Gardening Reaches New Heights: Green Roofs In The City!
Take urban gardening to the next level…literally! There has been a recent rise in rooftop gardening, especially among city residents. Making the most of the limited residential space symptomatic of city living, many citizens and business owners are beginning to implement an entirely new type of functional landscaping: Rooftop farming.
Recently, The Four Seasons Hotel transformed their expansive rooftop into a flourishing 315 square foot vegetable garden. The project yields a variety of herbs and vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and snap peas. These ingredients are then used in the kitchens of the Four Seasons’ restaurant operations.
Photo by M. Edlow from uwishunu.com
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Philadelphia’s Center City PECO building have implemented green initiatives as well, offering tours of their 4500 square foot space, Philadelphia’s largest green rooftop.
PECO Green Rooftop, photo from Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
On the residential scale, homeowners are also getting their hands dirty! Recently, Dave Benner of New Hope, PA, a local “moss guru”, installed the first full-scale, residential green roof using only moss as substrate (top photo of post).
According to Roof Top Garden, moss is an ideal vegetation choice for roof gardens. Moss is lightweight, drought tolerant, and thrives in the shade of building shadows. Considering the perils and trials of Philadelphia – skyscrapers, unpredictable weather – moss sounds like quite a formidable option!
Looking to get your roof mossy? Check out the starter kits at Moss Acres. To explore other roof plant options, check out MotherPlants.net.
[...] Art in the Age » Blog Archive » Gardening Reaches New Heights: Green Roofs In The City! http://www.artintheage.com/blog/gardening-reaches-new-heights-green-roofs-in-the-city – view page – cached Take urban gardening to the next level…literally! There has been a recent rise in rooftop gardening, especially among city residents. Making the most of the limited residential space symptomatic of city living, many citizens and business owners are beginning to implement an entirely new type of functional landscaping: Rooftop farming. Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['stevengrasse'] = {“photo”:”http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/518237184/steve_twiiter_normal.jpg”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/stevengrasse”,”nick”:”stevengrasse”}; stevengrasse: “prakse.landors.demoweb.lv/artintheage_old/blog/gardening-reaches-new-heights-green-roofs-in-the-city/ ” 10 minutes ago view tweet retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['greenroofplan'] = {“photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/846377341/Dave_Hilary_normal.jpg”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/greenroofplan”,”nick”:”greenroofplan”}; greenroofplan: “"Art in the Age » Blog Archive » Gardening Reaches New Heights …" http://bit.ly/9AHG6N #greenroof ” 4 hours ago view tweet retweet Filter tweets [...]