Rooftop Gardening: For Free Time Fun and Fresh Food

By David J. Richter

Living in a big city comes with many advantages and perks. Great public transport, tons of different restaurants with cuisine from all over the world, professional sports teams, and universities are just some of the benefits that come with living in a city like Gwangju.

One thing that we have to sacrifice, at least to some extent, is private space, both inside and outside, when compared to living in the countryside. While we do have parks in the city and while it is not too hard to get out of the densely populated metropolis and into the countryside, having a home gardening experience while living here is not a given.

To make gardening as fun and relaxed as possible, having your gardening space within arms reach is ideal. But living in a one-room unit or an apartment does not give one a lot of space for gardening. I resorted to gardening on my balcony, when I had one, and now on the rooftop of my new one-room apartment building.

At first, it might feel a bit weird to walk up and down the stairs with watering cans and other gardening supplies, and yes, gardening on the roof is still limited in terms of space and also in terms of possible plants to grow, but it does work quite well if one commits to it.

Of course, asking the landlord should be the first step, but since the rooftop is usually not used by anyone, it shouldn’t be too hard to get them to agree. Getting supplies and seedlings is also really easy. Daiso does have a pretty decent selection of pots, soil, fertilizer, and tools, and so does Coupang, which makes it very cheap and simple to get started. There are also dedicated stores, which are a bit more costly. As for seedlings, markets often have stalls selling them, and again there are stores that offer seedlings too, and neither of them are expensive. For only a few thousand won, you can get a handful of seedlings that you can then simply repot to your rooftop garden, saving you a lot of time and hassle compared to growing them from seeds (which you could get at Daiso, for example).

Once you have the required supplies (watering can, pots, soil, plants), all you need to do is water the plants daily, and wait for them to grow before harvesting what you have planted. From personal experience, I can recommend chili peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce, as well as different herbs. They are easy to take care of and do not require very deep soil. Since they grow more or less neatly, without any vines or anything that the house owner might disapprove of, they are most suited as plants for rooftop gardening.

Cover Photo: This season’s rooftop mini-garden of tomatoes, lettuce, and chili peppers. (Kim Hyeonji)