Residents of Huzhou, Zhejiang province, work in a shared plot in March. [XIE SHANGGUO/FOR CHINA DAILY]

On a sloping patch of land once choked with weeds and left abandoned for nearly a decade, a visible transformation has literally taken root.

In Licheng district, Jinan, Shandong province, the hillside is now a checkerboard of lush greenery, divided by white picket fences and crisscrossed with bamboo trellises heavy with cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants.

On a Saturday morning in late May, after a sudden storm swept through the city, a group of urban gardeners rushed to their plots in Tangye subdistrict to check on their vegetables.

"I had no idea how my vegetables were holding up after that wind and rain," said Xu Ling, a local resident, in a post on her Douyin account.

"Having a vegetable garden gives you one more thing to care about," she said.

Xu and her husband Tian Xiangqin tend a 20-square-meter plot they call Lele's Garden, named after their 7-year-old son. Inside, they grow not only vegetables like cabbage and cilantro, but also flowers including lotuses and hydrangeas.

The couple go to their garden at least once, and sometimes twice, a day. On weekends they bring their son to the garden.

"Once we are here, we are reluctant to leave," said Xu, standing in the sunshine beside her plot.

This hidden pocket of green at the foot of Longgushan Hill is more than just a gardening project. It is part of a growing urban phenomenon in China where shared vegetable gardens turn idle land into productive, community-driven spaces, often with therapeutic benefits for the participants.

For many city residents, these small plots have become a place to slow down, connect with nature, and discover the simple joy of watching things grow.

"Shared vegetable gardens are rooted in land resources, people's needs and the renewal of urban and rural spaces," said Liu Dejun, chief economist at the Shandong Academy of Macroeconomic Research.

"As older neighborhoods are renovated and idle rural resources are revived, the industry will move from rough, spontaneous growth to standardized operations and branded services. The market space will continue to expand," said Liu.