A great way to bring a bit of nature into city living is having a rooftop garden. People usually think of rooftop city gardens as only being in New York City. Usually places used to hold cocktail parties. But rooftop gardening is nothing new, it has been seen in the Hanging Garden of Babylon to the Kensington Roof Garden in London , England.
The popularity of roof gardens have grown in many other cities in the United States as well. Even people in Vancouver, B.C. are joining in on rooftop gardening too. From hotels, restaurants to local organizations. I think that is a great use of extra space and a way to add a bit of green space. It may even help clean the air too.
Photo credit: Risc’s Rooftop Garden.
Another successful rooftop garden comes from England. The one pictured here is of Risc’s edible roof garden. The garden is complete with over 120 species of edible and medicinal trees, shrubs, vines and plants from around the globe. You can read more about the place here.
Rooftop gardens are usually seen as ornamental gardens, but the idea of growing your own food is gaining popularity. A great organization based out of Vancouver, B.C. by the name of City Farmer’s has a collection of stories about their work in Vancouver, Canada, and about urban farmers from around the world.
Even with the good news surrounding rooftop gardens, there are things to consider such as large consumer of electricity needed for heating and cooling. I suppose there are innovative ways to get around this, such as pumping up hot air from the buildings below. But with good planning and more knowledge about rooftop gardening, you can also plan your own rooftop garden. A fresh bowl of salad sounds good to me anytime!
For further reading, I suggest the following books:
The Guide to Setting up Your Own Edible Rooftop Garden:
” The Rooftop Garden Project team has written a step-by-step guide to assist you in the creation and horticultural and social success of your own rooftop garden. The guide is written for groups, individuals and establishments that would like to create an urban edible rooftop garden for educational, social, therapeutic or environmental reasons but may not have access to the necessary space to do so in the soil.”
The guides cost $20 and are available at this link or these bookstores in Montreal, Canada:
- Alternatives
3720 Parc Ave, 3rd floor, (514) 982-6606 #2243
- Santropol Roulant
4050 St. Urbain, (514) 284-9335
If you would like more information about the ornamental and maintenance side of rooftop gardens, check out Roof Gardens: History, Design, and Construction by Theodore Osmundson. His book emphasizes that rooftop gardens must have proper design and maintenance. Mr. Osmundson is recognized as a leading designer and advocate for rooftop spaces. Mr. Osmundson is best known for his three-acre Kaiser Center in Oakland, California. The prototype is of an extensive roof-deck park. I would love to see this place for myself and may have to plan a visit soon.
Here is one photo taken from Blue-Green Building. You can visit the site here and view more pictures. The Kaiser Center roof garden is open to the public 8 AM - 5 PM, Monday through Friday.
12:43 am on February 7th, 2009
I used to think of just a small planting area for my garden, but seeing this made me think that it should also be a place that we could sit and relax as well. I need to come up with a good layout for my new garden, thanks for this post, very inspiring.
3:44 am on February 8th, 2009
You are so lucky to have the space for a relaxing garden. I have to keep most of my plants in pots these days.
4:15 am on February 8th, 2009
I see you’ve moved, I like you new home.
I’ve not fully convinced my husband yet that I need more space for the garden, I just have to draw it out for him to see, then use strings to mark the area and leave it there to see how we’d like it, I might do this tomorrow. The only bad part is that our back yard is so little, but I’ll have time for proper planing. I looked at many gardening books today, I might go back to Barnes & Noble and look some more, those books are so expensive, I couldn’t afford to buy.
10:12 pm on February 9th, 2009
Thanks for noticing
I have a credit card with Borders and get rewards to buy books there. I’ve used it a few times per year. They treat you strange when you use it, likes it’s more of a hassle for them. So I may just stop using that reward program now.
Does your local library have many books on gardening? We have many books on gardening here, even “small yard” gardening. I may make a post about that later.
4:52 am on February 12th, 2009
I’ve not check out my local library. I might do that next week since I’ll have more free time.
7:04 pm on June 7th, 2010
Roof gardening is a splendid idea. I and Becky, my wife started a different sort of roof gardening system. We planted the beans plant on the ground below and directed the vine to the roof with ropes and making it spread over the expanse of the roof. This worked out really well for us. We plan to plant some vegetables and flowering plants on the roof itself and extend our garden. This is a very relaxing and educating experience too.
9:28 pm on June 7th, 2010
Hi George,
That’s a neat idea you are doing with the plants. The beans are real climbers! Good luck on your roof top gardening. Thanks for visiting Cambree Notes.