Life on the Roof: Rooftop Gardens

Scene: The Bastille- a beautiful, classy restaurant in the charming Ballard district

A room full of vivacious people eating and drinking cheerfully, laughter floating through the air from every corner, all of them caught up in their spirited conversation, distracted from the life that is blossoming above them... 

Seattle Urban Farm Company installed this productive green roof in 2009 and it has gotten tons of media and public attention since its creation. They created an organized array of custom-made raised beds and kiddie-pool-sized containers with all kinds of complex little systems, including drip irrigation, ground heating, and season-fitting shading. This of course took a lot of planning and detailed work but the rewards are bountiful and can be reaped year after year, with many added benefits. One can arrange to take a tour of this inspirational installation simply by contacting the SUFCo or the Bastille restaurant: 

SUFCo Rooftop Gardens

The Bastille Restaurant

Five Reasons Why a Rooftop Garden is a Good Idea:

1. Insulation: Plants keep the planet temperate by absorbing the suns heat and serving as a blanket in cooler weather, and on a roof can do the same for the building. Sounds cozy to me. Added bonus: they reduce costs of heating and air conditioning.

2. Rain catchment: Rooftop gardens snatch up all the precipitation they can get (which is why they would be so happy in Rain City). They allow the water cycle to flow naturally as they slowly release the water back into the atmosphere through condensation and evaporation while the soil serves as a natural filter.

3. Productive use of open space: While space is becoming more and more limited on this planet, the new direction we are taking for building is up. In the city especially, as discussed a little bit in the previous post, unused ground is hard to find. Building up + Container gardening = Rooftop container garden!

4. Positive attention-grabber: The restaurant came to the company looking for something marketable and innovative, and this certainly fulfilled that. They are now able to put salad on their menu with produce right from their roof. Local is in these days, and how much more local can you get than that?

5. Delicious veggies for the hungry bellies! No explanation needed for that one.

Contain your produce!

In this spacious city of Seattle, many people (myself included) find themselves confined in the garden space department. But container gardens are easy to create, and can make an empty corner look lively and lush. Here are some tips to help one embrace this kind of confinement:

1. Container: always a good place to start. The larger the container of course, the more space there is for growth. Different types of produce require different amounts of space, in the same way as they do in the garden, and if you start small, you can transplant them as their roots expand and take over the pot. You can easily tell when a plant is feeling crowded by the root growth: if the roots are coming through the bottom and expanded all the way to the rim of the pot, you may want to upgrade. There are a variety of materials that pots are made out of, including of course plastic and terracotta. While terracotta is beautiful, it has a tendency to dry the soil out a lot more quickly than other materials. If you're feeling thrifty, you can easily make a container from many things, such as a burlap sack, which I think make for a pretty hip decoration.

2. Getting dirty: Use potting soil (not seed starting mix), and go organic if possible. Adding perlite can help with compaction- you don't want the soil to become too heavily compacted to the point that it stifles your plants little roots!

3. Only contain what should be contained: The best way to grow plants in containers is to find those that fit inside them. Compact, bush, or dwarf varieties are best suited to fit in small spaces. A good example of the difference between these and regular varieties is bush vs. vining cucumbers: bush spans around 2-3 feet, while a vining plant would span around 5-6 feet (unless controlled by a trellis).

4. Light: Different plants of course require different amounts of light, but they all need a minimum of 5 hours of sun to stay healthy. Check seed or plant packages to tell you exactly how much is needed.

5. Water: It is better to water in the morning, and make sure to water the soil not the leaves to minimize evaporation. It's also best to let the soil dry out between waterings to discourage pests, including fungi and some diseases. 

This is another area where there are very helpful classes in the city with more tips and tricks. A lot of this information in fact came from a class that I took through Seattle Tilth, a large non-profit that offers adult and children's education, many volunteer opportunities and internships, underprivileged youth gardening training, a garden hot-line, and much more. The class I took was titled Container Herb Gardening and took place in the beautiful little Victor Steinbrueck Park downtown by Pike Place. It was a lovely location for an outdoor class and the instructor was extremely well-prepared with all kinds of props and examples. She also made an effort to appeal to everyone's needs- for instance, one girl wanted to just do some herbs in her apartment for cooking so the instructor made a point to let her know when certain plants would do better indoors and what kind of things she should be aware of. Best part about it was that it was FREE and I just had to pre-register by email. They have tons of adult ed classes but here are the ones coming up in July that pertain to this particular subject: 

Fall and Winter Vegetables in Containers: 7/9 10am-12pm, Counterbalance Park

Container Herb Gardening: 7/13 5:30pm-7:30pm, Victor Steinbrueck Park

Container Herb Gardening: 7/17 10am-12pm, Belltown Cottage Park

Fall and Winter Vegetables in Containers: 7/24 10am-12pm, Belltown Cottage Park