In response with the COVID-19 situation, we have taken the Akasaka Intercity AIR’s “Wind & Green Share Garden” event series on to digital forums, and held our very first online workshop event.

The workshop theme also aligns with the stay-home theme and this time we decided to hold a workshop for “how to plant and grow vegetables from scratch” for balcony gardening beginners! We learned how to grow basil and salad mix leaves which are perfect for kitchen growing, starting from sowing the seeds.

Tools and materials such as seeds, planters, soil, etc. were delivered in a kit in advance to the participants’ homes, so no special preparation was required. Everybody joined the workshop from their homes and offices via Zoom broadcast and we set up our filming station at Green Wise’s studio with the greenhouse in the background.

Participants touched and worked with soil, which we hardly do in the city environment, and through this experience of planting herb seeds from scratch, and seeing the sprouts grow, we wanted to bring to their stay-home days the joy of enjoying the natural life!

Three weeks after the workshop, we had an online “unveiling” party to share the herbs that had grown. It was a place where participants could ask questions if they had any problems growing them and also a place where they could share ideas of how they used the herbs! We also gave them advices on how to continuously harvest them and how they can also challenge growing other vegetables in the planter.

Because of the online format, we were not bound by location, and many people who had never been to Akasaka Intercity AIR before participated in the event and participants joined from a variety of locations, such as from home with their children or from their desks at the office with their colleagues, bringing us different sort of connections from past workshops!

Organizer: Akasaka Intercity AIR
Operated by: Green Wise Co.

■Details of the workshop
https://www.greenwise.co.jp/topics/3762/