by KATHERINE WEI, The China Post, March 10, 2014
Vickie C. Yang, Mica Hsiao and Wan Lin Chen on the roof of the university’s Sociology Department
Photo: Daniel Garcia
Source: www.elviajero.elpais.com
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Around 60 ping of lush green covers the rooftop of National Taiwan University’s Sociology Department building, with strawberries predominant among the many rows. The notion of growing your own food in the concrete jungles of the city has long been a fantasy of urban dwellers, many of whom have sworn to devote themselves to a healthier, organic way of living.
Whimsical fantasies, it seemed, as concrete rooftops were less than ideal for growing, as the material absorbs and radiates excess heat in a way unhelpful to gardening. But a group of college students are now proud veterans of the gardening struggle between urban farmer and the limited environment.
The garden sprung from the course “Innovation and Design of Socio-economic Organizations,” in which a group of eight students decided that they were fed up with the money-driven flow that escalated housing prices outrageously in Taiwan, especially in the Wenlin Yuan case. When the Wang family accused the government of confiscating its land unlawfully, the students thought: aside from providing shelter, what else can “home” represent to people?
The idea was to find ways to make people start caring for their homes before it was too late and to draw people from their homes to actually dedicate themselves to bettering the idea of “home.” What could be a better idea than to adopt some neglected rooftop and turn in into the fruit of your love and labors?
Smooth sailing it was not. After finally receiving approval from the department to use its roof for the project, the students tried to plant seasonal vegetables by reading farming manuals and books, but the heat that radiated from the concrete surfaces seemed to shrink whatever sprouts dared to show signs of thriving. After much puzzling over the garden, the students began perfecting the farming methods through experience and experimenting.
Just when everyone was feeling washed-out and almost ready to declare defeat, the okra blossomed. “I remember this clearly. Both my teammates and the veggies seemed to have reached the bottleneck when things started to go uphill. We saw the okra flowers and the tiny stub of the okra itself,” said Mica Hsiao, one of the student farmers.
As the vegetables grew to be a successful garden, the crops thawed the skeptical distance kept by professors and fellow students, and many were soon clamoring to join in the planting. Soon, the students — who have now formed the Jiajiajiu (傢傢久) Team — decided to challenge themselves to a plan launched by the Ministry of Education (MOE) targeted at college students. After some changes, Hsiao and assistant professor Vickie Yang delved into a plan to prove that the rooftop garden would continue to yield promising crops.
“It was discouraging when some of the MOE judges saw us as children and did not take us seriously. They actually thought the garden would fall to pieces after we finished the project,” Yang recalled. But from the ever-developing skills of a team of green thumbs, over 30 types of greens were harvested from the rooftop, which became a “tourist site” for many of the department’s professors and their visitors. Lettuce, tomato, sweet potato, onion, parsley, eggplant and a slew of herbs including rosemary, thyme and verbena soon grabbed the attention of the judges, who awarded the team with “The Most Creative Execution Award.”
The recognition from the MOE was the cherry on top, as the team was also able to start promoting the garden through the community service courses that are mandatory for NTU students. “We just started the courses this semester. They’re fairly new but we hope it will be continued in the future,” said Hsiao.
Jiajiajiu has developed another branch to bring their ideals into the communities. Starting with the neighboring Jin-an Community, which had its own rooftop garden to begin with, the team launched a series of simple farming lessons for the residents at affordable prices; the new project was successful as it would be entering its fourth session and more people are signing up. “We had around 20 people in the first couple sessions, but now there are roughly 30,” said Yang.
What was originally a school project grew, surprising many and continues to bring satisfaction to both teammates and their new acquaintances. Soon, Hsiao, Yang and their friends will be bringing the concept into collaboration with community service groups and are planning to distribute the harvested crops to elderly residents in each community.
“Being a sociology student, I understood that the related subjects were vague and it was hard to connect with society through what I learned in class. But through our endeavors and the rooftop garden project, I learned to communicate with people in simple but efficient ways,” said Hsiao, who added that she had grown a lot after launching her project.
“In many ways, we have become more like a family, and the department was affected as well,” concluded Yang.