"Gardens in the sky"

[Mike]

Gardens in the sky Putting a roof over your head is one thing. Putting a garden or any sort of greenery on top of that roof is a far more complicated matter, usually requiring the combined talents of a landscape architect and a structural engineer. at

[Cheryl Isaak]

I've always liked that idea - a garden atop a building - as long as it done right! Cheryl

[Mark Anderson]

Welcome to my world! :-) Living on the north side of Chicago close to downtown, I have zero yard, the building is built along the perimeter of the property line. The only garden I could have is in the parkway and after that became established, I needed to expand. Three years ago I build a second story garden on a roof. This required that the "roof" be reinforced to floor standards (I.e. it has the same strength as an interior floor). I originally planned to plant a lawn up there but that seemed too complicated and could cause more issues down the road than it was worth in cost. Instead, I built 2 large plant boxes for wildflowers and then individual containers for everything else. Not having a lot of space, efficiency is everything. Coated plywood lined milk crates became my choice for containers because they're square and they fit together neatly. Anyway, to get a picture of it, I started a 2004 album at:

year I stopped growing tomatoes because they take up too much space and get ugly when they mature and will cram in a lot more containers and vines.

The 2003 album can be seen at:

'm thinking maybe next year of expanding to the main roof which would be a third story garden. The problem is re-inforcing a roof to handle the heavy load from the planters and doing it on the sly so I don't have to deal with the Department of Buildings who haven't a clue about anything that doesn't fit into one of their cookie cutter designs.

[Cheryl Isaak]

Color me duly impressed!

Cheryl