It is no longer the exclusive preserve of elders, but it is also a trend among urban youth. According to the 2022 balconies report published by the electrician platform, the sales of vegetable seeds rose sharply in the first quarter of this year, with the number of purchasers increasing by more than 100 per cent for three consecutive years, with beijing, shanghai and hangzhou becoming the cities with the largest number of seed buyers。
The balcony is considered a new billion-dollar market. Beyond the vegetable-growing economy, this “urban farmer's” way of life is also bringing subtle and indescribable changes to cities。
Kids play in community gardens. Interviewee for map
"the land is too powerful."
When it comes to growing vegetables, wu huo, who lives in shanghai, has recently gained a lot of experience. She usually likes hoarding, “refilling” all kinds of dried vegetables, fungus and fast-food items, and during the epidemic she adds up。
However, when shopping is difficult, vegetables become a priority for the family. In order to “sustainable development”, u hsui started researching vegetables. The first was the planting of celery under the remote command of grandma and mom, the use of celery leaves to make steam, the use of celery in the fire, and the planting of celery roots。
Interviewee for map
Wu is kidding. Never handled celery so carefully. Watering and tanning, for more than a week, the celery roots have sprouts. As the sprouts grow, wu can't help but lament that “the land is too powerful”。
The balcony celery sprouts. Interviewee for map
On the social platform, there are not a few starters like oh hao, who compete to tan their own planting processes and to share their groceries. And the old growers share their experiences with the newers — what is the easiest to grow, how to make the soil, how to fertilize, etc。
The sudden onset of the epidemic slows down busy urban life and brings many people back to this primitive self-sufficient lifestyle。
Early in 2020, echo, an illustrator from shenzhen, was also obsessed with the cultivation of beautiful flowers, arguing that “the vegetables should be grown by elders”. Later, after more than two months in isolation from her home and with a boring life, she accidentally stuck a piece of potatoes in the soil and found that it quickly sprouted. She planted garlic, onions and spinach roots and found that she grew flowers, which were “quick and capable of eating”。
Echo type. Interviewee for map
She then moved to her new home, where she had planned to grow vegetables and vegetables in advance. From the watering gun to the leak, to the lighting light and the greening of the wall on both sides, she had a long plan with her husband. The family's 5. 9-metre north balcony was fully utilized and now produces eggplants, tomatoes, lemons, pineapple, pickles, onions, peppers, mints, etc。
“the balcony can't grow food to the extent that it doesn't have to buy, but that sense of security really can't buy it with money.” says echo. In mid-march this year, shenzhen ceased all unnecessary movement. She's not worried about watching the supermarket sell out a lot of food, "because i grow lots of plants, and there's lots of vegetables in the house, and that's the kind of "food in the house, no panic."
Echo's balcony. Interviewee for map
Peach flowers on the balcony
Seeds can sprout in a quick day or two, and in about two months they can reach the table, and there's a show, and there's a sense of success in growing vegetables > and growing flowers > 。
In addition to the practical value of the vegetables themselves, there is a growing emphasis on their comforting effects, which are described as “a cure for life”. The director of the national agricultural market research centre of the chinese university of agriculture, han iljun, explained that urban agriculture and balcony agriculture were extremely important ways of alleviating urban anxiety and that horticultural therapy played an irreplaceable role to some extent。
Echo-species little tomatoes. Interviewee for map
Echo sees the planting of vegetables as a way of reducing her own pressure, and the small balcony is her “poaches”。
“i've been working very hard last year, and i've been working late. Usually at this point, i eat sweets, like people go shopping and drink, and i get a little relief. I loved the milk tea, and it was over a dozen pounds."
