A first step to growing your own
A small attempt at self-sufficiency
Growing your own food, even a little, sparks a move toward self-sufficiency, autonomy and rethinking how we live. It is the most accessible practice — one that can start from a single planter.
229 related cases
Cases where this shows up
Ifeoluwa Adedayo Hydroponic Rooftop Farm, Lagos
NGLagos (Surulere), ナイジェリア
27-year-old graduate in Lagos (Surulere) built hydroponic rooftop farm using recycled plastic bottles, pipes, and small solar pump. Response to food inflation and supply disruptions in Nigeria. Grows lettuce, spinach, and basil.
guardian.ng
Prinzessinnengärten
DEBerlin, Germany
A mobile community garden reviving a vacant lot in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Its DIY container growing and composting made it a flagship example of reusing idle urban land through citizen participation.
prinzessinnengarten.net+2
Oota From Your Thota / Garden City Farmers
INBengaluru, India
A Bengaluru organic terrace-gardening movement begun in 2011 that runs recurring events to spread rooftop food growing among urban dwellers. It brings seeds, saplings, compost, tools and know-how together in one place with demonstrations and consultations.
gardencityfarmers.org+2
RPTRA Kalijodo Urban Farming Garden
IDJakarta, Indonesia
Built on the regenerated former red-light district of Kalijodo, this Child-Friendly Integrated Public Space (RPTRA) hosts an urban-farming garden where children learn cultivation and conservation, serving as a space for resident food security and land-use education. Other RPTRA such as Taman Anggrek run similar urban farming.
barat.jakarta.go.id+1
Podil Urban Farm (Kyiv)
UAKyiv (Podil), Ukraine
A community garden that opened in spring 2025 in Kyiv's historic Podil district — the first of its kind in the city centre — in the middle of wartime. Residents and volunteers cleared a plot that had sat walled off since a building was demolished there in 1985, and turned it into a garden with raised beds, rainwater collection, compost bins and a tool shed. It was formally opened in May 2025.
colville-andersen.com+1
Chayamadai Danchi 'Hibikiau Danchi Life' (DIY, lemon cultivation, community gardening)
JPSakai, Osaka, Japan
At the public-corporation rental complex Chayamadai Danchi in Senboku New Town, Sakai, Osaka, the Osaka Prefectural Housing Supply Corporation runs the 'Hibikiau Danchi Life' regeneration project. In an aging complex with rising vacancies, it revives residents' lives and community through a DIY workshop, library, deli, mobile vegetable sales and lemon cultivation in vacant spaces.
danchi-renovation.com+2
Supporting research
A simplified non-greenhouse hydroponic system for small-scale soilless urban vegetable farming
A methods paper presenting a simplified, non-greenhouse hydroponic system built from low-cost, readily available materials using the Kratky method, with detailed step-by-step instructions. Requiring no specialised equipment or power, it offers a reproducible, self-buildable approach to soilless vegetable growing in confined urban spaces, supporting DIY and maker-style citizen food production.
Gumisiriza M.S., Ndakidemi P.A., Mbega E.R. · 2022 · MethodsX, 9:101882
Trend Analysis of Grow-Your-Own Using Social Network Analysis: Focusing on Hashtags on Instagram
A study analyzed the trends and network structure of 'grow-your-own (GYO)' activities by collecting 6,388 Instagram posts containing '#gyo' and '#growyourown' hashtags from June 13, 2020, to April 13, 2021, using social network analysis. The results showed that users expressed preference and interest in GYO through various word combinations, positive emotions and pride through gardening-related hashtags, and participated in urban gardening, indicating trends towards self-sufficiency and sustainable living.
Yumin Park, Yong-Wook Shin · 2021 · Journal of people, plants, and environment
Resilience with Mixed Agricultural and Urban Land Uses in Tokyo, Japan
Using GIS grid-cell analysis, the study quantified vegetable-weight and key-nutrient self-sufficiency for each land-use pattern in Tokyo, showing how mixed agricultural and urban land uses contribute to resilience. Tokyo's fruit-and-vegetable self-sufficiency was estimated at 4.27% currently with a potential of 11.73%.
Sioen G.B., Terada T., Sekiyama M. et al. · 2018 · Sustainability 10(2):435
El "Manifiesto Verde" de Leberecht Migge
A Spanish-language study of Migge's 1919 'Green Manifesto', examining his utopian call for self-sufficiency and self-governance through small, interconnected rural-urban groups he termed Stadtland or Landstadt.
de Cárdenas Maestre I. · 2009 · Cuaderno de Notas, no. 12, 119-134