by Derek Markham, TreeHugger, March 26, 2014
The plot thickens at Tokyo train stations, as passengers grow on the go with these rooftop garden allotments
Photo: Soradofarm
Source: www.treehugger.com
The plot thickens at Tokyo train stations, as passengers grow on the go with these rooftop garden allotments.
It’s one thing to start and tend a garden if you have plenty of space at home, as well as the time to care for it, and another thing entirely to do so if you spend a good chunk of your day commuting, and lack a place at home for even a tiny garden.
But an ingenious solution is cropping up in Japan, where the East Japan Railway Company has collaborated with a station entertainment company to create a series of rooftop gardens on train stations, where commuters can create their own tiny gardens and tend to them while they wait for their train to arrive.
The Soradofarm project, which currently has five locations, including at Tokyo’s JR Ebisu station, allows people to rent their own garden allotment measuring just 3 square meters (tools, water, and garden equipment, and even seeds are included) to try their hand at growing food, flowers, and more.
The price isn’t cheap, as some of the plots cost 100,440 JPY per year (~$960 USD), but considering that it may be the best option for many of the people who are interested in it, due to space issues, these urban rooftop garden allotments could be a viable way to get some green in their busy lives.
Aside from the possibility of growing even a tiny amount of fresh food for themselves, these innovative urban gardens may be an effective solution for decreasing stress and increasing the amount of time spent out in the fresh air and sunshine, especially in areas where outdoor space is at a premium, and having a place to call your own is hard to come by.
Although there are just five urban rooftop gardens installed at the train stations so far, according to Springwise, East Japan Railways plans to open up more of these garden allotments “on top of or near to each one of its stations” in the future.