Then she became obsessed with vegetables and vegetables, and spent her leisure time studying how to pollinate, how to raise each species, and how many “thunders” went in the middle, but she did not find the process cumbersome and enjoyed it。
Echo seeds. Interviewee for map
In retrospect, echo hasn't had milk tea for a long time, and now she feels that it's more comfortable to pick some lemon and mint water than to drink milk tea. She said that she had been sitting on the balcony as soon as she had come home and looked at how many leaves had grown, and it was curable to just sit there and watch them quietly, no matter what happened to her。
“i am merely accompanying them to grow up, to fertilize them, to make light, to water them, to trim them, and to give them back to me in a very good state. No one competes with you throughout the planting process. These plants belong to you, and the world has nothing to do with you。
A bird raised by echo. Interviewee for map
During the shenzhen outbreak, echo shared the planting process online, and many of her netizens were taken “to the pit”. She was told by a doctor on the front line of the epidemic that working every day was very stressful and that the most depressive thing was to read her post. A lot of netizens are chasing in the comment section, more concerned than echo about how to eat the eggplant。
Indeed, the first person echo took with him was her husband. Echo said he was a code writer and used to think that life was just work, work, play games, watch plays. Now he likes to stay on the balcony and watch green trees, and has designed himself a water cycle system shared between the green wall and the fish tank。
The water cycling system of the echo balcony. Interviewee for map
“one morning, the sun rose slightly, and he smelled the flowers with his chin on him, and suddenly came up with the phrase, “no wonder he had to live in a field.”
According to echho, many people put “dreams” after retirement, but it is not too late. “some people think that rich and idle people are free to grow, but they are not. Spending 10 minutes a day is enough, and i'll save the money for milk tea to buy a pot of plants, which is not as difficult as you would have thought
Echo on the balcony. Interviewee for map
Rethinking the relationship between man and nature
The rise of the balcony is not recent. In 2008, the united kingdom launched a campaign to “plant its own vegetables” to help urban people with no agricultural experience learn how to turn balconyes into productive gardens。
In japan, a book entitled " growing a dish on the balcony " was written by zhito fujida, a japanese vegetable。
In 2020, europe also launched a “cropping on the balcony”. The director-general of the royal home art institute, su biggs, believes that horticulture and the return to nature are of great benefit to people's health, especially mental health。
Liu hao, associate professor at the school of architecture and urban planning of the university of tzuji, and co-founder of the shanghai four-leaf grass room, agreed. At the beginning of 2020, he and his team launched a sedding initiative to promote neighbourhood watch-and-watching, seed and green-planting for mutual development and sharing in a non-contact manner, as a means of rethinking nature, thinking about life and rebuilding trust between people who have suffered from the epidemic。
Community garden. Interviewee for map
Liu hao shared it with one of the “super-actors” — the retired aunt zhang yong-mei — who made her home home home into a shared garden and led to a better environment. During the recent shanghai outbreak, she was also mindful of sharing green seeds. In the gap between nucleic acid tests, she hangs disinfected seeds or seedlings at the door, which are available to passing friends. In the context of the epidemic, her small house became a different scenery。
Liu hao has long been engaged in community garden-related work, studying the productivity of urban land and the autonomy of people. In general terms, it is the mobilization and organization of community members to plant things, take advantage of the margins of the community, spend no money or spend a little money to improve the environment。
Community garden. Interviewee for map
Unlike the traditional green landscape, which is dominated by government departments or professions, community gardens are designed to involve urban dwellers in planting, and therefore some scholars believe that community gardens appear to be creating a garden and, indeed, a public space for society. Today, with the gradual fragmentation and atomization of urban space, the social network and the relationship between human beings and nature have become closer。
“in the context of the development of modern society, the social division of labour is becoming more sophisticated and people's daily lives are often systematically crushed.” liu hao has indicated that some young people in many countries are now trying to reduce their dependence on materials, enter low consumption, and find a voice in production, such as keeping their own seeds, composting, planting, etc。
Community garden. Interviewee for map
In his view, this was an influential practice, as well as a symbolic wave of reflection that echoed their community gardens and the participatory community planning initiatives that they triggered。
“we are now also looking at future cities, future communities, so can our future homeowners and natural contrasts not be so big, and can we be more inclusive and truly resilient? Lu's mouth may not be a skyscraper."
Liu hao has come to believe that he is returning to everyday life and making it more proactive — in fact, the balcony is growing vegetables and community gardens, and we are part of that experiment. (at the request of the interviewer, some of the names are aliases)
