Urban Farming for Food

Huang Jing Pak Choy （皇京白菜）is extremely tasty when cooking with steamboat or any soup dish. It is famous among the Chinese families in Asia and can be stir fried with chopped garlic and olive oil too.  It grows well in tropical weather with lots of sunlight. Materials you need · At least a space of approximately 1m by 1m for about 30 to 40 seedlings at a garden plot, balcony area or roof top garden. · This illustration is designed and documented using a green house garden lot as well as a HDB balcony plot with 2 square fiberglass containers of 0.8 x 0.8 m. Each container can plant 16 plants. · I used seeds from farm 85 at Lim Chu Kang for this illustration but other brands like Known-you （农友）， Green world work well too. Fig. 1 The seeds   Step 1: Use a small gardening pot to seed the vegetable, seed about 50 seeds (about 20cm diameter pot for up to 60 seeds). Leave the pot at a sunny spot (~ 28 to 32 degree C). The seeds take about 3 to 5 days to germinate. As

Edamame is most commonly found in Japanese restaurants. It is either boiled in water with a little salt or steamed. It is typically served either cold or chilled. It can however be served hot too. Edamame is widely regarded as a healthy snack with a nutritional punch. It is rich in protien, dietary fiber as well as fatty acid. Below are the steps needed to plant Edamame. Materials you need At least 25cm by 25cm per plant either on ground, or in planting pot of at least 25cm diameter at HDB balcony This illustration is designed and documented using a green house plot as well as pot along HDB balcony. I grow seedlings from seeds from previous harvest but you can buy the pre-packaged seeds too. It is typically labelled as soy beans.  Step 1: plant the seeds in a pot. Refer to here if you need help to prepare the pot/soil. Space them out about 3 to 5cm apart or follow the instructions on the packaging.   Fig. 1 The seeds unpod from the pods(left), dig holes about

Special Pak Choy （艿白菜）makes a very tasty stir fried vegetable dish, famous among the chinese families in Asia. It is best stir fried with chopped garlic and olive oil. It is crunchy and sweet to the taste as well as rich in vitamin C.  It grows well in tropical weather with lots of sunshine. Materials you need · At least a space of approximately 1m by 1m for about 40 to 50 seedlings at a garden plot, balcony area or roof top garden. · This illustration is designed and documented using a green house garden lot. · I used seeds from farm 85 at Lim Chu Kang but you may want to experiment with other brands too. Fig. 1 The seeds Step 1: Use a small gardening pot to seed the vegetable (about 20cm diameter pot for up to 60 seeds). Leave the pot at a sunny spot ( ~ 28 to 32 degree). The seeds take about 3 to 5 days to germinate. Assuming a germination rate of 80%, you will have at least 40 seedlings with 50 seeds. It will take about 10 to 14 days to grow into seedli

  Chinese Cabbages （大白菜）are typically grown in cooler climate/temperate countries ( 20 to 25 degree C). However, if you have a balcony that is not too sunny and you do not mind a tasty but 'non wrapped-up' version, I have succeed in growing it in tropical weather. ( ~ 25 to 30 degree C). Instead of having a fully wrapped up chinese cabbages in 7 to 9 weeks, you will be able to harvest the leaves in about 5 to 6 weeks time. Harvest can continue for about 2 to 3 months. Sound interesting? Read on to find out how. Materials you need ·   At least a space of approximately 2m by 1m at a balcony. Both open garden and roof top garden will be too hot for it to grow. You can try shading it but it will not work if you have no direct sunlight at all too. ·   This illustration is designed and documented using a HDB balcony space. ·   I used seeds from KNOWN-YOU (农友) but you may want to experiment with other brands too. Fig. 1 The seeds Step 1: Used a small gardenin

The Chinese long bean (also known as yardlong bean) belongs to the Legumes family. It is widely eaten in Asia as sambal stir fried vegetable dish that goes with steamed rice. It is not only tasty and protein-rich but also a great 'farmers help' in the area of nitrogen soil enrichment. Legumes plants host nitrogen fixing properties and help to improve soil fertility. I typically rotate my plot between Asian leafy vegetables which is nitrate hungry and beans which can aid in enriching the nitrogen depleted soil. Below are the steps needed to plant long beans. Materials you need At least a space of 1.5 m by 0.5m with full sunlight. You will need a garden plot. The following illustration is developed using a green house plot. Beans are twining plants. You need to provide support for them to twine on. I arranged bamboo poles (at least 5mm diameter) in vertical and horizontal rows forming a vertical fence with small squares. You can use netting with small squares