An EarthPledge staffer escapes city life on the roof of the organization's Manhattan offices.

Gardening on High

In cities across America, concrete urban landscapes are speckled with sylvan vegetable gardens. Can't find them?

In big cities, rooftops make great gardens.

No space is too small to grow food.

Look up.

Sure, there are many small plots of land that can be found nestled between endless rows of brick homes and boxed in by a metal fence, but in many cities, rooftops are the locations of private gardens used to actually grow produce.

Juicy oranges and crisp green beans flower from the fire escapes, balconies, and courtyards of city dwellings across the country. Take Philadelphia: The fruits and veggies at the Reading Terminal Market may be nothing compared to the crop from just one rooftop garden at 3rd and Chestnut Streets in Society Hill. (It's private, however, so you'll have to get onto a higher building in Society Hill if you want to ogle the tomatoes.)

In New York City, Earth Pledge, an earth-friendly nonprofit organization, promotes the development of green roofs, which are systems of soil and drainage layers that turn entire barren concrete roofs into grassy and functional lawns, and sometimes vegetable gardens. The Earth Pledge building is topped with a green roof, where their kitchen garden produces cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and herbs that are used downstairs in Sustainable Cuisine cooking classes.

According to H. Peter Loewer, author of Small-Space Gardening, no roof space is too small to grow food. Tomatoes and eggplant can be grown in pots on your wooden roof deck; fresh parsley can thrive in containers small enough to fit on your windowsill. But for an even more ground garden-like experience, you can build your very own plot of land. A strong roof and an eight-centimeter deep wooden box built over a sheet of plastic are all you need. Fill the box with grass cuttings and a little bit of water, and in three weeks your new rooftop garden will be ready for planting . . . and shortly after that, the juice from perfect tomatoes you grew yourself will make you feel farther than ever from the roaring city below you.

Posted on May 08, 2006