"Where the Chinese go, they can find ways to grow some vegetables."
In the past, this sentence was always used to describe the Chinese people's "vegetable cultivation complex". Whether it is on the balcony or in the yard of a foreign villa, as long as they see the open space, the elders at home will want to grow something.
Data picture: Students of Guizhou Songtao Seventh Primary School experience planting potatoes at the labor practice base. Photo by Long Yuanbin
The vegetable growing in the current context is no longer exclusive to the elders, but has also become a craze among young people in the city. According to the "2022 Balcony Vegetable Planting Report" released by the e-commerce platform, the sales of various types of vegetable seeds soared year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, with the number of purchasers increasing by more than 100% for three consecutive years. Among them, Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou became the cities with the largest number of purchasers.
Growing vegetables on the balcony is regarded as a new 10 billion market. In addition to the vegetable growing economy, this "urban farmer" lifestyle is also bringing subtle and unnegligible changes to the city.
Children play in community garden. Photo provided by the interviewee
"The power of the land is too strong"
mentions that Wu Yue, who lives in Shanghai, has accumulated a lot of experience recently. She usually likes to stock up on goods, and she can "replenish if she lacks" all kinds of dried vegetables, fungi and fast food, and she has increased her energy during the epidemic.
However, when shopping is inconvenient, vegetables become the key protection targets at home. In order to "sustainable development", Wu Yue began to study growing vegetables. The first time was to plant celery under the remote command of grandma and mother. The celery leaves were used to make steamed vegetables, the celery stems were used to stir-fry, and the celery roots were planted in the pot.
Photo provided by the interviewee
Wu Yue was kidding, and he had never handled celery so carefully. Watering and basking in the sun, in more than a week, the celery roots sprouted again. Seeing the little vegetable sprouts growing slowly, Wu Yue couldn't help but sigh, "The power of the land is too powerful."
Balcony celery sprouted. Photo provided by the respondents
On the social platform, there are many novices like Wu Yue who are rushing to reveal their planting process and exchange their experience in growing vegetables. Vegetable growers share their experiences with novices - what kind of vegetables are the easiest to succeed in growing, how to match soil, how to apply fertilizer, etc.
The sudden outbreak of the epidemic has slowed down the busy life in the city and has also allowed many people to regain this self-sufficient primitive lifestyle.
In early 2020, illustrator echo from Shenzhen was still obsessed with growing various beautiful flowers, believing that "growing vegetables should be grown by elders." Later, she was quarantined at home for more than two months due to the epidemic and her life was boring. She accidentally inserted a piece of sweet potato into the soil and found that it sprouted quickly. She planted garlic, onion and spinach roots, and found that compared to planting flowers, planting vegetables is "fast and edible". Vegetables grown by
echo. Photo provided by the interviewee
and moved to a new home. She made a plan to grow fruits and vegetables on the balcony in advance. From the watering gun to the floor drain, to the fill lights and double-sided green plant walls, she and her husband have been planning for a long time. The 5.9 square meter north balcony of the house has been fully utilized, and now eggplant, small tomatoes, lemons, pineapple, leeks, shallots, peppers, mints, etc. have been produced.
"Growing vegetables on the balcony will definitely not be able to do without buying vegetables, but that sense of security is really not enough to buy with money," said echo. In mid-to-late March this year, Shenzhen stopped all non-essential mobile activities. Seeing that many vegetables in the supermarket were sold out, she was not worried at all, "Because I planted a lot of plants and had a lot of vegetables at home, just the kind of 'there is food at home, I don't panic'."
echo's balcony. Photo provided by the interviewee
"Peach Blossom Land" on the balcony
seeds can sprout in one or two days, and can be served on the dining table in about two months. Some people joked that the sense of accomplishment of growing vegetables is planting flowers and raising children.
In addition to the practical value of the vegetables themselves, the soothing effect of growing vegetables on people is also being increasingly valued. Some people call it "a good medicine to save lives." Han Yijun, director of the National Agricultural Market Research Center of China Agricultural University, once explained that urban agriculture and balcony agriculture are extremely important ways to relieve anxiety among urban people. Growing vegetables on the balcony plays an irreplaceable role in horticulture therapy to some extent.
echo small tomatoes.Photo provided by the interviewee
echo regards growing vegetables as a way to relieve stress, and the small balcony is her "peach blossom land".
"Last year, I was under a lot of work pressure. I had to stay up late to work overtime to draw pictures. Generally, at this time, I would eat some sweets, just like others shopping and drinking, and I could get a moment of soothing. I like to drink milk tea, but I gained more than ten pounds during that time."
