Get off the Ground with Roof Top Gardening

Terrace gardening is slowly and steadily setting its roots in India. In cities like Bangalore, Kerala and Chennai people have started to explore the options of terrace gardening. Imagine sitting on your terrace, sipping coffee and surrounded by many beautiful plants. You can have many plants and beautiful flowers to decorate your roof and turn it into a paradise.

Designing a rooftop garden may seem difficult but it is actually quite easy once you know all the details. A little creativity and passion is all you need to have your perfect rooftop garden.

CREATING YOUR ROOFTOP GARDEN

Follow these steps to have an awesome rooftop garden-

Before you start with anything, the first basic thing to do is make sure that it is possible to create a garden on your roof. Make sure that your regulations allow you to build a garden on the roof or that it is not prohibited. It’ll not be a good thing to spend so much time and money into your garden and later finding out that it is prohibited. 

Another thing to consider is the amount of weight your roof can hold. Ask a professional about how strong your roof is and then build your garden accordingly.

The next step is to waterproof the terrace. If you don’t waterproof it your roof could get damaged by leakage.

Figure out a way to easily access your rooftop garden. If you’re having serious problems with the access you should consult an architect.

Designing your roof is probably the most important step in creating your rooftop. You can design your garden in any way you like. Make blueprints and go for the design that suites you the best. Pick any theme for your garden. It can be an urban garden which will have an aura of sophistications and lots of space for you to relax. You can also go with a formal garden which is very well planned and has a central feature. Make sure you choose the flooring wisely. While designing the roof, don’t forget to have the seating area in terrace garden to relax & enjoy the tea with your favorite person in a beautiful evening…

You need to work out a planting scheme for your garden. Figure out all the plants that you want to have in your garden. The plants you choose should be able to survive among each other and not compete. So before buying make sure all your plants can live with each other. Each plant should be placed according to its requirement. For instance, keep the sun loving plants in a place where they get ample sunlight and keep the sun loathing plants in shade.

Make sure that the soil you get is suitable for the growth of your plants. Add manure to the soil to enhance its fertility. Eliminate pests and weeds that comes with the soil. It is important to make sure that all the plants grow properly and stay healthy.

Another important step is to decide how to water your plants. Because Leakages from the pot would create a foul smell in your garden. You can go with an automatic irrigation system or a water storage system. Of course, you can always carry the water to the roof by yourself.

The most important thing to do is to place your plants. Have a variety of plants in your garden so that it stays colorful and vibrant and place them according to their basic requirements. If you are new to gardening, then grow only those plants which are easy to take care of... as every plant has different needs and you must work with it accordingly. 

Sun loving plants should be placed in the sun and sun loathing plants should be kept in shade.

You can use a glass or a wooden shield to protect your plants from direct sunlight.

You can add windbreaks as the roof tends to be very windy which could be bad for your plants. The windbreaks will help your plants by blocking too much wind.

If you want you could always make a little space and start a small kitchen garden on your roof. You can grow any kind of vegetables, herbs etc.

The last step is to decorate your garden with planters, containers and furniture. Think beyond the simple pots and get creative and use special containers and planters. for instance, You can add any kind of furniture you like and even go for many other creative things like trellis, shoes or even using vertical gardening.

The sky’s the limit! You can decorate it any way you like and be sure to make the best out of your space.