Gen Y is embracing gardening, with growing plants and herbs indoors becoming a popular pastime for urban dwellers. Whether to boost wellbeing, bring a sense of calm to urban spaces or simply for its ease of maintenance, gardening is brushing off the soil of its previously stuffy image.

While the premise might seem like a gimmick, canned air sales are on the rise. Australian entrepreneurs are bottling and selling local air to the Chinese market as an antidote to smog. But is Australia’s reputation as an unpolluted utopia enough to sell products based on pseudo-science?

While more Germans are now leaving cities than moving to them, not everybody is ready to exchange urban bustle for country life. For city-dwellers seeking a compromise, an allotment offers the perfect balance. But who are these green-fingered folk and why do they want their own patch of soil?

From being saddled with student debt, to sky-high housing prices, the dream of owning a home has never seemed more distant to most Gen Yers. Claiming to be “the missing step,” Unmortgage is helping people put down roots with a scheme that partially finances their homes.