True, green rooves can take different forms. I had read some time ago
about
the rooftop garden on Chicago's city hall and I was thinking that it was
an
interactive garden, where folks could visit and hang out and such. I just
looked it up and that's not the case. It looks like it's only open to
maintenance personnel. They do have a couple of trees, however, which is
interesting. Their website also gives lots of great info about rooftop
gardens and they have a pdf guide for creating your own.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike McGrath [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 1:37 PM
To: DAN-TAMMY BOWDEN; community_garden@list.communitygarden.org
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Rooftop Gardens
Just to be picky: green roofs are fabulous (Tyler Arboretum and Temple
Ambler are both doing extensive work with them here in PA) but they are
not
rooftop gardens. They are roofs whose outer covering is a sheath of
low-growing plants instead of tar or shingles. People cannot walk on or
among them.
---McG
----- Original Message -----
From: "DAN-TAMMY BOWDEN" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <community_garden@list.communitygarden.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Rooftop Gardens
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> > > >
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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
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_______________________________________________
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:
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