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RooftopActive

pick! nic! farm, rooftop of Suma Patio shopping centre, Kobe

Kobe (須磨区), Japan · Operator: pick! nic! farm事務局

Overview

A multi-generational community garden on the rooftop of the Suma Patio shopping centre in Suma Ward, Kobe. Rather than simply growing vegetables, it treats "eating" as a year-round, whole-cycle experience, with regular hands-on workshops. Weeds and plant residues from the rooftop beds and workshops are composted and returned to the garden's planters and to nearby fields, closing a small local resource loop.

Citizen participation

Run as a multi-generational community garden where anyone — children and adults alike — can drop in while shopping or on a lunch break. Regular activity days are the 2nd and 4th Saturday, 13:00–15:00. Workshops and courses run through the whole cycle from soil preparation and sowing to harvest and cooking. The farm also hosts composting workshops for the Kobe Compost Project.

Operating model

Operated by its own secretariat on underused private space — the rooftop of a shopping centre. The source does not describe its finances or funding.

Impact

By placing a shared "place to belong" on a busy shopping-centre roof, it gives shoppers with no prior link to farming an entry point to growing. The source gives no participation figures.

Land tenure

Unknown

Crops

  • vegetables

Scale

神戸市須磨区中落合2丁目2-1、商業施設「須磨パティオ」1番館の屋上。面積は出典に記載がないため未記入。

Sources(2)

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pick! nic! farm, rooftop of Suma Patio shopping centre, Kobe — Urban Farm DB