Share House with Urban Garden Opens in Central Tokyo

Slowlife, Tokyo-based real estate company, opened in May 2011 a share house called Motoazabu Farm in Motoazabu, a town in central Tokyo with many luxury homes. The property has three components: a 40-plot urban garden for rent, a 50 square meter community lounge, and a share house with 17 units that come with garden plots. These three spaces were designed to create connections between people and nature and to offer opportunities for exchange among local people and between local and non-local people.

The 40-plot urban garden contains three types of plots. The first type is a rental garden, where tenants can freely grow as many vegetables and herbs as they like. Based on the theme, "Easy and simple gardening, even for beginners," it has a well-established beginner support system. Experienced farmers give direct training to beginners on such tasks as watering and weeding, and an e-mail newsletter provides important gardening tips.

The second type is a vegetable gardening school, where tenants grow and harvest vegetables with professional farmers while learning from their expertise. This part includes a program for people who have no experience growing vegetables, and a program to teach kids how to garden. It also includes plots exclusively used by tenants of Motoazabu Farm.

Motoazabu Farm also offers such learning opportunities as cooking classes using vegetables grown in the garden, lectures by farmers from rural areas, and a class by guest lecturers on how to grow 100-percent organic vegetables.

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Posted: 2011/09/02 06:00:15 AM