Weekend farming is turning into quite the experience for growing numbers of Hong Kong people seeking an escape from the concrete towers they inhabit in one of the most-congested urban areas.
They rent plots from non-governmental organizations, although some admit bending the rules by planting on fringe areas they don't pay for. Nobody seems to care too much, though, and many of the farm enthusiasts say it's opened up whole new worlds.
Albert Leung said it's a good thing that he makes his living selling stocks and not growing vegetables - his rate of success on the farm would have wiped him out in the market.
"It's very hard to be a farmer. Sometimes, it can be very frustrating," said the broker, admitting his organic farming efforts over the past three years have yielded just one-tenth of the carrots, cabbages and papayas he'd been hoping for.
"My papaya tree collapsed during a rainstorm one summer, and everything died in the frost one winter," the 56-year-old Leung said. "It's all about experience."
Factory technician Ng Po-wa figured farming would inspire his daughter, 7-year-old Ng Man-ki, to treasure wholesome vegetables and spend less time watching television.
The father was right, but it wasn't a smooth transition, reported The Associated Press.
The girl once cried for an hour after being ordered to pick weeds out of an ant-infested piece of land.
Farming probably would never occur to most of Hong Kong's 6.9 million people, living amid the skyscrapers and heavy pollution of the humming financial center.
But with the help of several non-governmental organizations that promote the organic farming, which prohibits the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, hundreds now escape the urban hullabaloo once a week to tend their plots in tranquil villages that dot outlying areas of Hong Kong.
The gloves and boots may feel unnatural to the Hong Kong urbanites, but they're necessary as they get down to work on farms .
Stockbroker Leung has a 9-square-meter plot rented from the Produce Green Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides staffers to tend the plants on weekdays when he's busy dealing shares.
Some get so involved that they move into the countryside.
"We feel very comfortable with all the greenery around," said Fanny Yu, a telecommunications clerk who farmed in the countryside for two years before she and her husband decided to leave the crowded city.
(eastday.com January 24, 2002)
