Room To Grow Is Up On The Roof

There’s a new gardening trend happening in New York, where there’s precious little land for such activity.  But you must look up instead of down.

Up is where there are roofs, and if your home has access to a flat one, there might be a chance to do a little urban gardening up there.  Sounds like a great idea, having plants, grasses, flowers, and shrubs in your own private green space, but there are a few caveats.

Before going into them, there’s the matter of access.  What’s the sense of having a roof garden if you can’t get to it?  Forget ladders.  You need stairs.

Next consideration: the roof has to be strong enough to bear the weight of all that soil the plantings will need.  In fact, very strong, since when it rains all that water will be absorbed into the plants and soil.  Water is very heavy — a cubic foot weighs about 62.4 pounds.  So better check with a contractor to see if the roof can carry the weight.

Okay, now you must figure out how to get all that heavy soil and plantings up there.  Forget hauling everything up the stairs.  Forget the ladder, think a hoist and pulley, or maybe a crane.

Then there’s the proper prep work.  A new roof would be best.  You sure don’t want any leaks.  Imagine how hard it would be to trace a leak under all that soil and foliage?  For insurance, you’ll need a waterproof membrane, then a layer of insulation, and finally a root barrier because roots grow down and no one wants them coming through the bedroom ceiling.  Ewwwww!

Before lugging soil and plants up there, better have a drainage layer to make sure excess rainwater has a place to go.

Lastly, there will be a need for a lot of green.  And I’m not talking about the plants.  But green cash.  A living roof can run anywhere from $10 a square foot up to $40, depending on the size and design.  That’s per square foot, and there are nine of them in a square yard!  Watch how fast hundreds of dollars can grow into thousands.

Besides all that private lush greenery up on the roof, where one can go to commune with nature, smell the flowers and maybe raise honey bees, there are other benefits.

Heating and cooling costs will drop because a home with a living roof — think of it as green insulation — is much more energy efficient.  The house will be warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

And when the time comes to sell, that rooftop garden will bump up the property’s value.  One agent estimates a living roof could be valued between a quarter and a third of the home’s interior space.  Provided the garden looks great and is not a weedy mess.

So, go ahead, you urban wanna-be gardeners.  Spread some green up there on the roof.  Or, do I mean spend some green?  Yes.  Both.

And be careful when mowing.