Urban Agriculture - Rooftop Gardens

Self reliance in the city - I like the sound of that. I get all wistful and picture people getting together in city areas to build community gardens, swap seeds and barter produce. This is happening, perhaps not to the extent of my fantasy but in various areas around the world, urban agriculture is taking off.

For the start of this exploration, I'd like to look at rooftop gardening. This is something that has held some fascination for me for quite a while. The concept is rooted in permaculture principles, serves multiple purposes and helps the environment. For those who have small courtyards or who have already exhausted every spare inch of lawn with gardens already, heading for the rooftop can be a practical (if not somewhat unusual) alternative.

The first purpose a rooftop garden serves is the obvious one - providing produce. This may come in the form of fresh flowers for cutting, herbs, vegetables and fruit, or ground covers purely for decoration. Depending on the type of material your roof is made of and the general condition of it, you can plant according to what would grow well there.Obviously the style of the roof is an issue too - a sloping roof would accomodate vines and pots, whereas a flat roof allows more freedom for plots, trees etc.

Other than the main factor of produce, rooftop gardens provide other opportunities as well, one of which is insulation. I once read about a family who's terrace house roof was covered entirely with pumpkin vines. This served to fully insulate the roof, keeping the house way cooler in summer and helping to keep in the warmth in winter - not to mention fresh pumpkins for soup straight up the ladder!

Having a "green" roof will also help the environment. By planting living greenery, we increase the amount of oxygen being ommitted from the conversion of CO2, which leads of course to less CO2 being present in the air also. Since plants and trees act as natural cleansers, many of the noxious gases from traffic and industry can be absorbed by the plants and broken down through the plants own filtering system.

Asthetically, rooftop gardens just look better - seriously, what would you prefer to see looking up; gardens or rooftiles? Trees or tin? Making the city areas more pleasurable to look at becomes an option, especially when it is to the advantage of the environment.

I guess there are other advantages to rooftop gardens too, like extending the life of your roof (since it is protected from the elements to some degree), giving the children some adventurous opportunities, improving habitats for birds, increasing the value of property and the possibility of inspiring community involvement. Imagine a block of units or flats, where the entire roof area is converted to gardens, each tennant with their own plot. This gives way for the possibility of working bees, seed saving and swapping, produce bartering, recycling kitchen waste with worm farms, as well as the pleasure of working together with your nieghbour to make something wonderful.

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