Rooftop Garden, ideas suggestions?

sirsterling

Last summer my wife & I purchased a condo in PH that inludes roof-rights. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for gardening on your roof?

I surfed the web, there was not whole lot out there. I noticed that there were a few designers in the city that would help design a garden. I have to imagine, that costs an arm and a leg. Most of the pictures were from patios on 5th Ave in the city.

Thank you,

mahina

I'm in the design industry, but unfortunately don't know any landscape designers here. I could ask around for you.

I did see that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a class on roof gardening, May 15th, which might be a good start. Sounds like it gives an overview on materials, weight and environment issues.

http://www.bbg.org/edu/adult/gardening.html

alecorock

My friend runs a local company Modern Urban Design. They are Brooklyn based, skilled and much cheaper than the competition. I'll PM you his number

em

Check out this similar question posted on Apartment Therapy - there are good leads in the comments section.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-roofdeck-builder-in-park-slope-003238

em26

Get some flower/garden beds.
Throw some dirt in the beds.(Alot of bags, depending on the depth of the beds.)
Toss in some seeds.
Pour water on the stuff.
Place the beds wherever you like.
Make your own like these , I think the rectangle shaped ones would be easier to do....or buy the ones they make out of wood.
Looks like you just take the stones and bond them with cement , one on top of the other.
Here is a website that shows you how to build your own beds and some design ideas.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_landscaping_design/
Lowes garden planters.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productList&No=0&Ne=7000&N=0 5000728&category=Planters&pad=true




This one is beautiful.

alafairnadia

damn. i wish i could take advantage of my roof rights. sadly, my roof is connected to a bunch of other roofs and kids like to wander up there. heck, people take TV sets up to their respective roofs and watch boxing matches and lounge on folding chairs. in any case, I don't think any monetary investment is feasible right now because I'm certain it would be destroyed. sigh.

good luck with your garden! I'm jealous!!

emily

I know Em26 is trying to be helpful, but I wouldn't recommend just doing that willy-nilly for a roof. There are a lot of issues with weight and drainage that you probably need professional help figuring out.

hal

You may be restricted to containers. The concept of a 'green roof' requires engineering for runoff, and protecting the roof from rotting, leakage and weight issues. Nevertheless, containers can be used in beautiful ways. Pots and boxes are typical. May I suggest you look up "container gardening"?.

sterlingguy

For great containers, check out: www.kidsgardening.com. We found the site through my wife's job as a nutrition educator, but I think anyone can order from it. We got three 3' boxes, slightly raised for water run-off.

You may need to build some kind of decking to properly protect the roof from run-off and weight-bearing loads (dirt gets heavy). We recently built a deck and I would be happy to talk about designs and contractors.

In an earlier post, someone said to just throw down some seeds and see what happens. That is good advice, but I would add this: your roof is an extreme environment, comparable to the "high desert". Ask the Botanical Gardens what plants are appropriate for this environment (called Zone 4).

Good luck!

pitu

Me too! One of these years . . .
Old thread with builder recs
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4106&highlight=roof+deck

a cautionary note - you don't want to f*around on the roof, not just for damage but because if your lovely whatevers blow off your roof, you could kill someone.

em wrote: Check out this similar question posted on Apartment Therapy - there are good leads in the comments section.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-roofdeck-builder-in-park-slope-003238

good one, em

my friend built a bunch of pallets and boardwalks (spreads the weight, protects the roof) and did container gardening on top of them, but it was an industrial building and I think he hated the landlord anyway . . .

summer outdoor space is the best!

sterlingguy

The Brooklyn DOB inspects rooftop decks and gardens. If the inspector visits your building -- or your neighbor's building, and looks over at yours -- you could be in big trouble (fines and a permanent block on any roof use in the future). So if you throw down some pallets, make sure you get a licensed engineer to write a letter or sign off on a DOB permit.

sirsterling

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. Perhaps we will take the class at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. I also found the attached link for a roof garden in neighboring Fort Greene.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_patios_decks/article/0,,HGTV_3568_4927383,00.html

For now, we will go with planters from Lowes and a patio set. As part of the remodel of our building, our roof was re-done. There is now a special ruberized surface that has been layed down, so I am sure it will support our outside activities including a bbq!

theoryofpractice

SterlingGuy wrote: The Brooklyn DOB inspects rooftop decks and gardens. If the inspector visits your building -- or your neighbor's building, and looks over at yours -- you could be in big trouble (fines and a permanent block on any roof use in the future). So if you throw down some pallets, make sure you get a licensed engineer to write a letter or sign off on a DOB permit.

Are you speaking from experience, SterlingGuy?

karl the druid

Subject: What kind of plants for a roof top deck with lots of sun?

old topic: What kind of plants for a roof top deck with lots of sun?
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34149

good ideas
- lettuce and other cool spring greens
- leafy herbs, especially basil and chives
- rugosa or dogwood type roses
- morning glories, moon flowers (ipomea)
- all manner of daisy and aster (compositae)
- cosmos
- geraniums
- zinnia
- marigolds (tagetes)
- jerusalem artichoke (helianthus tuberosus)
- sweet 100 cherry tomatos

very bad ideas
- bags of lady bugs and praying mantis eggs = bird food
- fig trees: talisman of evil clerics and misplaaced italians
- quinoa, confuses new food coop members
- garden gnomes, offensive to real gnomes
- humming bird feeders, they will not come
- bat houses, ooooh get real... you hippies. attracts more bat houses as gifts
- all manner of nightshade other than cherry tomato
- grasses: free range cows fall to their deaths each year climbing towards roof gardens, so sad... sad
- lawn chairs from target: attracts ham-neck frat boys and their drunken gold-digger brazillian girlfriends. are you really doctor? jee jee jeeeeee!
- sod = stupid stupid stupid
- poetry readings as social gatherings: generally bad idea, most poets suck and socialize as badly as film makers do
- A wet bar, for obvious reasons, but lets hear it for darwinism
- ipod full of tori amos/aimee mann: makes nellie mckay fans jump from roofs

sterlingguy

Re: DOB inspectors -- our architect facilitated the City inspection. The inspector said that their office had started checking out roofdecks more aggressively and that he had personally spotted some illegal decks and reported them for fines. It is hearsay, since I did not hear it myself. But I still think it is wise to play it safe. Our deck is city-inspected.

pitu

some of the basics, about types of containers and stuff like that
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/18/HOGLDP8AIG1.DTL