Starting a rooftop garden involves seven steps: 1) Assessing your roof’s feasibility to ensure it can support a flourishing garden; 2) Planning your roof garden to create a blueprint for your rooftop oasis; 3) Ensure waterproofing and drainage; 4) Protecting your building with a solid foundation; 5) Choose the right containers and soil for healthy growth; 6) Selecting suitable plants; 7) Planting and maintenance; and 8) Add finishing touches.
Rooftop gardens can be constructed using three methods: creating a container garden on a terrace, making raised beds, or using a combination of both. To start a rooftop garden, assess your roof’s capacity, choose lightweight containers and drought-tolerant plants for high exposure to sun and wind, and set up an efficient system.
There are various benefits to starting a rooftop garden, including the best types of plants to use and the various pros and cons. Key takeaways include checking building codes, selecting plants, choosing or building containers, setting up wind blocks, preparing the soil, planting selections, and watering the plants as necessary.
To build your own rooftop garden, follow these steps: check building codes, select plants, choose or build containers, set up wind blocks, prepare the soil, plant selections, and water the plants as needed. Use plastic, fiberglass, or foam planting containers instead of pavers, use lightweight potting soil, and use Styrofoam.
A rooftop garden is perfect for maximizing your garden but also requires safety considerations. Raised beds should have sufficient clearing for proper drainage and air circulation. If you’ve always wanted your own rooftop or balcony garden, this article provides a step-by-step guide on how to elevate your gardening to a whole new level.
📹 Lessons Learned From Our First Rooftop Garden pt. 1 – Containers and Location
In our first rooftop garden we have learned a lot and would do a lot differently. In this episode we will highlight the issues with …
What is the best soil to top up a garden?
To ensure plant growth, avoid using cheap soil mixes and opt for 100% natural, Certified Organic, or a special mix like booster or fertiliser-controlled soil. Avoid using ground soil from your existing garden as it can cause long-term problems like waterlogging, weeds, and poor growth. For vegetable gardens in raised beds, use a soil mixture with rich organic matter, compost, and organic material like leaves or aged shredded bark. Both fruits and vegetables prefer rich, moist, well-drained potting soil with neutral acidity, except for potato plants and most berries, which prefer naturally acidic soil.
Do you mix top soil with garden soil?
High-quality enriched soil is more expensive than topsoil, but the cost should be the primary consideration for your garden. If you have a large area, consider combining the two soils. The Dirt Bag, a company specializing in bagged and bulk landscape materials, can provide expert advice on which products best meet your needs. To schedule delivery of topsoil or garden soil, contact their West Jordan office.
What are the challenges of rooftop gardening?
Rooftop gardening is a rewarding and unique way to create green spaces in urban environments, but it also presents challenges such as limited space, weight restrictions, and exposure to extreme weather conditions. To overcome these challenges, it is essential to consult a structural engineer or professional to assess the roof’s capacity to bear the weight of the garden, including soil, plants, containers, and other garden features. Additionally, lightweight materials such as containers made of fiberglass, plastic, or foam can reduce the overall load on the rooftop.
Using a lightweight growing medium, such as compost, perlite, and vermiculite, can also help reduce the weight of the soil. By addressing these challenges, you can ensure a thriving and successful rooftop garden.
What is a rooftop garden called?
A green roof is a roof covering a building with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Intensive green roofs are used on commercial buildings where large green areas are desired, incorporating various plant types and sizes. They often include paths and walkways that allow people to interact with the natural surroundings.
Extensive green roofs are used for single-family and multi-family residential buildings, and are best suited for spaces where people are rarely walking on the roof surface. They are also suitable for outbuildings like sheds and garages. The design aims to provide high performance to water use and thermal advantages while keeping the overall weight of the roof low.
In summary, green roofs are designed to provide high performance to water use and thermal advantages while keeping the overall weight low. They are commonly used in commercial buildings, sheds, and garages.
How long does a green roof last?
Green roof membranes have a life expectancy of 30-50 years, 2-4 times the typical 15-25 year warranty provided by regular membrane manufacturers. Factors such as UV light, temperature fluctuations, wind, ice, snow, and rain can be detrimental to black or gravel roofs. Green roofs, like those in Berlin and Rockefeller Center in New York City, have been using the same waterproofing membranes since the 1930s.
