Growing edibles during Circuit Breaker

This circuit breaker (soft lockdown in Singapore's language) during COVID-19 has confined many people in their homes with a dwindling list of entertainment. For a homebody like me, I would say I am actually thriving in the current climate. Getting the virus out of the picture, working from home, lack of crowds, decrease in pollution and return of wildlife literally describe my utopia. Unfortunately, these came with a price of a pandemic.

The main disturbance to my weekend routine would be the closure of plant shops and nurseries. Before the circuit breaker started, my neighbourhood plant shops were clearing their stocks at discounted prices and I decided to grab a few packets of seeds. I think growing edibles is one of the more useful hobbies to pick up right now. In fact, Singapore has announced a $30 million grant to encourage growth of domestic food supplies. Citizens should be engaged in food resilience efforts too.

Here is a video highlighting the usefulness of vertical urban farms. I have a mini version in my bedroom which is currently populated by air plants and succulents. Not only will it reduce our resilience of global food supplies, it will reduce negative environment impact associated with conventional farming, such as carbon dioxide emissions from transport, fertiliser runoff and deforestation.

I bought Baba cabbage, curly dwarf pak choy, Japanese kale and curly wrap wong king pak choy seeds. I think I will start with the first two to gauge the amount of space I need.