When the plan was conceived to create an online rooftop garden database there was a flaw in the plan. To me it would be a no-brainer. Ask folks to stand up and be counted. Wrong.
I listed my garden, which I am very proud of. You know: ‘lead by example’.
I have emailed people.
I have asked people.
I have visited people.
I have searched Google.
I started a LinkedIn group called Rooftop Gardening Group. Nothing.
Then one day, like a slot machine ringing a winner, they found us! Here are some of the early adopters who have contributed to our website!
- Thanks to Marguerite Wells of Mother Plants, a roof garden plant supplier, who has listed some spectacular roof projects to date. The photography of their projects is absolutely outstanding as well. Again, thanks Marguerite!! We love your work. -If I were an architect I would list the various projects I have designed. Someone did just that.
-Thanks to GS Lee and KNTA Architects who have listed the Singapore Management University City Campus roof garden. We were so very proud when Geok-ser Lee reached out to us. He has become a great internet friend as well! Thanks Geok.
-If I were an organization looking to promote sustainability, I would surely want to showcase my project! Guess what, ASHRAE did! That was a wonderful milestone to our effort to educate. ASHRAE is a beacon of light and information for so many of us. It is so very good to know that this organization stepped up to the plate and is showcasing their green roof! Thanks to Mike Vaughn at ASHRAE for taking his time to post this garden. I would bet Mike is a great person to network with about his project as well! Thanks so much to Mike, for helping the cause.
-A huge thanks to Mack Barnhardt of Air Filtration Systems, Corp who was an outstanding expert in the field of ventilation and odors. Mack contributed his time and brilliance to an article titled, Rooftop Gardens: Smell the Roses Not the Odors!, and of course for linking his website to RooftopGarden.com. Mack has really become a great resource for our entire industry! If you have any building odor issue of any kind, call Mack!!
-David Plechner, Sales Manager at C.M. Jones Incorporated (landscape design, build and maintenance firm), has truly been one of my earliest green roof professional supporters in so many ways. David is a wealth of information on the infrastructure side of the business. There is probably no roof garden question he cannot answer or he will get you the answer. I call David “my go to roof guy”. If you want professional and practical insight, contact David! David was the kindest man to give me permission to post his excellent roof garden progress photos on our Projects page. The photos and the unfolding of the story in pictures, were spot on! I wish I could find more folks like David out there with great stories to tell in pictures. As Property and Facility Managers, we love pictures and drawings as we are very visual people and C.M. Jones got the job done. Thanks to C.M. Jones.
I am still trying to unlock the secret of how to really find rooftop gardens and their founders. I have not yet found the formula or the technique. No matter what, I still believe it is worthwhile to continue and forge ahead. There are many building owners, property managers, facility managers and tenants with valuable roof space that is simply under utilized. We want to lead them to the resource and expose them to the possibility. That is the purpose of examples.
If we can get the small everyday roof gardens, along with the public roof gardens and green walls listed on the database, I think it would show those who are hesitant to pursue it, that it can be done. We may do it one roof at a time, but we will do it and appreciate every single one of them.
Do you know of any roof gardens, landscape architects, plant suppliers or municipalities encouraging roof gardens? If so, please tell me about them or send those gardeners here to add their project to our database. Remember, it just takes one roof at a time to get the job done.
We as PM/FM professionals understand the severe pain of disasters and tragedies. It is our job to manage them and respond to them. Let us show our compassion and understanding.
Many of you have already leaped into action and I am so very proud to know you for that. For those who may be unsure of what they can do, at a minimum add a link to your blog or website to help the people of Haiti and the disaster relief causes. Every dollar we send helps. If you have a company website, it is super easy to add a hyperlink to your site. Just my 2 cents worth. Here is a popular link, but please know, there are others too. Google has a Haiti Disaster hyperlink on their main search page.
Those close to the ports or who have access to facilities or docks can offer assistance in that way. There is a huge logistics effort underway so space is a commodity and access to docks and marinas. Whatever you have the power to offer, even if a single $1, it all helps.
As a gardener I can tell you that what we ALL want for Christmas are plants! Yes, plants. We love plants. Tons of plants. Every kind, shape or size of plant. Seeds. We LOVE seeds. Growing is our thing. But in the winter, giving and getting plants is not that practical so here are some ideas of some things we might enjoy for Christmas 2009. Just copy and paste this link and send it to your secret Santa, or grab bagger or loved one. The 2009 Rooftop (or ground) Gardener’s Christmas Wish List.
Notice the top item on the list is to donate to a worthy cause. My cause is in honor of a good friend of my husband’s who has walked the Appalachian Trail. You can donate to many excellent plant and tree causes in honor of your favorite rooftop gardener. They will truly love it!
