Young Indonesians paint the town green

The group’s goals are to encourage a green city while saving money on grocery bills (AFP/File, Romeo Gacad)

Young Indonesians are breathing new life into their polluted concrete capital city with little more than buckets of soil and seeds.

By Presi Mandari (AFP)
By Agence France-Presse
Sept 30, 2011

Excerpt:

JAKARTA — Young Indonesians are breathing new life into their polluted concrete capital city with little more than buckets of soil and seeds.

A group of mostly young professionals, known as Gardening Indonesia, has joined the global urban farming movement, converting vacant patches of land between Jakarta’s skyscrapers into lush green vegetable gardens.

“There’s concrete, concrete, everywhere. But if we look hard enough, there is vacant land we can farm,” said Sigit Kusumawijaya, 30, watering freshly planted tomato seeds.

On a one-hectare (2.5-acre) lot between luxury homes in a north Jakarta suburb, Kusumawijaya and his fellow gardeners grow tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and chillies where an eyesore dumping ground once stood.

The group’s goals are to encourage a healthy population and a green city while saving money on grocery bills.

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