Roof Garden Articles

Roof gardens and energy savings.

Roof garden articles.

If you live in a building without its own garden establishing a roof or balcony garden is the ideal way to create your own mini horticultural haven ensuring you don t miss out on growing a wide range of plants. Rooftop gardens and green roofs are the new backyards as shown in the book living roofs teneues 55. You can create any style of rooftop garden with container grown plants from a few simple herb plants to a formal elegant potager. The depth of these mats can be as little as 25mm.

To better understand the energy benefits of a rooftop garden it s important to understand the concept of an urban heat island the increase in temperature that s found in virtually all urban areas solar radiation warms up concrete asphalt and other man made materials much faster and hotter than it warms trees plants and greenery. Roof gardens and balconies. Residents voted for the park in the early 2000s and today the 22 000 square foot roof features flower beds trees an herb garden gazebos and specially made picnic tables that are wheelchair. A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building.

Author ashley penn a landscape architect and chartered member of the united kingdom s. Besides the decorative benefit roof plantings may provide food temperature control hydrological benefits architectural enhancement habitats or corridors for wildlife recreational opportunities and in large scale it may even have ecological benefits. In some cases pre grown trays or tiles of low mat forming vegetation can be used to green the surface. Vegetated roofs aren t just beautiful they re valuable tools for managing stormwater reducing the urban heat island effect and providing more usable space for building occupants.

On paved roof spaces this material can be laid like lawn to create a rooftop garden. These gardens are suitable for storehouses garages roofs or other additional buildings around the house. In the second installation of the carlisle roofing series buildings editor in chief janelle penny chats with chris kann roof garden product manager for carlisle about best practices for green roof projects. The easiest and most personal approach to rooftop gardening is the use of containers and raised beds.

The practice of cultivating food on the rooftop of buildings is sometimes referred to. This type of roof garden requires minimum layer of soil substrate and hence it is easy to maintain.