What I’m Reading
January 11, 2012 – 10:10 amWas catching up on my Garden’s Illustrated reading over the Christmas holidays. I have a subscription that comes to the office and late in the year I just let the issues pile up in anticipation of my annual Christmas week off work.
Issue 179 looked at five roof gardens.
Both London gardens proved to have the most relevance to me. Roof garden #2 is located in South London and was designed by photographer and owner Suzie Gibbons with help from garden designers Mhairi Clutson and Julie Wize. The garden is over five years old and uses grasses, sedum, lavender, daisies, fleabane and verbena for colour and texture. Galvanized tubs and planters are used effectively – there are even birch in large containers. This is a garden that isn’t trying too hard. It looks comfortable, usable and modern.
My favourite, hands down.
Garden #5, also in London, was designed by Sara Jane Rothwell. It’s a ‘prairie-style’ garden, just over three years old with sedum, penstemons, poppies, herbs, grass and yarrow. It has a soft pinky-cream glow to it and looks like it would stand up to the hot sun and wind. But the use of plastic fencing mesh was surprising, I’ll admit. Might be tricky getting that design element approved in Canada.
Roof garden #1 is in Paris, and was designed in 2004 by Arnaud Maurieres and Eric Ossart. It looks at first glance like it might be a little claustrophobic, with massive Miscanthus plantings – it would be pretty interesting to be in the middle of this garden in a heavy wind. The article notes rudbeckia and aster have proven to be tough enough to hold their own, year after year in the garden. This is the garden pictured on the cover of the magazine.
Roof garden #3 and #4 each have their own unique features. Garden #3 in New York is owned by green roof designers, so part of the large space is used to cultivate plants for their projects like lupins, echinacea and coreopsis. They also have trees, grass(?), roses, a kitchen garden and chicken coop – it’s intense and the largest of the gardens featured. Garden #4, designed by Adam Shephard, is a sampling of different elements and materials. This one is more like a show room for ideas than a garden.
The requirements of a roof garden are complex and more often than not, require the help of professionals to design and build. But with planning and a little local plant knowledge, a balcony gardener can successfully take the ideas and concepts illustrated in this magazine and simplify, scale down, adjust and apply to container-based gardening. I know I’m going to give it a try.