Layers of fabric, soil, and plants on top of the waterproofing “blanket” the membrane, protecting it from these elements and buffering it from temperature extremes and daily material expansion. Green roofs are a sustainable and beneficial practice that can continue to grow and improve roof performance.
How high should soil be in a garden bed?
A six-inch-deep garden bed is the minimum height recommended for growing lettuce greens, herbs, and plants with shallow root structures. If you’re not ready to build a full raised bed, consider a six-inch deep container that’s at least a foot wide and try growing lettuce plants. A 12-inch-deep garden bed is standard in the gardening world and can grow plants with deeper roots like carrots, radishes, celery, and peppers. However, you might struggle with tomatoes, kale, and eggplants, which have deep root structures.
How thick is a roof garden?
The construction of extensive green roofs necessitates the incorporation of a substrate layer with a thickness of 8-20 cm, which serves to provide support for the underlying vegetation. The substrate layer itself should be no less than 15 cm in thickness, with the potential for the substrate layer to reach a maximum thickness of 200 cm, contingent upon the specific type of vegetation in question.
What materials do you need for a rooftop garden?
A green roof should have a soil that is three to four inches thick and made of 30% organic soil, expanded clay pellets, wood chips, and vermiculite. Plant materials can include sun-loving native plants, annuals, containers, small trees, shrubs, granas, mosses, and sedums. Following specific directions from a landscape architect or horticulturist is crucial for planting and maintenance. Safety is a primary concern with green roofs, ensuring easy access, fencing, and occupant count.
What plants are best for rooftop gardens?
Rooftop gardening is a visually appealing and fulfilling way to utilize vacant roof spaces. Urban gardening is achievable for city dwellers living in high rises. There are many suitable plants available at local Grange Co-ops for rooftop gardening. When choosing plants, consider factors like terrace size, weather exposure, sunshine availability, and seasonal preferences. Some great options for rooftop gardening include lavender, Kosa Dogwood, single seed Juniper, Fanal, Daylily, dwarf Hinoki Cypress, and Ajuga.
How to build rooftop garden?
The initiation of a rooftop garden necessitates the formulation of a comprehensive plan, the consultation with a qualified building engineer, the verification of accessibility, the utilization of robust materials, the identification of a reliable water source, the allocation of adequate storage space, and the selection of an appropriate planting medium.
How deep should soil be on a rooftop garden?
Green roofs, which can be either extensive or intensive, have a history dating back thousands of years, dating back to Viking dwellings in Scandinavia and ancient Babylon’s hanging gardens. Modern green roofs and walls are designed to support living vegetation to improve building performance. Green roofs are flat or pitched surfaces with a growing medium over a waterproof membrane planted with vegetation, while green walls are vertical building elements that support a cover of vegetation rooted in stacked pots or mats.
Green roofs are an accepted part of modern building in Europe, with some city and national governments even mandating their use. For instance, Linz in Austria mandates green roofs on new residential and commercial buildings with rooftops larger than 100 m2.
📹 Green Roof Fundamentals: Building an Epic Rooftop Garden 🏠🌱
I checked out their rooftop garden, which they use as a testing site to see what plants and gardening methods perform best for …
I made many of these mistakes! (Long before viewing this article, obviously!) About 95% of my garden is in containers. Specifically, 5 gallon buckets, which can be relocated as required. I’ve learned a lot from this website, thank you, and also learned from my (many) mistakes. Next year will be better! And the year after! Happy growing!
Yay! So excited for this series on patio gardening!! I’m in NYC and growing on my patio… I’m obsessed with your articles so I couldn’t be happier that you are doing this!!! This is my fourth year gardening and my best yet… I used trifecta plus and for the most part my plants thrived, even in the urban jungle of New York. Thanks for your amazing articles, Luke!!
Good start, but I’m really surprised that you didn’t try or even mention grow bags or 5 gal buckets. Those seem to be the most common containers by far and it would have been nice to hear about them. The other thing (suggestion) would be to weave some shade cloth through your railing to act mostly as a wind break, but also a little bit of shade.
