apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have the perfect rooftop for a garden, but the landlord would never go for it, since it would require some light renovation (railings). We have the top apartment and even on mildly warm days, our place is SWELTERING hot. A garden would really help us enjoy warm evenings, rather than spending out time eating ice and sticking our head in the freezer.

Oh well, a girl can dream, right?

My work overlooks that building on the Embarcadero. It is disappointing that the roof is actually astroturf, not grass.

Seriously? Astroturf? Hahaha!

That's tragic. But I suppose there's no way a real grass roof would ever look that uniformly GREEN. Still better than tar and gravel, but suddenly, less so.

I stumbled upon an article the other day in an old issue of Life & Leisure mag about a company in NYC that landscape rooftop gardens - awesome! www.plantspecialists.com

I work in a water district in So. Cal. and part of my work involves helping people to reduce water consumption. I hope readers of AT will consider the benefits of synthetic lawn products before dismissing them. Of course they're not the real thing, but some are made from recycled material and are completely recycleable. No lawn mowers necessary, which translates to additional energy saved. Yes, they look better from a distance, but wouldn't it be nice to hang out on the rooftop with something carpet-like under you. Brunch, cocktails anyone?

Very cool idea, what happens to the water drainage?

That 2nd pic is amazing. I assume that the building was built specifically to support large trees. Artifical grass is much lighter than the soil & water that real grass requires. Caution should be taken-Not all roofs are strong enough to handle the weight of a garden.

The second pic is the Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna, Austria. It's amazing. Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an artist/architect. http://www.hundertwasser.at/deutsch/hundertwasser.htm