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Urban sustainable development requires the reduction of food vulnerability and the resolution of the social malaise revealed by violence in the suburbs. To do this, one must rethink the use of the periurban agricultural land, and look for inspiration from the experience of other regions of the world. Thus the large-scale urban gardening as practised in central and eastern Europe provides interesting references. In Russia, the collective management of gardens is also of interest as an example of one form of social management. They provide places both for relaxation in the country and for food production, attractive for all categories of the population. By their therapeutic effect, socially compensatory and stabilizing, they are shock absorbers for the social, economic and alimentary crises.