well-being for Rooftop Gardeners
Increased energy	“X, who is a person who is in the phase of aging and we think perhaps has some mental illness that we are not very clear about yet, but that for example here [in the workshop] does not participate in any activity and sits on the couch and as she is a great help to the cafeteria and prepares coffee, but she stays on the sofa and at 3 in the afternoon she is already waiting at the door to leave. Well, on the day of the garden, she wants to participate. In fact, she has memory problems, and it is unclear for her whether she has done it the week before or not and tries to sneak in every week. And she does not want to do any other activity, none at all.” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
Overcoming own limitations	“It’s a way for me to be by myself. Find myself in a moment . . . to have the obligation to get up on a Friday, to know that I have to go to a community garden, I know that I will meet people, I know we are going to . . . I don’t know. . . . It makes a group more human and also to have an end goal that is a cultivated garden. That’s right, because it helps you to find yourself, with yourself.” [Gardener from the recent garden]
Interpersonal Relations and Social Inclusion for Rooftop Gardeners
New social relations and contacts	“[I like it] because you learn . . . to plant and meet other guys from other workshops.” [Gardener from the initial garden]
	“One day we went to have a drink [after the gardening activity with the gardeners from the other occupational center] and we were talking while having the drink. And I really liked it.” [Gardener from the recent garden]
	“There are many activities in which there are relationships, but this is one of the most, because for example there are tasks like in a chain: pick this up and give it to someone else who takes it.” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
	“X is a person who does not relate well with anyone. She really only talks with the 4 people that interest her. And, for example, she went to the garden and greeted Mr. Y, she hung out with Z, she hung out with M, she talked with N, with whoever was around her.” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
	“Opportunities to get together with so many other people and share and work . . . they don’t have that. And relate to the people in the building where they work . . . all that. I find that it is very good.” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
From aid recipients to providers of social benefits for others	“Last time I went, when we went to bring chard to the Food Bank . . being able to give them something you have cultivated, something that you have done, something that you have seen grow . . . and that people [from the Food Bank] take advantage of it and use it . . . you get excited, you feel good.” [Gardener from the recent garden]
	“In fact, it is one of the things that they like the most I believe, to give to others. And now that we are donating to the Food Bank, when we go there and tell them ‘those who have no food can eat thanks to what you all have brought,’ so . . . to me it is exciting, because they also feel satisfied. In fact they already ask, ‘When are we going to give food?’, ‘When are we going to distribute?’ So it’s something they value.” [Educator from the initial garden]
New perspectives on the city and surrounding environment	“I like the fact that is an activity we do outside” [Gardener from the initial garden]
	“It is something that gets them away from the normality of the center and the workshop, and they take public transport, which they do not usually do, then we go for breakfast, in the garden they know. Well yesterday, for example we were 4 occupational centers together doing the same thing. They hardly ever have this.” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
Emotional Well-being, Personal Development, and Having a Sense of Purpose in Life for Rooftop Gardeners
Spaces of individual discovery and freedom	When they leave the workshop you can see that they feel free because there [in the workshop] they are in an enclosed place and there are other activities and other ways of doing things. Here [in the garden] they have . . . their freedom. They are outdoors, doing activities that do not censure them at all.” [Rooftop technician]
Loss of fear and improved self-confidence and autonomy	“When there is no gardening activity, we could do some training. We could, for example, talk about when tomato plants have to be planted, what types of tomato plants exist…and things like this. Well, to learn a bit about the garden. I would also like to know about the moons, why depending when we plant the vegetables will grow more or less.” [Gardener from the recent garden]
	“Before, they were waiting for you to tell them to “look at this” and now some come and [say] ‘It is being watered or is not being watered,’ or ‘Is this what I can start?’ Before if you did not tell them ‘This is what you have to touch’ and now they already know ‘This is it’ and ‘Today we are going to look at the zucchini, right?’ or ‘Today we will be able to collect this, right?’” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
	“Logically, if I ask one of them [participant of the initial garden] and one of the others [participant of the recent garden] to plant chard, you notice that one does so with more fear. and the other is more relaxed, because they already have confidence and if something breaks you already know that nothing will happen because it is not important.” [Rooftop technician]
Improved emotional strength and problem resolution	“There are no tools. . . . Everything is manual. So everything is more creative, right? With more sensitivity. Having to pick, pull a chard out instead of cutting it with a knife, right? I was used to always cutting it with a knife and now it’s with the hand, ‘Klak.’ These are trivialities but I do not know. . . . It seems . . .” [Gardener from the recent garden]
	“They talk about this activity with their fellow workshop attendees and there are fellow workshop attendees who ask them what is this about the Garden of the District Office and what is this about planting in sacks. They have the ability to explain in their own way, with their words.” [Gardener from the initial garden]
Having a purpose in life	“Most, many, think of it as a responsibility, as something they want to take care of. Not so much ‘Without me this won’t survive,’ but ‘It is something I have taken responsibility of and that I am interested in and I want to be aware of it.’” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
	“X, who is a person who is in the phase of aging and we think perhaps has some mental illness that we are not very clear about yet, but that for example here [in the workshop] does not participate in any activity and sits on the couch and as she is a great help to the cafeteria and prepares coffee, but she stays on the sofa and at 3 in the afternoon she is already waiting at the door to leave. Well, on the day of the garden, she wants to participate. In fact, she has memory problems and it is unclear for her whether she has done it the week before or not and tries to sneak in every week. And she does not want to do any other activity, none at all.” [Educator from occupational center assigned to the initial garden]
	“It’s a way for me to be by myself. Find myself in a moment. . . . To have the obligation to get up on a Friday, to know that I have to go to a community garden, I know that I will meet people, I know we are going to . . . I don’t know. . . . It makes a group more human and also to have an end goal that is a cultivated garden. That’s right, because it helps you to find yourself, with yourself.” [Gardener from the recent garden]
	“There are people who are waiting for the whole week for Wednesday, so they can pick up their [transport] card and go there [to the garden] and spend some time in the garden and everything that that activity represents.” [Educator from the recent garden]