Indoor and Rooftop Gardening

Indoor gardening with hydroponics, rooftop gardening, and rooftop patios.

Community gardens are also a popular trend as America goes green!

If you will take the time to click through the products offered here to the left, you will find a virtual showcase for indoor gardens. These gardens come in different stylish colors with some actually a work of art made to hang on your wall. Imagine a live garden mounted to your wall!

These are NASA tested aeroponic garden kits that require no soil, the plants grow in air and water. The system does not require prior gardening experience as it is computerized and will let you know when to add water and nutrients. The system also automatically turns the grow light on and off.

All you have to do is drop in the pre seeded plugs when you receive your kit and the system will do the rest. Yes replacement bulbs seeds and growing accessories are available so you can grow your own indoor garden year after year.

If you have an area with plenty of natural light, you can grow a garden in dirt in containers. Grow lights are available for those who do not have a lot of natural light. These lights can be expensive to run on a large scale so you may want to limit your indoor garden area if you find it necessary to use this type of light to grow your garden.

You can grow flowers, salad greens, various herb gardens, vegetables and the list goes on and on. This of course could happen in an indoor patio room on a larger scale but the apartment or condo would have to have a room with lots of windows to provide sunlight and there would still be the issue of growing in dirt and watering indoors.

For those of us with busy lifestyles and limited resources for growing gardens these kits are the perfect solution to add a bit of nature to your environment.

Let's don't forget the rooftops. Many buildings have, require or allow gardens on the rooftops. Some building have lovely garden patios on the roof for the tenants to enjoy just as a backyard garden patio is used and enjoyed. These roof top garden patios allow people who live in the city to enjoy the garden patio environment as well as in many cases the pleasures of maintaining these garden patios. These rooftop gardens help the environment by absorbing carbon monoxide (prevalent in cities) and expelling oxygen.

Greenroofs - This is an revived concept in roof design for buildings. Basically the roof contains a deck onto which vegetated roof covers are constructed on top of and across creating a living roof. Other names for them are eco-roofs and sky-gardens.

On the left here we see buildings with just grass growing on top. The picture on the right, on the other hand, shows a rooftop garden patio. Just because you live in the city does not mean that a garden patio is out of the picture for you.

There are designs in which a full blown garden or green landscape area like a park or garden patio in your backyard exist.  Countries such as Sweden are implementing laws that buildings which are constructed must make up the footprint of the green area they occupy on their roof. Germany is known for innovative developments in the green-roof concept and design and almost all the industrial countries are developing green-roof architecture.  It is no wonder, as the benefits are exciting as green-roofs can:

• create green space for humans and wildlife

• reduce ambient air temperature, energy use, and utility costs

• utilize local and recycled materials

• extend the life of the roof

• help cleanse the air and water - plants absorb CO2 and emit oxygen

• look a lot better than a conventional roof

Do not assume that these green roofs are for city dwellers only,  homeowners can integrate them also.  As a matter of fact, there are some homes here where I live that are built in this fashion and I know of at least one underground house.

While we are going green on the roof let's be sure and do it organically. For information and resources on organic gardening visit our page.