It is nice to hear you share your mistakes. It makes all people more relatable when they share their mistakes. It reminds me of that sweet young man that started this website years ago. These days, you have so much more responsibility… and it shows. You appeared so much happier in earlier articles. I am not saying you appear unhappy! I am saying you appear less relaxed. It is nice to share success. It is also “human” to show a hard lesson learned. I wish for you, the same joy you once showed and/or felt, in your early gardening days. Isn’t it funny how we dream of success as young people… then once “successful” – we dream of our simple life left behind. Maybe it is just me? I see a lot of you in myself and my own grown children and young grandchildren. I am just an old lady that has respect for your vision. I wish you happiness on your journey. 🌻 Kind Regards to you and your lovely family. Always remember to take time to smell the flowers as your handing your wife the beautiful handpicked bouquet 😊. Take what you wish from my comment and leave the rest behind!💞
I started a container garden on my second story deck this year, and find it pretty similar to the issues of this rooftop garden. Of course, I found the wind was an issue (we are also at the top of a large hill so it’s already windy here). I will be installing some lattice around my deck to help block the wind a little, and it will also allow me to use it as a trellis for the tomato and pepper plants, and I’ll be able to support something for shade over individual plants that need it more, as well as getting a little more height and doing some vertical gardening to get more out of my small deck space (and a “purposeful privacy wall” as we are very close to our neighbor’s house and basically overlook their deck). I also found that right up against the house got much less wind than 5 feet out from the house. Closer to the house also gets shade for longer, so some plants can get only the morning sun, and by placing plants further out from the house they can get some afternoon sun too (but I lose direct sun by 3-4pm or so). I found the soil in the larger planters really held onto it’s moisture very well despite the wind. It might have been the soil I bought (specified as container soil), or maybe that I left a few inches of room at the top of the container so the wind doesn’t draft over it as much (like mini 6″ high walls)? For my smaller planters I had to water much more frequently.
I am growing 100% in containers, in Las Vegas. I have learned alot of these lessons first hand. It was hard but I was able to harvest some stuff. I am going to keep at it. I am excited to start my fall garden ( once we can stop having 100+ degree days) I am looking forward to the rest of this series!
Smart thinking on the roof lounge area, a little green is good for the soul and you can talk without any leaf service back..LoLYou always have something of value to share with all of us. On another note, I wanted to let you know of something pretty fantastic that is happening in my city in Montreal. On Aug 26,2020 the largest Roof Top garden ( Three football fields large ) has opened up in my city to help feed the masses here all winter long. Information has it that they produce twenty five thousand pounds of tomatoes a week,pretty cool eh?!! I know this is not how we do things among us but I was feeling proud of my city and wanted to let the garden people out there know about it.Thank you for listening…Now back to my garden.
I had a great success with Earthbox. They solve the watering and soil temperature issues that are the major problems of containers. I had 4 of them on my balcony when I was living in an apartment and they are much better than regular large containers. I grew tomatoes and beneath them I grow basil and pepper for patial shade. In winter I installed a small greenhouse and grew carrots and some greens in them. Now I have 2 boxes on my front porch that I’m growing bush beans and marigolds. I harvest a little less than a pound of beans weekly from them.
I got an automatic drip system to help me with watering my patio garden as a busy PhD student. I’ve definitely been able to grow eggplants and bell peppers growing in windowbox containers similar to yours, just that I pruned them to be smaller. Like almost to bonsai chili kinda status. But your note about the wind is so real though. We get desert easterly santa winds twice a year that dries everything to a crisp with one breeze.
This year was my first time patio gardening. My patio is about 10′ x 5′, fourth floor, and south facing. Lots of wind, lots of sun! I made several mistakes, but also had a few successes. My tomatoes did ok, but I didn’t fertilize then and didn’t prune them enough. Sage did AMAZINGLY, but every other herb died. Onions of all kinds would have done better, but I started them way too late. I got carrot tops, but no actual carrots, lol. And I had excellent success with peppers and with blue lobelia. I have to water almost every day though, but that also gives me a chance to check out how this are doing and to plan better and strategize for next year.