Appalachians - A Stunning Landscape You can help protect one of the world's most beautiful and diverse habitats when you Adopt an Acre® today.
A huge thank you to Jean-Claude Goldenstein for his efforts with the CRE portal CreoPoint. Jean-Claude is bringing the world of CRE together in one place. He has even brought our greening efforts together, which is so very necessary. Good news, like the world’s largest green wall is hard to come by and thanks to CreoPoint it is here for the PM / FM industry to embrace and understand.
The concept of green walls is as outstanding as its sibling, green roofs. It is simply a fascination for so many folks, but it is truly proving to be more than that. It is becoming a standard to achieve. A hallmark of excellence, if you will. The ingenious of this concept is that it is a sign, but it is a green sign. How can you argue with the beauty of a green sign? The sign industry better watch out because this will definitely catch on and bring life and green to the cold, hard-to-soften high-rise or skyscraper.
Kudos to Green Living Technologies and the PNC on this project. Now I just have to get them to list the project on the Rooftop Garden World database!!
Every single day I learn something new and different about the overall issues and concepts to consider when planning any form of garden roof. Whether it be a green roof or a rooftop garden for heavy pedestrian use. Today I was exposed to an aspect of the project that warrants consideration and planning. It is all about odors and what is a natural part of a traditional rooftop: vents and stacks. Fortunately for me, I was able to find a knowledgeable professional who was willing to be interviewed on this very subject.
Q. Mr. Barnhardt, the obvious reasons why people use vent filters is to remove sewer or grease odors. In our case we are talking about roof top gardens and people would like to smell a rose than smell sewer gas. Can you tell us why the sewer pipes are there on the roof for those who don’t know why?
A. First, please call me Mack. Every roof that at least has a restroom Linda has sewer pipe(s) on the roof and sometimes a grease vent pipe if a restaurant is in the building. Vent pipes are a direct link or pipe to the underground sewer system. They are used to allow DFU (Drain Fixture Units) like sinks, toilets & tubs to drain faster and to stop clogging in the pipes from backups. A 4” pipe can have up to 500 DFU’s on it which means it moves a lot of water and waste. In this case our small scrubber will not work very well and we need to go to a larger scrubber. At the same time a 4” vent could only have a few DFU’s and our smallest scrubber would be acceptable for this application. We see engineers capping vents all the time to stop the odors but this only causes problems in the building by building up positive pressure that puts sewer odors in the building or negative pressure which causes pipes to back up or not drain properly.
Q. Mack, so how do we know how many DFU a vent pipe has?
A. You can check your building plans Linda or you can just plan for the worse case application which is the best thing to do in my opinion. So if you do have a 4” vent pipe then just use the correct scrubber for this application. If all you need is a scrubber with a vacuum breaker then use it. We also have building codes that need to be considered as well. While most districts don’t allow our type of filtration in this application, using scrubbers on vents, many let us install them because businesses are losing customers. As long as we have a balance between the DFU & the correct scrubber the vent pipe system will perform as designed. You can always contact your plumber or a person like me to help you get the correct scrubber.
Vent scrubber with protective cage.
Q. Why do you call your vent filters scrubbers Mack?
A. I call them scrubbers because they are not filters although some folks will call them filters. A scrubber is defined as scrubbing the air with activated media without adding unnecessary pressure during its service life; the scrubber focus is not removing particles. A filter focus is to capture particles and this will add pressure during its service life. I agree it is a fine line but it is one that we use to help define what we are trying to accomplish.
Q. Can you explain Mack why one building will have odor problems with vents on the roof while another building next door will not?
A. Some buildings have no issues with odors from vents while a building next door may have light to very bad odor problems is caused by pressure. All are connected to the same sewer (if on the city sewer system) and when the main sewer line goes into positive pressure even for a minute odor is released through the manhole covers and sewer vent pipes. Once the system goes negative the odors are not released. Another reason for odors is when the vent pies hold waste in a horizontal line and it sags or bends. This buildup will hold onto odors and release them on the roof vents. I have even seen a large building like a casino roof have odors on one side of the building and the other has zero odor problems. If there is no positive pressure there is simply no odor.
Q. You mentioned Mack about your unique media, can you explain this a bit more for us?
A. When we used “Activated Alumina Engineered Media” that is designed for sewer gases we increase the removal capacity per pound and lower disposal of media waste that is put into landfills. This capacity we have on Hydrogen Sulfide (H2s), as high as 49% per pound, outlast and out performs activated carbon which is as low as 4% per pound of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2s). We use exclusively Purafil ESD Engineered Dry Media because it has the highest removal of H2s and since H2s is neutralized when used media is thrown away there is no H2s being added to the landfills. This is why I call Purafil media a Green Media since it is safe for the environment. Purafil media is also UL-900 tested so it will not contribute to a building fire. Carbon is not UL tested and will burn at a very low temperature. If you are using carbon in an area like Las Vegas where roofs can get very hot using carbon media is like installing match sticks on your roof. Some say this is extreme reasoning but we do have a good reason for concern. It is a chance that some building owners will take and others do not.
