If you live in an urban area, you may think that having a garden is a goal that will never be realized. If so, you're just not thinking high enough! More and more communities are encouraging their residents to plant roof gardens, or green roofs, as they're sometimes called. The psychological and environmental benefits of roof gardens are numerous. Gardening can be calming and relaxing, which in turn decreases the incidence of stress-related illnesses. It's also beneficial to the environment, particularly in urban areas. Adding a green roof to your house or apartment building can decrease storm water runoff, reduce fire risks, help decrease heating and cooling costs, and control pollutants from rain water. In addition, a roof garden can improve the aesthetic quality of a building. In fact, many communities now have ordinances which require a certain percentage of new construction to have green roofs.
- The first consideration when installing a roof garden is the roof itself. Your roof must be reasonably flat and have some kind of access. After all, you can't enjoy your garden if you have to climb a ladder every time you want to look at it. It must alsobe capable of supporting a heavier-than-normal load. Wet soil can weigh more than eighty pounds per square foot. If your roof can't support this much weight, you can still have a roof garden, but you'll have to settle for gardening only in containers, or structurally altering your home.
- If your roof passes these first three criteria, next you'll need to be sure it has a waterproof membrane. Otherwise, you could end up with a very wet ceiling in your home! Two of the most commonly-used waterproofing materials are thermoplastic sheeting and rubberized asphalt. Keep in mind that you will want an extremely durable membrane, so that you don't have to dig up your entire garden to replace it in a few years.
...
Click here to read the rest of the article at HowToDoThings.com
Author: Tonya Sandersfeld