I love this! I moved out of my parents place that had a small backyard with a few raised garden beds to a second floor apartment with just a small covered balcony. Lots of mistakes and learning along the way, but we grew beans, roma tomatoes, banana peppers, bell peppers, and lots of herbs. We also have some tree’s that aren’t producing yet. Lemon, Avocado, Coffee, and elderberry (if you can consider it a tree, more of a shrub). Also have a kiwi plant thats going crazy, but a year or two off from producing still! It goes to show no matter where you live, you can still garden! Thanks for sharing! also a suggestion. are you allowed to do whatever you want up there? would putting up one of those sun shades/screens up help with it being too sunny in some areas? maybe a lattice on one side for a vining plant to grow up and help block some of the wind? 🙂
Thanks for doing this series it should be a lot of help for folks going to container gardening. After in ground gardening for many years and doing very well, if I do say so..lol.. I’ve had to go to gardening on my back southern facing deck due to age and some health probs. I had no idea it would be so different from my past gardens in my yard. My first year was pretty much a disaster but each year I would figure more things out. Now, getting near the end of my 5th season on the deck I can honestly say that my veggies are doing as well (some even better) than they did in the ground. But it IS a whole different animal getting the production from containers. All you mentioned in this vid is great info and your bound to greatly improve on next seasons roof top garden. A couple things that really helped me was making sure to try to keep them evenly moist. Another was having a great mixture of container soil and to remember that nutrients leach through containers, so you may need to feed gently but more often. Most of these thing I basically learned from your website but I just had to get it all through my noggin and stick to it. I look forward to the rest of this series. As we all know, your never done learning when it comes to gardening.
It would be nice to see a pan of the whole rooftop. Could you build sort of guilds with a few pots? You have a palm sort of plant, I could see it on a table or a bigger version with pots around it to give them a bit of shade. Also, if the walls increase temperature, why is it okay for the smaller pots to sit on them?
I’m in Marshall and have gotten a bit obsessed with living soil growing. Are you involved with any urban gardening work down here? I have a small Kioti with a tiller and knowledge of building raised beds. If you’re involved with anything from Jackson to Kalamazoo or Lansing to coldwater I would love to volunteer in the spring.
Use the taller plants to shade the shorter plants. Artichokes and fig trees would be a great plant selection and have light colored containers. You would need to either build self-wicking containers or use the self watering gutter system. Drip wouldn’t be a good option because the lines are exposed so the water in the line would get too hot and burn the plants. Obviously I love youtube articles.
Even in my backyard, closed on all four sides, the wind is sometimes massive. If there is outside just a friendly breeze, in my backyard the wind catches and gets really strong. So I have to live with some broken tomatoplants and it even killed my climbing zucchinis. Don´t mention the dayly watering, the soil dries out so fast, even with covercrops….
I have my raised bed garden inside a 10 x 10 kennel right next to the brick house. I put my tomatoes next to the brick thinking they’d like the heat. I am just now getting ripe tomatoes and I think thats due to direct sun not hitting that spot until 3 pm. Any suggestions on what would do better in that spot?
I am quite skeptical about the material of the containers though. Many containers are not made from food grade materials. They were not designed for edible plants. By the way, I have four 18″ pots made of “100% resin”. I can’t find information if they are toxic or not. Does anyone know? They were only $10 each two years ago.
sigh .. my garden got obliterated by the sun of summer I learned it the hard way, my pepper, mint everything died also i suspect a blight rooftop gardening is not easy gardening is not easy it takes patience and dedication its a trial error trial error hobby but maybe the most important lesson I learned is that too much of thing is a bad thing, watering is good overwatering is bad, sun is good too much is bad and so .. but I ll continue to succeed one day
Very interesting, thank you ! It’s awesome to see that this study and activity is happening . Great to know that there is hope for the future to change the detached from nature reality, that many people live with in city life ! The energy saving efficiency, and the de polluting effects are also awesome !! 👏👍 I love it 🥰
I say someone make a brown roof and leave a flat roof unplanted. Use it for a compost pile for a few people. Just watch life culture. Plenty of spores floating along. Birds poop seeds. Awesome science experiment! How long will it take to grow a roof spermigated from the planet instead of US. Way cool! My old Japanese exchange sudent has roof veggie and fruit garden-with pomegranite!