Roof garden designs are big news in the world of landscape architecture and design. As developers and urban designers look up to the sky for the last remaining spaces for landscape, some truly inspiring designs have incorporated the most innovative landscaping materials to produce public spaces and roof terraces that take the inner city dweller to a whole new realm of greenery and nature.
Roof garden design
2014 saw the number of roof garden design rocket with a number of high-profile designs achieving media coverage. Controversially by some, loved by others, London’s Sky Garden, a roof garden design within the Walkie Terrassenüberdachung Bremen Talkie building, incorporates landscapes that make the visitor feel as though they have walked over the brow of a hill to see the impressive London cityscape open up before them. Another roof garden design that made the press at the University of Greenwich, which unveiled 14 new roof garden designs within a purpose-built campus that provide outdoor spaces for students and academics. Another high-profile roof garden revealed late last year was the iconic Battersea Power Station whose design comprises a 355-metre long landscaped roof garden space that was designed by the architects behind New York’s High Line.
Roof garden and the roof terrace
As reports of the UK’s cities losing more and more of their public spaces come to light, 2015 looks set to truly be the year of the roof garden and the roof terrace, and we should expect to see more and more high-profile, innovative balcony designs throughout the year. Advancements in landscaping materials and landscaping products are one of the pivotal forces behind this trend in landscaping, with innovative products designed and adapted especially for installing where there are no aggregate footings and where drainage and the ability to access flooring exists. An example of this is the ability to install paving and non-slip composite decking in balcony and roof garden designs, thanks to advancements in paving support and decking support pedestals.
Non-slip composite decking retains the natural feel of timber decking to balcony and roof designs, but with the longevity and non-slip qualities of wood-polymer materials. Being much safer and slip-resistant, composite decking resists the elements and requires very little maintenance over the years. Thanks to decking pedestals, composite decking can be installed within pretty much any balcony or roof terrace setting. Adjustable and raised, paving and decking pedestals allow for full drainage of hard surfaces, as well as allowing easy access of cabling or other services running underneath. In addition, aluminium edging designed especially for roof garden designs, such as RoofEdge from ExcelEdge, provides designers and developers with the option to include sharp landscape edging, again, with hard surface drainage fully taken into consideration.
Roof terraces, gardens and balcony designs also have an opportunity to incorporate unlimited measures of greenery too, thanks to Corten steel planters, ranging from small modular planters through to giant planters teaming with greenery. Easy to install and effortless to move, the flexibility that planters, such as the Perimeta range of planters from Kinley Systems, is only limited by the imagination of the landscape architect and designer.
How to Create a Roof Terrace Garden
Once a structural engineer has confirmed that your roof would be able to withstand the extra weight of a garden you can start planning and constructing it. Take careful measurements and create a plan on paper before you buy anything. You must add extra water-proofing to the surface of the roof and maybe even staging as well before adding any plants.
Roof garden
Although a roof garden can add another dimension to your living accommodation, space will probably still be limited and so you will want to choose plants carefully. You can choose to grow plants that will give you fresh produce or flowers and shrubs that have long flowering periods.
Shrubs, flowers and also crops can be grown in pots, containers, compost bags and maybe even raised beds. You should choose the lightest containers and compost you can find. All of this can be done in an inexpensive way if you recycle containers.
Plastic containers retain moisture better than terracotta; they are also lighter and more frost-proof. The addition of water retaining crystals to compost will reduce the need for watering. If you don’t like the appearance of plastic pots, they can be painted; and if you have a motley collection of recycled containers, they can be painted the same colour to create a co-ordinated colour scheme. The wonderful thing about container gardening is that it gives you the opportunity to choose the exact soil to give any plant the requirements it needs.
You will still need to consider whether a position is mostly in sun or shade before you decide what to plant there – as in any other garden.
Fruit and certain vegetables
Fruit and certain vegetables can be grown up walls or trellises to use all available space. They can even be mixed in with flowers. Some, like marigolds, can help keep pests away from your crops. Fruit trees especially like being trained against brick walls because these retain heat which will help to ripen fruit. A lot of fruit trees and vegetable plants have been bred as dwarf varieties to suit the smaller garden and really can be quite tiny. Some trees even produce more than one variety of fruit from one trunk.
Some crops like herbs, radishes, cut-and-come-again salad leaves and chillies can be grown in very small spaces. Strawberries can be grown in ornamental towers.
Your crops will need well-drained, fertile soil, good airflow and enough water. A greenhouse of any size will extend a growing season but because most roofs would not be able to accommodate such a large structure, cold frames and cloches can be employed to shelter young plants from pests and chilly spring winds instead.
Consider how much time you can spend giving attention to each crop’s needs; some are more self-sufficient than others. Think about when you will be away from home on holiday and when your crops will be ready for harvesting. Because container grown plants need a lot of watering they may not be able to survive for weeks without attention.
Plants on roofs
Plants on roofs have to either be able to withstand wind or be sheltered from it. They will need more watering than plants in the ground. Be careful where the water drains to if you have neighbours underneath.
Water gardens in the evening or early morning and give regular feed any pot-grown plants, especially later in the summer when the nutrients have been mostly spent from the compost.
On roof tops that really have no shelter from wind, plants that do well by the sea or perhaps New Zealand natives should be Terrassendach bremen successful. Any plant that has thick leaves like laurels or fatsias would do well. Lavender and other plants that like free drainage should also be happy.
If you have very little soil to grow plants in, then you could consider planting wild flowers, alpines or sedums which come in a multitude of colours and will tolerate poor, shallow soil and a certain amount of drought too. Or you might like to grow bonsai trees which like being outside but are restricted in very small pots.