Always an avid amateur gardener, in 2015 the Shanghai Gardener took over a Skyfarm rooftop project in Shanghai, and began to focus on
sustainably growing organic vegetables. Together with a freshly assembled team of like-minded volunteers we discovered just how rewarding it can be to consume our own-grown produce.

With every season that passes, we continue to learn more about growing in an urban environment. Rooftop gardening in Shanghai definitely has it's own particular challenges: a punishing exposure to typhoons, sun, heat, and cold as well as an uncontrollable assortment of urban wildlife who love to feast on our delicious plants. Apartment gardening too has it's own limitations.

In 2019 we converted the Skyfarm to the No Dig method, which has been very successful for us.  We no longer have to spend a lot of time and effort digging and weeding, and this extra time freed up allows us to experiment with the range of plants we grow and also the way we grow them.

The information you will find in these pages is based on the Shanghai Gardener's own experiences both in managing a rooftop garden as well as from her own apartment balcony and indoor experiments. We continue to learn more and more with every season that passes. We hope you will find some useful information here on these pages.

If your experience of growing in Shanghai has been different, or you have some comments to add please reach out. We’d love to hear from you!

The Shanghai Gardener