Rethinking green space: How urban gardens are redefining public areas

“Some students have never touched soil. When they loosen the earth and plant vegetables, their faces light up and they ask, ‘When can we plant again?’” says Thanonchai Mongkonsupa, supervisor of the agriculture club at Poonsin School.

Many of his students are growing up in high-rises and cramped rental rooms, where space is measured in square metres and balconies double as storage.

For them, soil exists mostly in textbooks and vegetables come in plastic bags, not from seeds they have sown.

At Poonsin School, that is changing. What began as a routine class has grown into a 30-member, multi-grade club managing a 1,500-square-metre plot beside the campus, secured from the Expressway Authority of Thailand.

Students at Poonsin School tend their edible garden

Beneath the expressway, where sunlight is limited, students experiment with crops that can survive on just a few hours of light.

Some harvests go into school breakfasts, some are sold on Friday mornings, and some are taken home.

The club runs like a small enterprise. Teams handle public relations, accounting and production. Students water, compost and manage sales, learning not only how food grows but how systems function.

The garden is at once a classroom, marketplace and recycling station.

Poonsin’s project is part of a broader urban agriculture initiative, “Healthy Spaces Development through Urban Agriculture.”

Led by the Urban Design and Development Center – Center of Excellence on Urban Strategies (UddC-CEUS), with support from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the initiative aligns with Bangkok’s 2023–2027 food policy, the goal of which is to turn food security from policy language into practical, community-level action.

Assoc Prof Niramon Serisakul, director of UddC-CEUS, points out that Thailand has long treated agriculture and urban development as separate spheres.

The result is visible across the capital: underused plots scattered throughout the city, while many low-income residents spend more than half their income on food.

The underused plot, approximately 1,500 sqm, next to the school has been transformed into the edible garden.

Urban agriculture, she said, is a strategy to reshape the city. “Green space should be more than decorative ‘lungs’.”

These areas can serve as productive infrastructure; edible, interactive and educational, strengthening long-term health resilience.

The initiative pursues five goals: safer food, equitable access, shorter food miles, crisis-ready food security, healthier urban environments and stronger community ties in a city often marked by isolation.

Over the past three years, the project has piloted three models: 15-minute neighborhood gardens in public and semi-public spaces, including Bang Na District Office and Benjakitti Park; projects on private property, such as the rooftop garden at Bhiraj Tower; and school-based programs under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Office of the Basic Education Commission, including Thainiyomsongkroa School.

Surveys show measurable results: participants have increased physical activity by 17%, vegetable consumption has risen by 22%, and 87% report improved food security along with lower household food expenses.

Scaling up, however, requires more than enthusiasm, says UddC-CEUS deputy director Adisak Guntamueanglee.

Four elements are essential: better integration of urban agriculture into planning and environmental policy; improved access to land through supportive legal and tax measures; sustained commitment from households to large organizations; and equitable access to soil, seeds, technology and time.

Land access remains complex. Public plots may be available but tightly regulated.

Private land allows quicker action but often lacks long-term commitment without a viable business model. Semi-public land can be tied up in lengthy transfer processes.

Students from participating schools bring freshly-harvested produce to sell at the press conference.

Assistant director Thanaporn Ovatvoravarunyou has proposed four policy steps: formally defining urban agriculture in law; creating spatial and tax incentives; building support systems such as seed funding and local advisory networks; and strengthening platforms that connect government, business and communities.

If implemented at scale, urban agriculture would no longer be a hobby but essential green infrastructure – an edible safety net for a city vulnerable to floods, pandemics and supply-chain shocks.

Niramon notes that Covid-19 and major floods have already exposed the fragility of a food system dependent on imports.

Against that backdrop, the modest plot beside Poonsin School is more than a garden.

What began as a simple edible garden has evolved into a hands-on model of urban resilience, linking food, education, waste reduction and entrepreneurship within a compact space.

In as little as three to 10 square metres, students press seeds into soil that sees only two hours of sun and learn patience, organize themselves into public relations, accounting and production teams and practice responsibility, and turn scraps into compost and see waste as a resource, reshaping how they eat, learn and live.

And when they harvest, whether for sale, for breakfast or for home, they gain something beyond kilograms or baht: a sense of ownership and self-reliance.

For children who had once never touched soil, planting opens up new possibilities. Even in the tightest urban spaces, life and resilience can take root.