As a vital element of urban green spaces, community gardens exemplify distinctive significance in augmenting community governance, refining ecological environments, and bolstering social cohesion. To address prevalent challenges such as limited resident participation and inadequate sustainability of community gardens in China, this study utilized CiteSpace software to systematically analyze literature from the Web of Science and CNKI databases, thereby identifying key research trends and insights in the field of community gardens. It also examined representative community gardens in New York, Singapore, Shanghai, and Shenzhen to identify practical experiences and encountered challenges. The results indicated that: (1) The definition of community gardens exhibited regional variations, yet maintained three fundamental characteristics - public space, public participation, and collaborative governance; (2) Research hotspots exhibited distinct spatiotemporal differentiation, with developed countries primarily concentrating on ecosystem services and public health promotion. In contrast, China prioritized urban renewal and community education; (3) Successful community gardens predominantly employed a multi-stakeholder collaborative governance model, “government - social organizations - residents”, and also established robust mechanisms for co-construction and shared benefits. Based on these findings, this study proposed optimization strategies for community gardens, from the perspectives of governance innovation, function optimization and standard improvement, resident capacity enhancement, sharing mechanism improvement, characteristic landscape creation, and post-maintenance management. These recommendations provided both theoretical support and practical guidance for the long-term governance and sustainable development of community gardens.