Later, she became obsessed with growing fruits and vegetables. She was busy studying how to artificial pollinate and how to raise each variety in her spare time. She waded a lot of "thunder" in the middle, but she didn't think the process was troublesome, but she enjoyed it. fruits and vegetables grown in
echo. Photo provided by the interviewee
Looking back, echo has not drunk milk tea for a long time. Now she feels that "picking some lemon and mint soaking in water is more comfortable than drinking milk tea." She said that since growing fruits and vegetables, no matter what happens to her at work, she will sit on the balcony in a daze as soon as she gets home, looking at this one sprouts and how many leaves have grown. Just sitting there quietly and watching them is very healing.
"I just accompany them to grow together, fertilize them, add light, water and prune them properly, and they will give back to me in a very good state. No one competes with you in the entire planting process. These plants belong to you, and the troubles in the world have nothing to do with you." She sighed.
echo birds. Photo provided by the interviewee
During the epidemic in Shenzhen, many netizens were taken "into the pit" by her. A doctor on the front line of the fight against the epidemic told her that she had a lot of work pressure every day and the most stress-free thing was to read her posts. Many netizens are following up in the comment section, and they are more concerned about how to eat the grown eggplant than echo.
In fact, the first person echo brought her "into the trap" was her husband. echo said that he wrote code. In the past, he always thought that life was about going to work, getting off work, playing games and watching dramas when he went home. Now he likes to stay on the balcony to watch green plants, and he also designed a set of water circulation system , which is shared by green plants walls and fish tanks.
echo balcony water circulation system. Photo provided by the interviewee
"One morning, the sun rose slightly, he held his chin and smelled the fragrance of flowers, and suddenly a sentence came out, 'No wonder Thanos tried his best to live a pastoral life'."
echo said that many people put their "pastoral dreams" until after retirement, but it is not too late to start now. "Some people think that only those who are rich and free have time to plant, but it is not. It only takes more than ten minutes to water the flowers every day. I will save the money to buy milk tea to buy a pot of plants. It is not as difficult as everyone imagines. Planting plants is a very enjoyable process."
echo on the balcony. Photo provided by the interviewee
Rethink the relationship between man and nature
Balcony vegetable growing boom has not only emerged recently. In 2008, the UK launched a "grow your own vegetables" campaign to help urbanites without any farming experience learn how to turn a balcony into a high-yield vegetable garden.
Japanese vegetable growing expert Tomota Fujita specially wrote this book " Growing Vegetables on the Balcony ", and once brought a large number of "balcony vegetable growing peers".
In 2020, Europe also launched a "balcony vegetable growing wave". Royal Horticultural Society Director-General Sue Biggs believes that gardening and returning to nature are of great benefit to people's health, especially mental health.
Liu Yuelai, associate professor of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University and co-founder of Shanghai Four-Leaf Grape Cottage, also agreed. In early 2020, he and his team launched a SEEDING campaign, advocating neighborhood watch and mutual assistance, cultivating and sharing seeds and green plants through contactless methods, in order to rethink nature, think about life, and rebuild trust between people damaged during the epidemic.
Liu Yuelai shared that there was a "super actor" in the event - retired aunt Zhang Yongmei. She built her own courtyard into a sharing garden, which also led to a better and better environment in the community. During the recent epidemic in Shanghai, she has not forgotten to share green plants. During the nucleic acid test, she hung the sterilized seeds or seedlings at the door, and the passing group members could pick them up. In the atmosphere of the epidemic, her small courtyard became a different scenery.
Liu Yuelai has been engaged in community garden-related work for a long time, studying the productivity of urban land and people's independent productivity. In layman's terms, it means mobilizing and organizing community residents to grow things together, using the edges of the community, without spending money, or spending a little money to improve the environment.
Community Garden. Photo provided by the interviewee
Unlike traditional green landscapes dominated by government departments or professionals, community gardens are designed to allow urban residents to participate in planting. Therefore, some scholars believe that community gardens seem to create a garden, but in fact, they are creating a public space of society. Today, when urban space is gradually fragmented and atomized, the relationship between social networks and humans and nature has become closer.
"From the perspective of the development of modern society, the social division of labor is becoming more and more refined, and people's daily lives are often crushed in a systematic manner." Liu Yuelai said that now some young people in many countries have begun to try to reduce their dependence on material things, enter a low consumption state, and find a voice in production, such as keeping seeds, compost, growing things, etc.
In his opinion, this is a very influential practice and a very iconic reflection trend, which also echoes their community garden and the participatory community planning actions triggered by it.
"We are also exploring future cities and future communities. So can the contrast between our future home and nature not be so large, can we be more inclusive and truly form a resilient community of life? Lujiazui is not necessarily a skyscraper."
Liu Yuelai believes that returning to daily life and making it more proactive - in fact, growing vegetables on the balcony and community garden are doing such experiments, and we are also part of this experiment. (At the request of the interviewees, some people are named pseudonyms) (Reporter Yuan Xiuyue)
Source: China News Network
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