Urban agriculture, which involves practicing agricultural methods in urban areas, is emerging in major Chinese cities as a response to the implementation of green urbanism. However, the dominant governance approach of local governments in Chinese cities presents a significant challenge to contemporary Western self-governance through urban agriculture. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of green urbanism in China by examining the urban governance approaches used in the implementation of urban agriculture, going beyond existing works that focus solely on the impact and design of such practices. To achieve this, the paper explores how the pioneers of green urbanism in China adopt urban governance as an approach to develop urban agriculture by studying “Cityfarm” in Guangzhou, the Knowledge and Innovation Community Garden in Shanghai, and households’ farmlands in Shenzhen. Through comparative analysis of the daily management of these cases, this paper argues that the pioneers of green urbanism base their strategies on diverse urban functional areas, implementing various governance strategies. This approach not only develops various daily management approaches to enhance the environmental resilience of cities but also stimulates the initiative of urban citizens, fostering a societal consensus that integrates governmentality with urban agriculture governance.