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Full of beans

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Oblivious to the drilling from nearby garages and the constant hum of traffic, Kenvia Wong Kam-wah and his family are busily harvesting vegetables from a plot near Man Cheong Street in Tai Kok Tsui. It's part of a string of community gardens across the city that are catering to Hongkongers' yearning to get closer to nature and exercise their green thumbs.

'We love nature, but we are too busy to garden in a countryside plot. That's why we love it here; it's so close. It's part of our life now,' says Wong, who owns a marketing firm.

His home is just a 10-minute walk away, so he pops by to work on his patch as often as he can, sometimes up to five times a week.

Their previous experience was limited to potted plants, but Wong and his wife, Leung Tor-mui, have found it more rewarding to grow vegetables.

'In the case of potted plants, we just bought what we fancied and looked after them. But with vegetables, you can see them grow from seed and eat them later. It gives you a sense of accomplishment,' says Leung. 'They make wonderful gifts for relatives and friends, too.'

The community garden scheme, which uses temporarily vacant government land, began four years ago under a Leisure and Cultural Services Department drive to promote greater awareness of greening activities. For HK$400, gardeners can rent a 1.5-square metre patch for a maximum of four months and attend a basic gardening course covering topics such as hoeing, transplanting seedlings and applying compost. Participants are randomly drawn from the list of applicants.

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