As was mentioned, you can define community as any group of people who share something in common, even if that "thing in common" is simply the building in which they reside. I think rooftop gardens have more to offer than veggies, herbs, and green space. They can also be models for others to pattern after. What if your rooftop garden inspired someone else to do likewise on top of their building? Or what if several or many other rooftop gardens got started after seeing the success of one? A rooftop garden may not be available to the folks on the street, but I bet there are plenty of folks living in your building who have never had a garden, and the opportunity to educate them and to show off a greenspace to them would be just as satisfying. Green rooves are also beneficial in other ways. They reduce rainwater runoff into storm drains. They moderate the heating and cooling in the buildings below, which reduces energy consumption. They cut down on solar reflection, which is what causes urban areas to be 5 degrees F higher on average than their surrounding areas. The plants, through photosynthesis, reduce the local atmospheric carbon load and increase the amount of oxygen. A single garden will have only minimal impact in most of these areas, but a city can only become a greenscape one roof at a time, right? These benefits are probably the better reasons for creating rooftop gardens, with food production being yet another benefit among many. As Mike says, don't just install a garden on the roof. Make sure it's feasible, then research how to do it the right way the first time. A rooftop garden, when poorly done, will not only provide extra roof load, it can also cause water to drain into the wrong places, resulting in structural damage. But they can be done, and they can be done well. Good luck, regardless if you do a rooftop garden or if you set your roots into terra firma. DanCREATION SPEAKS Inviting man to the heart of God through the biblical mandate to care for creation www.creationspeaks.org> Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 08:24:37 -0600> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org> Subject: [Community_garden] Rooftop Gardens> > Hi All, Earlier this week I asked you all to help with the topic of Community Gardens and Housing. Several of the replies indicated that there was no real conflict in land use between housing and gardening because roof top gardens could be put in. My concern about rooftop gardens is that they are only for the people who live there. They are not public. That seems to counter the 'community' in community garden. I know I wouldn't want anyone off the street to access my apartment block. Yet I would want anyone off the street to be able to access a community garden. The community is also people who don't garden, yet enjoy what others have done. This is something that gardeners like to share with non-gardeners. I know at our garden, people who do not garden there just come in and sit on the benches and read a book or watch the greenery grow. They always say, the garden looks good this year. (even if it is really intidy etc.) People walk through and look at the plants. We are in a pretty dense area, dense in concrete and I think that the patch of green on the street lends a bit of human scale to the streetscape that all can enjoy. I don't think that roof top gardens compare at all. Gardens, are a form of Art, and like Art they are meant to be seen. Comments? Karen> > > > _______________________________________________> The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org> > To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org> > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20081206/85c38969/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org
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