Q. What about cost?
A. We offer the solution to control or stop odors using a refillable housing that allows airflow to keep normal sewer vent pipe operation. The replacement media comes in a pre-packaged bag and all you need to do is dump out the old and pour in the new. Our smallest scrubbers cost $24 and I have seen them last up to 2 years but 6 to 8 months is about the average service life.
PVC vent scrubber.
Q. What is the Bottom Line?
A. Bottom line Linda is controlling odor and allowing the sewer vent pipe system to operate as normal as possible. If you are having odors or having drain problems then something is wrong. You should be able to not smell odors when you are on your Roof Top Garden. Grant it we have came across a couple of systems where we had to custom make a scrubber but we have been 100% successful in removing the odors. One point of caution I like to tell everyone is, to use any type of scrubber or filter on vents require that your vent pipe system has to be 100% sealed! Any leak no matter how small will cause odors to leak into the building. These holes or micro cracks in the vent pipe are required to be fixed even if you choose not to use filtration on the roof. You can check out my web page for scrubbers URL: http://www.afslasvegas.com/Vent-Odor.html, we have some photos of installed odor control scrubbers from our very small ones we sell for $166 to very large ones going for $20,000 or more.
Thanks to Mack Barnhardt from Air Filtration Systems, Corp. in Las Vegas, Nevada for his time in answering all of my questions and hopefully your questions too. I try to think of questions that we all have about our buildings. Look for Mack’s link on our Resources page as well. It is comforting to know that there is such technology available to make our rooftop gardens enjoyable and pleasant.
I feel like I try so hard to keep up on reading and researching everything possible about urban gardening and rooftop gardens and green roofs, green walls, and vertical gardens, etc. Today, I was sent a tweet by THKTNK aka http://www.arkit.com.au/. It was about a group called Urban Reforestation in Melbourne, Australia. That was a first for me. What about you? It is a group of folks trying to make a difference in Melbourne by bringing farming or what we call, greening, to their city.
This is their mission: Urban Reforestation is a creative global campaign aiming to inspire urban farming for sustainable lifestyles and food security. Starting in metropolitan Melbourne. From the photographs, it appears to be on a rooftop. So we have another great catch phrase to be aware of. I like it, but when I think of reforestation, I think of big trees, but it still works for me. I may be the clueless one, but I never heard of that term so I thought I would share it.
The group is too busy gardening to finish their website, but they do have one and I think it will be great. They also have a Facebook site as well. Here is how you can find them. We can thank my Twitter friend for the plug.
It amazes me the number of questions I hear about the misunderstood subject of rooftop gardens, or green roofs, or green walls. People are intrigued as to how they really work. Those in the building industry are even stumped on this subject. Quite frankly it is truly misunderstood and that is the entire purpose of this website and blog.
Although most of us do not think of moss when we think of traditional roof garden plants, maybe you should if you have the right conditions. Every day someone sends me an email or reaches out to me about their project and I learn something new.
Today my eyes were opened by Heidi Masucci, Operations Manager at Moss Acres. Moss Acres is experimenting with moss and rooftop applications. It is proving to be a worthwhile experiment so far. Of course, the use of moss is for mostly shady locations. The good news is for buildings that live in the shade of other buildings. Also, what I was surprised about was the fact that once established it is drought tolerant.
If you have a rooftop garden, living wall, green roof, or whatever living, planted surface or plane or you built it, designed it or installed the plants or grew the plants, you MUST be on this list. For ten years I have said that I will create a comprehensive list that includes all of the rooftop/green roof gardens in the world. If you love to photograph those gardens, what a great place to go to find out if there are any you may visit on your next vacation or business trip. Click this link to add your garden or wall: http://www.rooftopgarden.com/database
As far as bugs and dirt, and other outdoor stuff, none of those issues have ever concerned me when working with plants, seeds and just being in my various gardens. Nothing has scared me or bothered me. Sunscreen protects me from burning up and water keeps me hydrated. The one thing that never worried me was getting a bug bite. Until now.
It was a normal evening and my husband was helping me dig some holes to plant more plants (of course!) and I felt an odd feeling on my forehead. I asked my husband if there was a bug bite on my forehead. He looked at me and had a real scary look on his face. That was enough for me. I felt my head and it was enlarged and getting even larger as I felt it. I was bitten by something unknown and it was swelling rapidly. Our first thought was to get some allergy pills or something for allergies. As my head and face were swelling it got scarier. My eyes were swelling so much, my vision was becoming impaired.
