How Do You Find Rooftop Gardens or Green Roofs?

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.

Urban Reforestation – New Term? or is it just me?

New term?

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.

Facebook Group – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Reforestation/136023370285

Website – http://www.urbanreforestation.com

Thanks for reading,

~Linda
LDay@rooftopgarden.com

What is a rooftop garden?

While setting up the technical side of rooftopgarden.com, I was talking to a web guy and he had no idea what a rooftop garden was. He actually asked me, what is this company, rooftopgarden.com, what is a rooftop garden? It really hit me. Wow, I thought everyone really knew what a rooftop garden was.  Then I realized, duh, no they don’t. That is the purpose of rooftopgarden.com. The entire reason I reserved the domain name 10 years ago was for that exact reason. Nobody really knew or understood what a rooftop garden was except for those in close circles with Mayor Daley, or the Department of Environment folks or my dear friend Bernice and my awesome husband John. Actually, I am kidding. There are many experts out there who have extensive knowledge of the subject. Hopefully you will get to meet some of those experts as they participate in this blog and the development of the rooftop garden database. 

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