In case you are living in a big city, you probably dream about having a garden. If you are not living in a house with a big yard, you can have your garden on your roof. This is not a new idea, but it is very best for people that love to spend their time surrounded by flowers and trees.
The rooftop gardening became very popular between 1989 and 1999 in Germany, for there are the buildings with flat roofs.
The statistics show that in these years alone, over 350 million square feet of green roofs have been installed in Germany. In case you want to create such a garden, here are the basic steps you should take.
The first and the most important thing is to plan your rooftop garden. Measure well the size of your roof and learn more about the plant selection that is available in your location.
The best plants for green roofs are those that are drought tolerant and don’t require watering often.
So, consider the low grasses, the cactuses and the sedums as the best plants for green rooftops.
According to the depth of the rooftop garden, you can also grow shrubs and small trees, especially if the depth is several feet. Go for extensive green roofs, for they are easy to maintain and inexpensive.
The extensive rooftop gardens are those with nearly 3 inches of soil and limited selection of plants, while the intensive ones are with a wide variety of plants and about 12 inches of soil.
In case you are wondering about the benefits of the rooftop gardens, they are many. It is not just about being aesthetically pleasing but it is also about reducing the city “heat island†effect.
The green rooftop gardens are reducing the carbon dioxide impact. The environmentalists are claiming that even one rooftop garden is useful for neutralizing the acid rain effect and reduces the summer air conditioning costs.
The winter heat demand also can be reduced if you are having a green rooftop garden. The nitrogen pollution in the rain can be avoided if there are many green roofs, so don’t hesitate to create your own rooftop garden. If you are concerned about the watering in the summer, just do it once a week.
The rain will do the work, for most of the plants on the green roofs are draught resistible and don’t require as much watering as the other plants.
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