Benefits of Rooftop Gardens

Aren't rooftops boring? I mean, you can watch fireworks from them maybe once or twice a year. Other than that, they're mostly just the things we take for granted when we have them over our heads.

But they can offer more than that: Not only can a rooftop garden provide significant energy-savings; but one of the greatest features they offer is a much-needed respite from a fast-paced life, especially for city dwellers seeking some green space amid the concrete jungle.

Green roofs have been big in Europe for a while, but they're just starting to take off in the U.S. The city of Chicago created a high-profile green roof on City Hall in 2000. But trends of growing food on the roof are even more recent. Not surprisingly, New Yorkers seem to be on the cutting edge: Check out one Park Sloper's thoughts over at thekitchn blog. She offers step-by-step guide on planning a rooftop garden, from the weight of water to what to grow. Edible rooftop gardens are popping up everywhere, from restaurants to hotels to this amazing sustainable home in Toronto.

The rooftop garden I'm most excited by is a 10,000 sq. ft. greenhouse atop an affordable housing project in the South Bronx. Low income housing is often situated in areas known as food deserts. Even if you're unfamiliar with the term, chances are you've seen an area like this at some point: If you can picture a neighborhood near you with lots of fast food joints and liquor stores and maybe a few check-cashing joints, try to recall the closest grocery store. The brilliance of putting a rooftop garden on an affordable housing project — or, for that matter, on any mixed-use or multi-tenant housing development — is clear: People who don't have yards can still have fresh vegetables. Plus, rooftop gardens cut back on utility costs by improving insulation.

Who knows? Maybe today's concrete jungle could be tomorrow's Garden of Eden—look for edible walls to become the next next big thing.

Photo via wikimediacommons.